Antanas Klimas (; April 17 1924 in Pelekonys–18 September 2016 in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

) was a Lithuanian doctor of sciences,

onomastician Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An ''orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, w ...

and comparative linguist specializing in the relationships between

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

, Slavic and Germanic language groups as well as the history of

Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 millio ...

. He also created Lithuanian textbooks and

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...

, was the editor for the language journal ''

Lituanus ''Lituanus'' is an English language quarterly journal dedicated to Lithuanian and Baltic languages, linguistics, political science, arts, history, literature, and related topics. It is published by the non-profit Lituanus Foundation, Inc., and ha ...

'', published academic articles on the Lithuanian and

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

Career

From 1941 to 1943, Klimas did Lithuanian studies and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) ( lt, Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas (VDU)) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was known ...

. In 1942, he graduated from the Kaunas Teacher Seminary. In 1944, as the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

troops began re-occupying Lithuania, he fled the country. From 1946 to 1947, Klimas studied linguistics and German at the former

Baltic University The Baltic University in Exile was established in the displaced persons camps in Germany to educate refugees from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the aftermath of the Second World War. The University was established at Hamburg in the British Z ...

of the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

. In 1948, he resettled in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and continued his studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, in Alfred Senn's class up until 1950. In 1956, Klimas became a doctor of sciences and in 1970 he was an academician of the

Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science ( lt, Lietuvių katalikų mokslo akademija or LKMA) is an academic organization (academy of sciences) established in 1922 in Kaunas, Lithuania. It unites Catholic scientists from various fields, from humanities ...

and a professor. In 1989, he was awarded the title of meritorious professor. From 1950 to 1957, he was a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1957 to 1989, he worked in the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

, New York, where he taught Germanic studies, Indo-European, Baltic, and Slavic linguistics. He died on September 18, 2016, in Brighton, New York.

Selected bibliography

* 1966–1999 ''Introduction to Modem Lithuanian (Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos įvadas),'' with L. Dambriūnas and William R. Schmalstieg * 1967 ''Lithuanian Reader for Self-Instruction (Lietuvių kalbos skaitiniai savimokai),'' with William R. Schmalstieg * 1977, 2010 ''Key to the Exercises for Introduction to Modern Lithuanian and Beginner's Lithuanian'' * 1971 ''Lithuanian-English Glossary of Linguistic Terminology (Lietuvių-anglų kalbų kalbotyros terminų žodynėlis),'' with William R. Schmalstieg * 1999 ''Lithuanian Diminutive Noun Dictionary (Lietuvių kalbos mažybinių (maloninių) daiktavardžių žodynėlis),''

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

* 2005 ''Lithuanian Sound Word Dictionary (Lietuvių kalbos garsažodžių žodynėlis)'',

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

* 2005 ''Lithuanian Homonym Dictionary (Lietuvių kalbos homonimų žodynėlis)'' * 1993 ''The Usage of Participle in Lithuanian Language (Lietuvių kalbos dalyvių vartosena)'', Vilnius * 2002–2003 ''The Ornaments of a Language (Kalbos puošmenos ir pabiros)'', Vilnius

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klimas, Antanas 1924 births 2016 deaths Linguists from Lithuania 20th-century linguists Vytautas Magnus University alumni University of Rochester faculty