![Emmanuel Kriaras](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Emmanuel_Kriaras.jpg)
Emmanuel G. Kriaras (
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
: Εμμανουήλ Γ. Κριαράς; 28 November 1906 – 22 August 2014) was a Greek
lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
and
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
. He was Emeritus Professor of the School of Philosophy at the
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
. He was a student of
Jean Psychari and the practice and ideology of
demotic Greek
Demotic Greek or Dimotiki ( el, Δημοτική Γλώσσα, , , ) is the standard spoken language of Greece in modern times and, since the resolution of the Greek language question in 1976, the official language of Greece.
"Demotic Greek" (w ...
.
Early life and education
Kriaras was born in
Piraeus
Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...
in
Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
in 1906 to a family of
Cretan
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
origin and spent his early childhood on the island of
Milos
Milos or Melos (; el, label=Modern Greek, Μήλος, Mílos, ; grc, Μῆλος, Mêlos) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group.
The ''Venus d ...
, the southwesternmost of the
Cyclades
The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...
. In 1914 his family moved to
Chania
Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion.
The muni ...
,
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
, where he completed his secondary education. He studied at the
University of Athens
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...
from 1924, where he graduated from the School of Philosophy in 1929.
Professional life
Kriaras worked in the medieval archives of the
Academy of Athens, where he started in 1930. He was appointed principal in 1939. While working at the Academy he carried out post-graduate research, his work included periods in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
(1930) and Paris (1945–1948). Some of his research was on ''
Erotókritos'' the early 17th century romantic epic which represents the high point of renaissance literature in Crete. This work was published in 1938 as ''Essays concerning the sources of Erotókritos'' (''Μελετήματα περί τας πηγάς του Ερωτοκρίτου'') for which he was awarded his doctorate by the University of Athens. In 1950 he was elected to the chair of Medieval Greek Philology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In addition to the main courses on his subject, he taught medieval Greek history and modern Greek philology until 1968 when his political views resulted in his dismissal by the right wing
military junta
A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...
.
His writings cover a wide field. Probably his most important work has been the ''Lexicon of Medieval Greek Demotic Literature 1100-1669'' (''Λεξικό της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100-1669''), published since 1968 and now supplemented with a 2-volume condensed edition. In 1997 he entrusted his medieval
lexicon
A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...
and its associated archives to th
Centre for the Greek Language (Thessaloniki) His ''Greek Dictionary of the Modern Demotic Language, Written and Oral'' (Νέο ελληνικό λεξικό της σύγχρονης ελληνικής δημοτικής γλώσσας, γραπτής και προφορικής) (1995) is the most authoritative modern Greek monolingual dictionary. Kriaras worked on, and promoted research in, the problems related to medieval and modern Greek philology, lexicography and comparative
grammatology
In modern usage, the term grammatology refers to the scientific study of writing systems or scripts.Gelb, Ignace. 1952. ''A Study of Writing''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press This usage was first elucidated in English by linguist Ignace Ge ...
, with his heart in the demotic language and the movements connected with its promotion.
In 2006, in recognition of his work and to mark his 100th birthday, he was awarded the "Golden Aristotle" by the University of Thessaloniki.
Death
Kriaras died on August 22, 2014 in
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...
, Greece from a heart attack, aged 107.
References
Sources
* ''This article is based on the translation of the corresponding article of the Greek Wikipedia.''
External links
* http://www.academyofathens.gr/
* http://www.greek-language.gr/greekLang/medieval_greek/em_kriaras/scanned_new/index.html?start=0&id=30&show=1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kriaras, Emmanuel
1906 births
2014 deaths
Greek lexicographers
Greek philologists
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni
Scholars of Medieval Greek
Men centenarians
Greek centenarians
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki faculty
Writers from Piraeus
Commanders of the Order of Honour (Greece)
Herder Prize recipients