Ladislav Zgusta (20 March 1924 in

Libochovice Libochovice (german: Libochowitz) is a town in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,400 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Dubany and Poplze are administrative parts of Libochovice. ...

– 27 April 2007 in

Urbana, Illinois Urbana ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. As of the 2010 United States Census, Urbana is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 38th-most pop ...

) was a

Czech-American Czech Americans ( cz, Čechoameričané), known in the 19th and early 20th century as Bohemian Americans, are citizens of the United States whose ancestry is wholly or partly originate from the Czech lands, a term which refers to the majority o ...

historical linguist Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...

and

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 ...

, who wrote one of the first textbooks on

lexicography 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 ...

. He was a professor of

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 ...

and

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. Dutch lexicographer Piet van Sterkenburg referred to Zgusta as "the twentieth-century godfather of lexicography". He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

in 1992, and in the same year awarded the Gold Medal of the

Czech Academy of Sciences The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back ...

for his work in Humanities.

Bibliography

* ''Die Personennamen griechischer Städte der nördlichen Schwarzmeerküste: Die ethnischen Verhältnisse, namentlich das Verhältnis der Skythen und Sarmaten, im Lichte der Namenforschung'' (Československá akademie ved. Monografie orientálního ústavu 16 ). Praha : Nakladatelstvi československé Akademie Ved 1955. * ''Kleinasiatische Personennamen'' (Československá akademie ved. Monografie orientálního ústavu 19). Prag: Verlag der Tschechoslowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1964 * ''Anatolische Personennamensippen''. Teil 1: ''Text''. Teil 2: ''Beilagen'' (Dissertationes Orientales 2). Prag: Academia 1964. * ''Neue Beiträge zur kleinasiatischen Anthroponymie'' (Dissertationes orientales 24). Prag: Academia 1970. * ''Manual of lexicography ''(Janua Linguarum. Series maior 39). Prague: Academia / The Hague, Paris: Mouton 1971 (in cooperation with V. Cerny i.a.). * ''Kleinasiatische Ortsnamen'' (Beiträge zur Namenforschung, Beih. 21). Heidelberg: Carl Winter 1984 . * ''The old Ossetic inscription from the river Zelencuk'' (Veröffentlichungen der Iranischen Kommission = Sitzungsberichte der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse 486). Wien : Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1987 * ''Lexicography today: an annotated bibliography of the theory of lexicography'' (Lexicographica. Series maior 18). Tübingen: Niemeyer 1988 (with the assistance of Donna M. T. Cr. Farina). * ''History, Languages and Lexicographers'' (Lexicographica. Series maior 41). Tübingen: Niemeyer 1992 . * ''Lexicography Then and Now. Selected Essays.'' (Lexicographica. Series maior 129. Edited by Fredric S.F. Dolezal and Thomas B.I. Creamer). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag 2006.

Editor

* ''Manual of Lexicography''. 1971 .

References

External links

Biography
in

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

In Memoriam
by Hans Henrich Hock on

LINGUIST List The LINGUIST List is a major online resource for the academic field of linguistics. It was founded by Anthony Aristar in early 1990 at the University of Western Australia, and is used as a reference by the National Science Foundation in the Unit ...

Historical linguists Czech lexicographers 1924 births 2007 deaths Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States 20th-century lexicographers Linguists from the United States {{CzechRepublic-academic-bio-stub