Mahir Domi (1915–2000) was an
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
linguist
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 ...
, professor, and academic. He was one of the organizers and main participants of the
Albanian Orthography Congress
The Albanian Orthography Congress ( sq, Kongresi i Drejtshkrimit të Gjuhës Shqipe) was a linguistics event held in Tirana, People's Republic of Albania in 1972. It established for the first time the unified orthographic rules of the Albanian la ...
,
and member of the follow up commission responsible for deploying the
orthographic rules
Morphological parsing, in natural language processing, is the process of determining the morphemes from which a given word is constructed. It must be able to distinguish between orthographic rules and morphological rules. For example, the word 'fo ...
of the
Standard Albanian language.
Biography
Domi was born in
Elbasan
Elbasan ( ; sq-definite, Elbasani ) is the fourth most populous city of Albania and seat of Elbasan County and Elbasan Municipality. It lies to the north of the river Shkumbin between the Skanderbeg Mountains and the Myzeqe Plain in central Al ...
. He started his high school studies in the
Norman School there, and finished them in the
French Lyceum of Korçë in 1937. After that he registered in the
University of Grenoble
The Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA, French: meaning "''Grenoble Alps University''") is a public research university in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 resea ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, from where he graduated in classic
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
in 1941. The same year he started teaching at the Normal School of Elbasan, and later he became its director. From 1947, he started working in the Institute of Sciences (an early precursor of the
Albanian Academy of Sciences) and lecturer at the High Pedagogical Institute in
Tirana
Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...
. Domi participated as co-editor in the ''Albanian language dictionary'' ( sq, Fjalori i gjuhës shqipe) in 1954. With the establishment of the
University of Tirana
The University of Tirana ( sq, Universiteti i Tiranës, abbreviated UT) is a public university located at the central borough of Tirana 10 in Tirana, Albania. It was established as the ''State University of Tirana'' in 1957 through merging of f ...
(UT), he was put in charge of the Albanian language catedra (1957–1962), and also of the
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
and
dialectology Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their assoc ...
section of the Institute of Language and Literature ( sq,
Instituti i Gjuhësisë dhe i Letërsisë) during 1957–1991. He taught the courses "
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
of the Albanian language", "Historical
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
of the Albanian language", and "History of
Albanology
Albanology, also known as Albanian studies, is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the language, costume, literature, art, culture and history of Albanians. Within the studies the scientific methods of literature, linguis ...
". He was one of the founding members of the Academy of Sciences and member of its
presidium
A presidium or praesidium is a council of executive officers in some political assemblies that collectively administers its business, either alongside an individual president or in place of one.
Communist states
In Communist states the presidi ...
.
Domi's scientific activity covers many of fields of philology: grammar (syntax and morphology), language history, history of Albanology, dialectology and onomastics, normative linguistics, language culture, scientific critics, history of literature, etc. He directed the work for establishing the cartotheque of grammar and the important work ''Gramatika e gjuhës shqipe'' (The grammar of the Albanian language), in two volumes; he was its
chief editor
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
, and co-author and editor of its second volume (Syntax). He drafted out the academic textbooks ''Morfologjia historike e shqipes'' (Historical morphology of the Albanian language) of 1961, ''Sintaksa e gjuhës shqipe'' (Syntax of the Albanian language), part I in 1968 and part II in 1969. He also contributed with a series of scientific articles and researches over general topics of the Albanian syntax and its structural development. In the field of the history of literature, Domi wrote articles and researches over the origins of the Albanian language, its connection to other
Balkan languages
This is a list of languages spoken in regions ruled by Balkan countries. With the exception of several Turkic languages, all of them belong to the Indo-European family. A subset of these languages is notable for forming a well-studied '' sprachb ...
, especially with
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
, i.e. ''Prapashtesa ilire dhe shqipe, përkime dhe paralelizma'' (Illyrian and Albanian prefixes, correspondences, and parallelisms) of 1974, ''Konsiderata mbi tiparet e përbashkëta të shqipes me gjuhët ballkanike dhe mbi studimin e tyre'' (Considerations over the shared features of the Albanian language with other Balkan languages and their study) of 1975, ''Mbi disa përkime dhe paralelizma sintaksore shqipe-rumune'' (Over some Albanian-Romanian correspondences and parallelisms) of 1977, ''Probleme të historisë së formimit të gjuhës shqipe, arritje dhe detyra'' (Problems of the history of the Albanian language formation, achievements and tasks) of 1982.
As one of the main personalities in linguistics, Domi was member of the commissions who carries the task of standardizing the Albanian orthography, in 1956 and 1967, co-organizer and participant of the Orthography Congress of November 1972, member of the follow-up commission for deploying the new orthographic rules and co-author of the ''Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe'' (Orthography of the Albanian language) of 1973, ''Fjalori drejtshkrimor'' (Orthographic dictionary) of 1976, ''Rregullat e pikësimit në gjuhën shqipe'' (Punctuation rules in the Albanian language) of 1981 (another edition in 2002).
Domi participated in many commissions which would draft out dictionaries of terminologies from various fields, between others ''Fjalori i termave të gjuhësisë'' (Dictionary of the linguistics's terms) of 1975. He was the organizer and main co-contributor to the work that resulted in the publishing of the ''Atlasi dialektologjik i gjuhës shqipe'' (Dialectical atlas of the Albanian language), ''Dialektologjia shqiptare'' (Albanian dialectics), both works of major importance. He was also initiator of the collection of the onomastic material, co-author of the questionnaire for the collection of toponymy, and articles on them.
Domi also studied also the old
Albanian literature
Albanian literature stretches back to the Middle Ages and comprises those literary texts and works written in Albanian. It may also refer to literature written by Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian diaspora particularly in Italy. Alba ...
written in
Arabic alphabet, and contributed to the literature section in the major work ''Historia e letërsisë shqipe'' (History of Albanian Literature), vol. I of 1959, published by the University of Tirana, and served as editor for the second volume of 1983 published by the Academy of Sciences of Albania. As a ''recensé'', Domi contributed in the evolvement of the scientific critics culture in Albania.
[Academic Mahir Domi – Albanian Academy of Sciences (in Albanian)](_blank)
/ref>
Recognition
*"Mësues i Popullit" (People's Teacher).
*"Çmimi i Republikës i shkallës së parë" (First Grade Republic's Prize), twice.
See also
*Shaban Demiraj
Shaban Demiraj (1920–2014) was an Albanian albanologist, linguist, professor at the University of Tirana from 1972–1990, and chairman of the Academy of Sciences of Albania during the period of 1993-1997.
Life
Demiraj was born on 1 January ...
* Androkli Kostallari
*Eqrem Çabej
Eqrem Çabej () (6 August 1908 – 13 August 1980) was an Albanian historical linguist and scholar who, through the publication of numerous studies gained a reputation as a key expert in research on Albanian language, literature, ethnology and l ...
* Idriz Ajeti
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Domi, Mahir
1915 births
2000 deaths
People from Elbasan
20th-century Albanian people
Albanian National Lyceum alumni
Albanian schoolteachers
Academics of the University of Tirana
Albanologists
Albanian philologists
Albanian lexicographers
Grenoble Alpes University alumni
Members of the Academy of Sciences of Albania
20th-century philologists
20th-century lexicographers