Miroslav Komárek (20 April 1924 – 15 August 2013) was a Czech historical linguist and professor emeritus of the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University in

Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...

. His academic publications focused on the

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, ...

and

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

of the

Czech language Czech ( ; ), historically known as Bohemian ( ; ), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 12 million people including second language speakers, it serves as the official language of the ...

from the diachronic perspective.Hirschová (1999)

Early life

Komárek was born in Lazníky near

Přerov Přerov (; ) is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 41,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Bečva River. In the past it was a major crossroad in the heart of Moravia in the Czech Republic. The historic city centre is we ...

. He graduated from a gymnasium in Olomouc in 1943, but was deployed as a labourer until the end of the wartime occupation. After the war he majored in Czech and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, then returned to Olomouc, and obtained a

doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(PhDr.) degree from Palacký University in 1949.

Academic career

Komárek began to teach at the Faculty of Arts at Palacký University after completing his doctorate, where he went on to spend his entire professional career, spanning over six decades.Janečka (2014) p100 His first major work, published in 1958, was the first in a series of textbooks on Czech historical linguistics, focused on phonetics. In 1962 he

habilitated Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellen ...

and twenty years later obtained the title of

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

(DrSc.). In 1979 he published ''Příspěvky k české morfologii'' (Contributions to Czech morphology), which became an oft cited work in papers on Czech morphology.Janečka (2014) p100 In 2005 he became a professor emeritus at Palacký University.Hirschová (1999) A year before his death, in 2012 he published ''Dějiny českého jazyka'' (History of the Czech language), which was a summary of his academic work.Janečka (2014) p100 He was heavily influenced by the

Prague linguistic circle The Prague school or Prague linguistic circle is a language and literature society. It started in 1926 as a group of linguists, philologists and literary critics in Prague. Its proponents developed methods of structuralist literary analysis and ...

, and represented their school of thought,

structural linguistics Structural linguistics, or structuralism, in linguistics, denotes schools or theories in which language is conceived as a self-contained, self-regulating semiotic system whose elements are defined by their relationship to other elements within th ...

, on the international stage within the field of

Slavic studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or ...

. He also cited prominent Czech philologist Jan Gebauer as a major influence; his 1982 work outlining the phonological development of Czech referenced and commented on Gebauer's historical grammar extensively. He was a regular contributor to the Czech Language Institute's journal ''Slovo a slovesnost'' (Word and Literature), eventually joining the editorial board of that journal.Janečka (2014) p100

Published works

* ''Historická mluvnice česká 1 – Hláskosloví'' (Historical Czech grammar 1 – Phonetics), 1958 * ''Język czeski – Tymczasowy podręcznik dla klasy dziewiątej dziewięcioletniej szkoły podstawowej z polskim językiem nauczania'' (Czech language – Temporary handbook for grade nine in nine-year elementary schools with Polish as the language of instruction), 1967 * ''Język czeski dla klasy dziewiątej dziewięcioletniej szkoły podstawowej z polskim językiem nauczania'' (Czech language for grade nine in nine-year elementary schools with Polish as the language of instruction), 1968 * ''Nástin morfologického vývoje českého jazyka'' (Outline of the morphological development of the Czech language), 1976 * ''K aktuálním metodologickým otázkám jazykovědy'' (On current methodological issues in linguistics), 1978 * ''Příspěvky k české morfologii'' (Contributions to Czech morphology), 1979 * ''Nástin fonologického vývoje českého jazyka'' (Outline of the phonological development of the Czech language), 1982 * ''Dějiny českého jazyka'' (History of the Czech language), 2012

References

* * *

Citations

External links

List of articles in ''Slovo a slovesnost''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Komarek, Miroslav Academic staff of Palacký University Olomouc Linguists from the Czech Republic Linguists from Czechoslovakia Historical linguists 1924 births 2013 deaths People from Přerov District Charles University alumni Palacký University Olomouc alumni