Stanisław Urbańczyk (27 July 1909 – 23 October 2001) was a Polish linguist and academic, a professor at the universities of

Toruń )'' , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg , image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg , nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town , pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pom ...

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

and

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. He was the head of the Institute of the Polish Language at the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

in 1973–79. Born to a peasant family in

Kwaczała Kwaczała is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Alwernia, within Chrzanów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Alwernia, south-east of Chrzanów, and west of the regional ca ...

, he completed 4-class elementary school in Kwaczała and started learning in St. Anne's Secondary School (today I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Bartłomieja Nowodworskiego w Krakowie). In the years 1929–1934 he studied Polish and Slavic philology at the Jagiellonian University. In 1937 he became an academic teacher. Among his students was young Karol Wojtyła, later the pope

John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

. In 1939 he was arrested by the Nazis during

Sonderaktion Krakau ''Sonderaktion Krakau'' was a German operation against professors and academics of the Jagiellonian University and other universities in German-occupied Kraków, Poland, at the beginning of World War II. It was carried out as part of the much bro ...

and imprisoned in concentration camps in

Sachsenhausen Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

and Dachau.Maria Zarębina, Profesor Stanisław Urbańczyk i tajne nauczanie w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim (in Polish)
/ref> He was the author of many books, articles and reviews. Among his scholarly interests were synchronical and diachronical Polish grammar, dialectology, history of language, Slavic native religion and mythology, biblical translation and influence of Czech onto Polish in

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Work

: (A selection) * ''Religia pogańskich Słowian'' (''Religion of Pagan Slavs'', 1947) *
Głos w dyskusji o pochodzeniu polskiego języka literackiego, 1953.
' * ''Zarys dialektologii polskiej'' (An Outline of Polish Dialectology'', 1962) * ''Encyklopedia wiedzy o języku polskim'' (''The Encyclopaedia of Knowledge about Polish Language'', 1978, as the editor in chief) * ''Dawni Słowianie: wiara i kult'' (Old Slavs – Faith and Cult, 1991) * ''Z miłości do wiedzy: wspomnienia'' (Out of Love to Knowledge – Memoirs, 1997)

References

Bibliography

* Ewa Deptuchowa, Publikacje Profesora Stanisława Urbańczyka w zakresie językoznawstwa polonistycznego (Professor Stanisław Urbańczyk's Works in the Field of Polish Linguistics), n:Język polski – wczoraj, dziś, jutro, Edited by Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch and Piotr Żmigrodzki, Wydawnictwo LEXIS, Kraków 2010, p. 15–23. 1909 births 2000 deaths Linguists from Poland Slavists People from Chrzanów County Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń faculty Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań faculty Jagiellonian University faculty Jagiellonian University alumni Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta Burials at Rakowicki Cemetery Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Dachau concentration camp survivors 20th-century linguists {{Poland-linguist-stub