Victor A. Friedman (born October 18, 1949) is an American linguist,
Slavist
Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...
. He is the
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylv ...
Distinguished Service Professor in Humanities at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
. He holds an appointment in the Department of Linguistics and an associate appointment in the Department of
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
. He has published numerous articles in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
Macedonian, and
Albanian.
Career
Friedman was born in Chicago into a family of descendants of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire and Romania. He received his B.A. in
Russian language and
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
at
Reed College
Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...
in 1970. Friedman's PhD was in
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...
and literatures and in general linguistics at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
in 1975. His dissertation, ''The Grammatical Categories of the Macedonian Indicative'', was the first publication about modern
Macedonian in the U.S. and won the Mark Perry Galler prize for best dissertation in the Humanities Division at Chicago.
From 1975 until 1993, Friedman taught at the
University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...
, where he served as department chairman.
[ ] In 1993, he was appointed to a professorship at the University of Chicago.
He has held visiting positions at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
, the
University of Skopje, the
Central European University
Central European University (CEU) is a private research university accredited in Austria, Hungary, and the United States, with campuses in Vienna and Budapest. The university is known for its highly intensive programs in the social science ...
in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Kyoto University, the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
, the
University of Pristina
The University of Pristina ( sq, Universiteti i Prishtinës) is a public university located in Pristina, Kosovo. It is the institution that emerged after the disestablishment of the University of Pristina (1969–99) as a result of the ...
, the
National University of Malaysia
The National University of Malaysia ( ms, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, abbreviated as UKM) is a public university located in Bandar Baru Bangi, Hulu Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia. Its teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia ...
and
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria a ...
. His expertise extends over all languages of the Balkans and the Caucasus, including Albanian, Aromanian, Azeri, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Greek, Judezmo, Lak, Macedonian, Romani, Romanian, Russian, Tadjik, and Turkish. His research has been multidisciplinary and has involved extensive fieldwork in the Balkans.
In 1994 he served as a senior policy and political analyst to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
regarding policy in the
former Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...
, and since then he has been involved in other consultative roles in the region.
Awards and honors
* "1300 Years of Bulgaria" jubilee medal (1982)
* University of Skopje Gold Plaque (1981, 2003, 2007)
* Member of the
Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences (1994)
* Member of Matica Srpska (1995)
* Member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
(2004)
* Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
(2006)
* Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Skopje (2007)
* John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2008–09)
* Annual Award for Outstanding Contributions to Scholarship, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (2009)
Selected publications
* ''Macedonian'' (2002)
* ''Turkish in Macedonia and Beyond: Studies in Contact, Typology, and Other Phenomena in the Balkans and the Caucasus'' (2003)
* ''Studies on Albanian and Other Balkan Languages'' (2004)
* ''Očerki laksogo jazyka'' (2011)
* ''Makedonistički studii'' (2011)
*"The Balkan Languages" (with Brian Joseph, forthcoming)
References
External links
Friedman's CV and publicationson
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Victor
Slavists
Macedonists
Linguists from the United States
Reed College alumni
University of Chicago alumni
University of Chicago faculty
Living people
1949 births
Jewish American academics
21st-century American Jews