Zbigniew Gołąb (16 March 1923, in

Nowy Targ Nowy Targ (Officially: ''Royal Free city of Nowy Targ'', Yiddish: ''Naymark'', Gorals, Goral dialect: ''Nowy Torg'' ) is a town in southern Poland, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is located in the Orava-Nowy Targ Basin at the foot of the Go ...

– 24 March 1994, in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

) was a Polish-American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

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

. He was described as "one of the world's greatest experts on the

Macedonian language Macedonian ( ; , , ) is an Eastern South Slavic language. It is part of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is one of the Slavic languages, which are part of a larger Balto-Slavic languages, Balto-Slavic branch. Sp ...

and the leading expert on Macedonian– Arumanian contact." He was active during the World War II Resistance Movement, after which he joined the

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

war against the Germans in 1944. He was imprisoned that same year, but managed to escape prior to the liberation of

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

. In 1948–49 he was imprisoned for one year by the communist authorities, but was eventually released.Browne 1994 He received his M.A. from the

University of Wrocław The University of Wrocław (, UWr; ) is a public research university in Wrocław, Poland. It is the largest institution of higher learning in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, with over 100,000 graduates since 1945, including some 1,900 researcher ...

in 1947 and his Ph.D. at the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

in 1958. He served as a professor at the

John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (, , abbreviation KUL) is a university established in 1918. History :pl:Idzi Radziszewski, Father Idzi Benedykt Radziszewski founded the university in 1918. Vladimir Lenin, Lenin allowed the priest ...

during 1952–1961, and also at the Slavic Institute of the

Polish Academy of Learning The Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences or Polish Academy of Learning (, PAU), headquartered in Kraków and founded in 1872, is one of two institutions in contemporary Poland having the nature of an academy of sciences (the other being the Po ...

(1955–1961). Afterward he emigrated to the United States where he taught Slavic languages at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

from 1962 until his retirement in 1993 as

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

. He was elected as a member of the

Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts () is an academic institution in North Macedonia. History The Academy of Sciences and Arts was established by the Socialist Republic of Macedonia's assembly on 23 February 1967 as the highest scientifi ...

in 1972. His research includes a study of the Macedonian dialects of

Suho Kim Jun-myeon (; born May 22, 1991), better known by his stage name Suho (), is a South Korean singer-songwriter and actor. He is the leader of the South Korean-Chinese boy group Exo and its sub-unit Exo-K. He debuted as a soloist on March 30, ...

and Visoka (published in '' Makedonski jazik''), his habilitation on Balkan conditionals (Cracow, 1964), a monograph on the Arumanian dialect of Krushevo (1984),Zbigniew Gołąb, ''The Arumanian Dialect of Kruševo, SR Macedonia'' (Skopje: MANU, 1984). and his last book: ''The Origins of the Slavs: A Linguist's View'' (Columbus, 1992). He also co-edited a dictionary of linguistic terminology (Warsaw, 1968) and was the author of more than 70 articles and reviews.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Golab, Zbigniew 1923 births 1994 deaths People from Nowy Targ University of Wrocław alumni Jagiellonian University alumni Polish resistance members of World War II Linguists from Poland Polish emigrants to the United States Linguists from the United States 20th-century linguists Academic staff of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin University of Chicago faculty