Georgy Klimov (russian: Гео́ргий Андре́евич Кли́мов, ''Georgiy Andreyevich Klimov'') (September 23, 1928 – April 29, 1997) was a Russian linguist and a leading specialist of the

Caucasian languages The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Linguistic comparison allows t ...

. His interest primarily focused on the Kartvelian linguistics but also encompassed the

Burushaski language Burushaski (; ) is a language isolate spoken by Burusho people, who reside almost entirely in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, with a few hundred speakers in northern Jammu and Kashmir, India. In Pakistan, Burushaski is spoken by people i ...

and the Amerind language group.

Biography

Born in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Klimov graduated from the Leningrad State University in 1952. From 1954 onward, he worked for the Institute of Linguistics of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

, becoming a professor there in 1988. He died in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

in 1997, leaving behind over 360 scholarly works and many projects uncompleted. An important work in the field of comparative linguistics of Kartvelian languages, ''Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages'', was published in 1998.Georgij Andreevich Klimov. ''Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages'' (Mouton deGruyter, 1998)
reviewed for ''Anthropological Linguistics'' vol 42 #4 (2000) by

Kevin Tuite Kevin Tuite ( Irish: ''Caoimhín de Tiúit''; born April 3, 1954) is a full Professor of Anthropology at the Université de Montréal. He is a citizen of both Canada and Ireland.

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte- ...

References

1928 births 1997 deaths Linguists from Russia Kartvelian studies scholars Writers from Saint Petersburg 20th-century linguists {{Russia-linguist-stub