Kazimieras Būga (; November 6, 1879 – December 2, 1924) was a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

. He was a professor of linguistics, who mainly worked on the

Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 mill ...

. He was born at Pažiegė, near

Dusetos Dusetos () ( pl, Dusiaty) is a city in Zarasai district municipality, northeastern Lithuania, west of Zarasai, near Lake Sartai. History According to the 1923 census, 704 Jews were living in the town. As a result of out-migration in the 1920s ...

, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

. Appointed as personal secretary to Lithuanian linguist Kazimieras Jaunius he showed great interest in the subject, and during the period 1905-12 studied at

Saint Petersburg State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the ...

. After that, he continued his work on Indo-European language under the supervision of

Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay (13 March 1845 – 3 November 1929) was a Polish linguist and Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and phonetic alternations. For most of his life Baudouin de Courtenay worked at Imper ...

. He later moved to Köningsberg to continue his studies under the direction of Adalbert Bezzenberger. In 1914 he received a master's degree in linguistics. His research on Lithuanian personal names led him into the study of place-names. From these he was able to determine that the homeland of the Lithuanians and other

Baltic peoples The Balts or Baltic peoples ( lt, baltai, lv, balti) are an ethno-linguistic group of peoples who speak the Baltic languages of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number ...

up to the 6th to 9th centuries CE had been just north of Ukraine in the area around the

Pripyat River The Pripyat or Prypiat ( , uk, Прип'ять, ; be, Прыпяць, translit=Prypiać}, ; pl, Prypeć, ; russian: Припять, ) is a river in Eastern Europe, approximately long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine ag ...

. In addition, he studied the chronological sequence of Slavic

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...

s in the

Baltic languages The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 4.5 million people mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Together with the Slavic lan ...

. He also carried out a linguistic reconstruction of the names of the early princes of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was Partitions of Poland, partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire, Habsburg Empire of ...

and refuted the theories of their Slavic origin. This became the main thrust for the concept of the

Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian The Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian ( lt, Didysis lietuvių kalbos žodynas or lt, Akademinis lietuvių kalbos žodynas, label=none) is a comprehensive thesaurus of the Lithuanian language and one of the most extensive lexicographical works in ...

(Didysis Lietuvių Kalbos Žodynas) in Lithuanian. He died in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was ...

, and was buried at

Petrašiūnai Cemetery Petrašiūnai Cemetery ( lt, Petrašiūnų kapinės) is Lithuania's premiere last resting place formally designated for graves of people influential in national history, politics, arts, and science. Location Petrašiūnai Cemetery is located abo ...

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Traka ...

References

* Antanas Klimas (The University of Rochester)
Kazimieras Būga and the Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian
Lituanus, Volume 27, No.4 - Winter 1981

from the Encyclopedia Lituanica I-VI, Boston, 1970-1978, published in the Lithuanian Word by the

Seimas The Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas), or simply the Seimas (), is the unicameral parliament of Lithuania. The Seimas constitutes the legislative branch of government in Lithuania, enacting laws and amendm ...

Commission on Traditions and Heritage of Lituanistics

External links

Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian language on internet

Digitised card files for Būga's never-written etymological dictionary of Lithuanian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buga, Kazimeiras Balticists 1879 births 1924 deaths People from Zarasai District Municipality Linguists from Lithuania Historical linguists Lithuanian lexicographers Researchers of Lithuanian language Perm State University faculty Burials at Petrašiūnai Cemetery