Andrzej Gawroński (20 June 1885 in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

– 11 January 1927 in

Józefów Józefów () is a town in east-central Poland, located in Masovian Voivodeship, in Otwock County. It lies about southeast of Warsaw city centre and is a part of that city's metropolitan area. Located on a picturesque confluence of Vistula and Ś ...

, in the vicinity of

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) was a Polish

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

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

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

. Professor of

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 ...

and

Lwów University The Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (named after Ivan Franko, ) is a state-sponsored university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since 1940 the university is named after Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko. The university is the oldest institution of highe ...

, (starting in 1916), the author of the first Polish handbook on

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

(''Podręcznik sanskrytu'', 1932), founder of Polish Oriental Society (1922) and one of the founders of the Polish Linguistic Society (1925).

Life

He was the son of Franciszek Rawita-Gawroński (a historian, writer and a columnist of the nationalistic press) and Antonina Miłkowska (a teacher and a translator), and the grandson of Teodor Tomasz Jeż. He attended an elementary school in

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

and secondary schools in

Przemyśl Przemyśl () is a city in southeastern Poland with 56,466 inhabitants, as of December 2023. Data for territorial unit 1862000. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. It was previously the capital of Prz ...

and Lwów. He graduated in

Linguistics 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 ...

from the University of Lwów and

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

(1902–1906). Suffered from pulmonary

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, which was the cause of his death at the age of 42.

Education

In 1906, Gawroński defended his doctoral thesis, ''Sprachliche Untersuchungen über das Mr.cchakat.ika und das Daśakumāracarita'', at the

and became assistant professor in the Department of Indo-European Linguistics at the

. In 1912 he completed his Habilitationschrift ''Am Rande des Mr.cchakat.ika'' and was promoted to the rank of associate professor. In the years 1916-1917 he took the chair in the Department of Sanskrit Philology at the

. From 1917 full professor and Head of the Department of

Contrastive Linguistics Contrastive linguistics is a practice-oriented linguistic approach that seeks to describe the differences and similarities between a pair of languages (hence it is occasionally called "''differential'' linguistics"). History While traditional ...

at the University of Lwów. He gave lectures on the history and language of

Sanskrit drama The term Indian classical drama refers to the tradition of dramatic literature and performance in ancient India. The roots of drama in the Indian subcontinent can be traced back to the Rigveda (1200-1500 BCE), which contains a number of hymns in ...

, contrastive grammar of

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

and Old-Indian philology.

Languages

Gawroński was one of the greatest Polish polyglots. He certainly knew 60 foreign languages, but his contemporaries, friends and scientists, claimed he knew many more. Once, being persistently pestered to reveal the truth, Gawroński replied: "I can speak and write in 40 languages and understand and read in about 100." This means that he could have known 140 languages (or 100, depending on whether 100 meant another 100 or not), among which there were many African, Asian, European, modern and extinct ones. In the library left after his death there were books in dozens of languages. In the vast majority of them there were his notes in the margins, always in the language the book was written in.

Honors

Gawroński was a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (1921 a member-columnist, 1926 an active member), as well as the Scientific Society in Lwów (1920, an active member), the Society of Friends of Polish Language (1920), Polish Oriental Society (1922 a member and founder, 1922-23 chairman). In 1925 he was decorated with the Order of Poland Restored ( Polonia Restituta) (Commander). Also, he initiated the activity of the “Eastern Library” at the Ossolinski National Institute in Lwów and the “Annual of Oriental Studies” and the Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of Lwów.

Publications

Gawroński is the author of numerous publications. Here are some of them: * in Polish: ** O błędach językowych (Warszawa 1921) ** O podstawie psychologicznej zapożyczania wyrazów obcych (Kraków 1921) ** Szkice językoznawcze (Warszawa 1928) ** Wartość uczuciowa deminutiwów (Kraków 1928) ** Początki dramatu indyjskiego a sprawa wpływów greckich (Kraków 1946) * in other languages: ** Sprachliche Untersuchungen über das Mṛcchakaṭika und das Daśakumāracarita (Leipzig 1907) ** Am Rande des Mṛcchakaṭika ( ZDMG 65/1911) ** The Date of Allahabad Stone Pillar Inscription of Samudragupta (Leipzig 1914) ** Gleanings from Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacarita (Rocznik Orjentalistyczny 1915) ** The Digvijaya of Raghu and some Connected Problems (Rocznik Orjentalistyczny 1915) ** Studies about Sanskrit Buddhist Literature (Kraków 1919) ** Notes sur les sources de quelques drames indiens (Kraków 1921) ** Notes on the Sāundarananda. Critical and Explanatory (Kraków 1922) ** Beginnings of Indian Drama and Problem of Greek Influence (Bhāratī 13/1968) Gawroński's Polish handbook of Sanskrit (''Podręcznik Sanskrytu'', Kraków 193
accessible online
, reissued with a list of errata to the first edition: Lublin 1978, 1985; new, improved edition: Warszawa 2004, 2009) has remained the fundamental academic textbook of Sanskrit in Poland.

Sources and references

* Andrzej Gawroński (językoznawca) - Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia at pl.wikipedia.org * Polski Słownik Biograficzny, vol. VII, Kraków 1948-1958 * Biogramy uczonych polskich, Część I: Nauki społeczne, zeszyt 1: A-J, Wrocław 1983 (''Short biographies of Polish scientists'' Part I, fasc. 1 - in Polish) * Powszechna Encyklopedia Filozofii, t. 3, Lublin 2002, p. 721-722 (''Universal Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' - in Polish). * Kozarynowa, Zofia: Andrzej Gawroński (wspomnienia), in: ''Znak'' 34 1982: 579-604 (extensive memoires by his sister - in Polish) * Fedirko, Janusz: Fenomenalny multilingwista. Professor Andrzej Gawroński (1885–1927), in: ''Alma Mater'' nr 2 (100) 2008
online
(A superb multilinguist. Professor Andrzej Gawroński - in Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gawronski 1885 births 1927 deaths University of Lviv alumni Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Jagiellonian University Academic staff of the University of Lviv Members of the Polish Academy of Learning Translators of Omar Khayyám 20th-century Polish linguists