Josef Beneš (11 January 1902 in

Prachatice Prachatice (; ) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 11,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monument (Czech Republic)#Monument reservations, urban monumen ...

– 17 December 1984 in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

) was a

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 ...

from Czechoslovakia, specialising in

anthroponymy Anthroponymy (also anthroponymics or anthroponomastics, from Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος ''anthrōpos'', 'human', and ὄνομα ''onoma'', 'name') is the study of ''anthroponyms'', the proper names of human beings, both individual and coll ...

and

onomastics Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

. Beneš studied Bohemistics and

Germanistics The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as sta ...

at the

Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

, ending in 1930. Later, he worked in several places as a teacher in schools providing secondary education. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he briefly worked at the Ministry of Education, then returned to the teaching. From the beginning of the 1960s he lectured at pedagogic institutes in

Liberec Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...

and

Ústí nad Labem Ústí nad Labem (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 91,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the Ústí nad Labem Region. It is a major industrial centre and, besides being an active river port, is an important railway junction. ...

. Since 1933 he published articles about

Czech surname Czech names are composed of a given name and a family name (surname). Czechs typically get one given name – additional names may be chosen by themselves upon baptism but they generally use one. With marriage, the bride typically adopts the bride ...

s in specialised journals (as ''Naše řeč'' or ''Zpravodaj místopisné komise ČSAV'', ZMK). In 1962 he published book "''About Czech Surnames''". His daughter, Dobrava Moldanová, collected many of his articles into book "''Our Surnames''" (1983). Posthumously "''German Surnames of Czechs''" was published in 1998, with Marie Nováková as an editor. Beneš belongs, together with Vladimír Šmilauer, Jan Svoboda and Antonín Profous, among founders of Czech

and

Selected works

* "O českých příjmeních" (''About Czech Surnames''), Prague, 1962 and 1970 * "Naše příjmení" (''Our Surnames''), edited by Dobrava Moldanová, 1983, Mladá fronta, Prague. Reprint in 2004, . * "Německá příjmení u Čechů" (''German Surnames of Czechs''), by University of J.E. Purkyně, Ústí nad Labem, 1998,

External links

Detailed bibliography of Josef Beneš
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benes, Josef 1902 births 1984 deaths Onomasticians Czech academics Linguists from Czechoslovakia Charles University alumni 20th-century Czech linguists