Tamaz Gamkrelidze
Encyclopedia
Georgian alphabet
The Georgian alphabet is the writing system used to write the Georgian language and other Kartvelian languages , and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus such as Ossetic and Abkhaz during the 1940s...
: თამაზ გამყრელიძე; ) (born October 23, 1929) is a distinguished Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
public benefactor and Hittitologist
Hittitologist
A Hittitologist is an archaeologist, historian, linguist, or art historian who specialises in the study of the Ancient Hittites and their Near Eastern Empire which was based in Hattusa in modern day Anatolia.A partial list of notable Hittite scholars includes:...
, Academician
Academician
The title Academician denotes a Full Member of an art, literary, or scientific academy.In many countries, it is an honorary title. There also exists a lower-rank title, variously translated Corresponding Member or Associate Member, .-Eastern Europe and China:"Academician" may also be a functional...
(since 1974) and President (since February, 2005) of the Georgian Academy of Sciences
Georgian Academy of Sciences
The Georgian National Academy of Sciences is a main learned society of the Georgia. It was named Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences until November 1990...
(GAS), Doctor of Sciences (1963), Professor (1964).
Gamkrelidze was born in Kutaisi
Kutaisi
Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.-Geography:...
, Georgian SSR. His brother Revaz Gamkrelidze
Revaz Gamkrelidze
Revaz Gamkrelidze is a Georgian and Soviet mathematician known for his work in optimal control theoryand related fields. Gamkrelidze is a member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences...
is also an Academician, a famous mathematician.
Tamaz Gamkrelidze graduated from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the Tbilisi State University
Tbilisi State University
Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University , better known as Tbilisi State University , is a university established on 8 February 1918 in Tbilisi, Georgia. TSU is the oldest university in the whole Caucasus region...
(TSU) in 1952. Since 1964 Gamkrelidze has been a professor of this university, and since 1966 the Head of the Chair of Structural and Applied Linguistics. In 1973-2006 he was a Director of the Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies (Tbilisi). He is the author of many outstanding works in the fields of Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, Ancient languages, Theoretical linguistics
Theoretical linguistics
Theoretical linguistics is the branch of linguistics that is most concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge. The fields that are generally considered the core of theoretical linguistics are syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics...
, Structural and Applied Linguistics and Kartvelology. He is a leading proponent of the glottalic theory
Glottalic theory
The glottalic theory holds that Proto-Indo-European had ejective stops, , but not the murmured ones, , of traditional Proto-Indo-European phonological reconstructions....
of Proto-Indo-European consonants.
In 1988-1995 he edited the Journal of the Russian Academy of Science "Voprosi Yazikoznanya". He is a Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
(2006), Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
, Fellow of the European Society of Linguistics (in 1986-1988 President of this Society), Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Austrian Academy of Sciences
The Austrian Academy of Sciences is a legal entity under the special protection of the Federal Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every field, particularly in fundamental research...
, Academician of the Russian Academy of Science, a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science
World Academy of Art and Science
The World Academy of Art and Science is an international non-governmental scientific organization, an informal and non-official world network of individual fellows elected for distinguished accomplishments in the fields of natural and social sciences, arts and the humanities...
(2006), Doctor honoris causa of the Bonn University (Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
(U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
), Honorary Member of the Linguistic Society of America
Linguistic Society of America
The Linguistic Society of America is a professional society for linguists. It was founded in 1924 to advance linguistics, the scientific study of human language. The LSA has over 5,000 individual members and welcomes linguists of all kinds. It works to advance the discipline and to communicate...
, etc. He has received the Lenin Prize
Lenin Prize
The Lenin Prize was one of the most prestigious awards of the USSR, presented to individuals for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was created on June 23, 1925 and was awarded until 1934. During the period from 1935 to 1956, the Lenin Prize was...
(1988), the Humboldt International Prize (1989) and the Ivane Javakhishvili
Ivane Javakhishvili
Ivane Javakhishvili was a Georgian historian whose voluminous works heavily influenced the modern scholarship of the history and culture of Georgia...
Prize of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (1992). From 1992 to 2005 Gamkrelidze was a member of the Parliament of Georgia.
Some of the main works of Tamaz Gamkrelidze
- The Akkado-Hittite syllabary and the problem of the origin of the Hittite script, "Archiv Orientalni" (vol. 29). 1960
- Anatolian languages and the problem of Indo-European migration to Asia Minor, Studies in General and Oriental Linguistics. Tokyo, 1970
- Alphabetic writing and the old Georgian script. New York, Caravan Books, 1994
- with V. Vs. IvanovVyacheslav Vsevolodovich IvanovVyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov is a prominent Soviet/Russian philologist and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his glottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing the Indo-European urheimat in the area of the Armenian Highlands and Lake Urmia.-Early life:Vyacheslav Ivanov's...
: "Indo-european language and Indoeuropeans" (vols. I-II). Berlin / New York, 1994-1995