9.753, All: Obituary--Bozho Vidoeski

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-9-753. Thu May 21 1998. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 9.753, All: Obituary--Bozho Vidoeski

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1)
Date:  Wed, 20 May 1998 08:46:47 -0400 (EDT)
From:  ewb2 at cornell.edu
Subject:  In memoriam Bozho Vidoeski

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Wed, 20 May 1998 08:46:47 -0400 (EDT)
From:  ewb2 at cornell.edu
Subject:  In memoriam Bozho Vidoeski


Bozhidar Vidoeski (born 8 November 1920 in Zvechan, Poreche region,
Republic of Macedonia) was the father of Modern Macedonian
dialectology.  Not only did he publish numerous studies of individual
dialects but also broader syntheses that superseded all previous
attempts and that remain to this day the foundations of Slavic
dialectology on Macedonian linguistic territory.  He attended high
school in Prilep, Kragujevac, and Skopje, and graduated in 1941.

He received his BA in 1949 and was immediately appointed to an
instructorship in what was then the Department of South Slavic
Languages of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Skopje.
His BA thesis, on the dialect of his native Poreche region, published
in 1950, was the first BA thesis published by his Department.  He
received his doctorate in 1957 and was promoted to assistant professor
in 1958.  In 1964 he was promoted to associate professor and to full
professor in 1967.  He was elected to the Macedonian Academy of Arts
and Sciences in 1969.

>>From 1971-77 he directed the Seminar for Macedonian language,
literature, and culture, and in 1974 he initiated the Scholarly
Colloquium (Nauchna diskusija) as part of the activities of the
Seminar.  He was chairman of the Macedonian Department at the
University of Skopje for many years and served as the general editor
of the journal Makedonski jazik, published by the Institute for
Macedonian Language, from 1973 until his death.  Vidoeski received
numerous medals, awards, and honors including an honorary doctorate
from the Silesian University in Katowice (1990) and memberships in the
Yugoslav (now Croatian), Polish, and Serbian Academies of Arts and
Sciences (1986, 1994, and 1997, respectively).

He was the author, co-author, or general editor of approximately 300
publications, including the Macedonian section of the General Slavic
Linguistic Atlas (OLA).  In addition to his seminal dialectological
work, Vidoeski was actively engaged in the standardization of literary
Macedonian -- his earliest articles were all concerned with questions
of the emerging linguistic norm -- and he served as one of Horace
Lunt's chief informants for Lunt's Grammar of the Macedonian Literary
Language (1952), the first book on Macedonian grammar published in a
foreign language.  It is worthy of note that Vidoeski's willingness to
work with Lunt was an act of singular courage, since it was
politically dangerous for Yugoslav citizens to associate with western
scholars at that time.

Vidoeski was especially active in collaboration with colleagues from
Poland, having studied and taught at the University of Warsaw in 1959,
and he helped establish a joint Yugoslav-Polish journal as well as
co-authoring (with Z. Topolinska and V. Pianka) the first
Macedonian-Polish Polish-Macedonian dictionary (20,000 entries).  He
was also visiting professor at the University of Cologne in 1967-68.

Another aspect of Vidoeski's work is as important as his many
publications: He was a friend, mentor, and colleague to many
generations of scholars from both Macedonia and abroad.  His
significance to the field is thus felt not only in his many
publications and formal scholarly activities, but in the kindness,
guidance, and inspiration that he gave so generously to so many of us.
Bozho died unexpectedly of a heart attack on 16 May 1998.  We who are
left behind deeply mourn his loss.

Vechna mu slava.
Victor A. Friedman - University of Chicago

Victor A. Friedman
Professor of Balkan and Slavic Linguistics
Chairman, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
work: Slavic Dept., University of Chicago, 1130 E. 59th St., Chicago,
	IL 60637
office phone:  773-702-0732
dept. phone:  773-702-8033
dept. FAX:  773-702-7030
divisional FAX:  773-702-9861
e-mail:  vfriedm at midway.uchicago.edu
home:  5538 S. Blackstone, Chicago, IL  60637
home phone & FAX:  773-955-1376
[forwarded to LINGUIST by Wayles Browne, Cornell U.]

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