Citizenship Polish Parents Antonina Latinik-Rieger | Occupation linguist
slavicist | |
Born September 20, 1934 ( 1934-09-20 ) Kraków Grandparents Franciszek Latinik, Helena Stiasny-Strzelbicka People also search for Jan Janów, Stanisław Urbańczyk | ||
Janusz Andrzej Rieger (born 20 September 1934) is a Polish linguist and slavicist, professor of the humanities. He was a professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies and the Institute of Polish Language of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Biography
He is the son of Andrzej Rieger, prosecutor and lieutenant of the Polish Army military reserve force, murered in the Katyn massacre, and Antonina Latinik, first champion of Poland in woman's foil.
In his youth he was a scout and an altar boy at St. Florian's Church, where Karol Wojtyła was a vicar at the time. He was a member of so called Environment, a group of Catholic students who rejected Marxist ideology and were focused around Wojtyła. As a member of that group he took part in several walking tours with Wojtyła. He remained in a close touch with the future pope: pirest Wojtyła blessed Rieger's marriage and baptised his children.
In 1955 he graduated in Russian studies from the Jagiellonian University. He received a PhD in 1967 and the title of professor of the humanities in 1989.
In 1960 he started a work at the Department of Slavic Studies (later converted into the Institute of Slavic Studies) of the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he stayed until 1997. From 1997 until 2004 he was a professor of the Institute of the Polish Language of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He lectured at the University of Warsaw, University of Łódź and John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.
Since 1983 he is a member of the Warsaw Scientific Society. He was a member of the Committee of Linguistics (since 1974, vicevice-chairman 1990–2003, an honorary member since 2005) and the Committee of Slavic Studies (1991–2011) of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 1999 he is an honorary member of Kharkiv Scientific Society. Since 1980 until 1981 he was a vice-chairman of Solidarity structures in the Polish Academy of Sciences.
His interests include Polish language in Kresy, Ukrainian dialectology, history of the Ukrainian and Russian language and lexicography.
He is married to Ewa (born 1936), an electronics engineer.