Hans Jakob Polotsky
Hans Jakob Polotsky (; also Hans Jacob Polotsky, Hans Jakob Polotzky; September 13 1905 - August 10 1991) was an orientalist, linguist, and professor for Semitic languages and Egyptology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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Biography
Polotsky was born in Zürich, Switzerland, as the son of a Russian Jewish couple. He grew up in Berlin and studied Egyptology and Semitics at the universities of Berlin and Göttingen. From 1926 to 1931 he was a co-worker of the Septuaginta-Unternehmen of the Academy of Sciences at Göttingen. In 1929 he received his Ph.D. degree for the dissertation Zu den Inschriften der 11. Dynastie. He worked in Berlin editing Coptic Manichean texts from 1933 till 1934, with the Church historian Karl Schmidt. He left Germany in 1935 and settled in Palestine, where he taught and researched at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, becoming professor in 1948. He died in Jerusalem.
His main achievement was the Études de syntaxe copte published in 1944 which fundamentally changed the scientific view of the syntax of the Coptic and earlier ancient Egyptian languages
Awards
- In 1962, Polotsky received the Rothschild Prize
- In 1966, he was awarded the Israel Prize in the humanities[1].
- In 1982, he received the Harvey Prize.
Publications
- (with: Karl Schmidt) Ein Mani-Fund in Aegypten, Original-Schriften des mani und seiner Schuler. Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften 1933.
- "Manichäische Studien", in: Le Muséon 46, 1933, pp. 247-271.
- (ed.) Manichaeische Homilien. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer 1934.
- Manichäische Handschriften der Staatlichen Museen Berlin, W. Kohlhammer Stuttgart: 1935
- "Études de grammaire gouragué", in: Bulletin de la Societé de Linguistique de Paris 39, 1938, pp. 137-175
- Études de syntaxe copte, Publications de la Société d'Archéologie Copte. Le Caire, 1944
- "Notes on Gurage grammar", Israel Oriental Society, No. 2, 1951
- "Syntaxe amharique et syntaxe turque", in: Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Etiopici, Roma (Acc. Naz. dei Lincei) 1960: , pp. 117-121
- "Studies in Modern Syriac", in Journal of Semitic Studies 6, 1961, pp. 1-32
- "Aramaic, Syriac, and Ge'ez", in: Journal of Semitic Studies 9, 1964, pp. 1-10
- "Egyptian Tenses", The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Vol. II, No. 5. 1965
- E.Y. Kutscher (ed.), Collected Papers by H.J. Polotsky Magnes Press, Jerusalem 1971
- "Les transpositions du verbe en égyptien classique", in Israel Oriental Studies 6, 1976, pp. 1-50
- "A Point of Arabic Syntax: The Indirect Attribute", in Israel Oriental Studies 8, 1978, pp. 159-174.
- "Verbs with two Objects in Modern Syriac (Urmi)", in Israel Oriental Studies 9, 1979, pp. 204-227.
- Grundlagen des koptischen Satzbaus, Scholars Press, Decatur, Ga. , 1987, ISBN 1-55540-076-0
- "Incorporation in Modern Syriac", in G. Goldenberg & Sh. Raz (eds.), Semitic and Cushitic studies. Harrassowitz Wiesbaden 1994, pp. 90-102.
- "Notes on Neo-Syriac Grammar", in Israel Oriental Studies 16, 1996, pp. 11-48.
References
Further reading
- Erdal, M. (1994). "Hans Jakob Polotsky (1905-1991) : an appreciation", in: Mediterranean language review, 8, pp. 1-9. [1]
- Hopkins, S. (1992/3). "H.J. Polotsky 1905-1991", in: Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, 34, pp. 115-125. [2]
- Osing, J. (1993). "Hans Jakob Polotsky: 13. September 1905 - 10. August 1991", in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 120/1, pp. iii-v.
- Shisha-Halevy, Ariel (1992). "In memoriam Hans Jakob Polotsky (1905-1991)", in: Orientalia (nova series) 61, pp. 208-213.
- Shisha-Halevy, Ariel (2006). "H. J. Polotsky Structuralist", in: After Polotsky: Proceedings of the Colloquium, Bad Honnef, September 2005 (Lingua Aegyptia 14), pp. 1-8.
- Shisha-Halevy, Ariel & Goldenberg, Gideon (2007). "H. J. Polotsky", in: Lexicon Grammaticorum, 2nd ed., (ed. H. Stammerjohann).
- Shivtiel, A. (1994). "Polotsky Hans (Hayyim) Jacob (1905-91)", in: The encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon, vol. 6, pp. 3226-3227.
- Ullendorff, Edward (ed.; 1992). H.J. Polotsky (1905-1991): Ausgewählte Briefe (Äthiopistische Forschungen, Band 34). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 3-515-06066-9
- Ullendorff, Edward (1994). "H.J. Polotsky (1905-1991): Linguistic Genius", in: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 4, 1, pp. 3-13. [=E. Ullendorff, From Emperor Haile Selassie to H.J. Polotsky. Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden 1995, pp. 165-175]
