Idriz Ajeti, linguist, albanologist, academic, passed away in Prishtina. He was born in Tupallë in Medvegja, in 1917. Among the pioneering linguists of Kosova, founder and head of Albanian journals and institutions in Kosova, president of the Assembly of Kosova after parallel elections in 1998, participant in the Rambouillet Conference in 1999. He completed his high school education (at the Great Madrasa) in Skopje. He began his linguistic studies in Zagreb and later in Padua, under the albanologist Carlo Tagliavini, while he graduated in romanistics in Belgrade (1949), under the albanologist Henrik Bariq. He worked as a professor of Albanian language and literature at the high school in Prishtina (1949–1953), a lecturer at the Albanianology branch of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (1953–1960), where in 1958 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: “Zhvillimi historik i të folmes gege të shqiptarëve të Zarës së Dalmacisë”. From its foundation, in 1960, for twenty years in a row, he directed the chair of Albanian language and literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prishtina, where he taught the courses history of the Albanian language and dialectology. He was the director of the Albanian Institute of Prishtina in the years 1970-1972 and 1983-1986 and the founder of the International Seminar for Albanian Language, Literature and Culture (Prishtina, 1974), which he directed until 1991. During the years 1971-1973, he was the dean of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Prishtina, while in the following years, the rector of this university. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosova since its foundation and chairman in two terms (1979–1981 and 1996–1999). The main fields of Idriz Ajeti’s scientific studies are: the historical and present-day dialectology of the Albanian language, the history of the Albanian language, historical phonetics and morphology, philology, etymology, the relations of Albanian with the slavic languages of the Balkans, the history of literary Albanian and issues of literary norms and language culture. He contributed to the organization and holding of the Albanian Spelling Congress (1972). He has provided important help in the field of the influence of Albanian on South Slavic languages, in the field of historical dialectology studies, in decision-making processes for the standardization of Albanian, etc. His contribution to the development of Albanian studies in Kosova and the former Yugoslavia was important. Honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Albania, bearer of many recognitions and decorations, while the President of Albania has declared him “Honour of the Nation”. (In the photo: Idriz Ajeti)
Text: The encyclopedic dictionary of Kosova – Vol. I , Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosova, Prishtina, 2018, page 28–29.
Photo: © https://merbraha.com/in-memoriam-idriz-ajeti-1917-2019/
Graphic processing: AHCF
