_01.jpg)
Zdzisław Stieber, (June 7, 1903 – October 12, 1980) was a Polishlinguist andSlavist. He was born inSzczakowa, then part of the Austro-Hungarian province ofGalicia (since 1918Poland). His family was of assimilated German descent in Poland for generations. He died inWarsaw.
Initially a student of chemistry, Stieber turned his attention to comparative Slavic linguistics at the University of Kraków in 1926. His interest in the dialects of border areas led him to the study of EastSlovak andUkrainian dialects, where his work focused ontoponyms, their etymology, and the history and settlement of the places where they are attested. He also carried out research onSorbian andBelarusian, and was involved in producing linguistic atlases ofKashubian (1964–78),Polish (Nitsch 1957–70), andLemkian (1956–64). Particularly valuable was his introduction of colors and symbols to dialect maps. Stieber's work in the 1930s represented some of the first studies of the dialect of theLemko Rusyns. The deportation of this ethnic group inOperation Vistula after World War II underlines the importance of Stieber's work carried out while the community was still intact.
Stieber also produced works on the history and development of Polish (1934), Czech (1957), and Slavic in general (1969). Stieber held teaching appointments in Kraków, Lviv, Łódź, and Warsaw. His work in Polish and Slavic philology had a particularly strong influence on the introduction of the structural method in the teaching of phonology at the University of Łódź.[1]
The Nitsch-Trnka-Stieber Law (stating that phonemic contrasts in a language can only be produced by regular sound laws or borrowing, but not as a result of analogical changes in morphophonemic rules) remains a matter of debate today (cf. Manaster-Ramer 1994).
In 1982 the Ukrainian SlavistGeorge Y. Shevelov published an extensive reminiscence of Stieber in the journalHarvard Ukrainian Studies.[2]
