Mahir Domi, linguist, professor, academic, Teacher of the People, was born in Elbasan. He started his secondary studies at the Normal School of Elbasan and continued and finished at the National (French) Lyceum of Korça (1937). He completed higher studies in classical philology and graduated from the University of Grenoble (France) in 1941. That same year he started working as a teacher and then as a director at the Normal School of Elbasan. Since 1947, an employee at the Institute of Sciences, and simultaneously a lecturer at the Higher Pedagogical Institute. He participated in the drafting of the “Dictionary of the Albanian language” (1954). With the establishment of the University of Tirana, he was appointed head of the chair of the Albanian language (1957-1962) and of the grammar and dialectology sector at the Institute of Linguistics and Literature (1957-1991). He has taught the following subjects: the syntax of the Albanian language, the historical morphology of Albanian, and the history of Albanology. Mahir Domi’s scientific activity extends to many fields of philological sciences: grammar (syntax and morphology), history of language, history of Albanology, dialectology and onomastics, normative linguistics and language culture, scientific criticism, history of literature, etc. He wrote the university texts“Morfologjia historike e shqipes” (“The historical morphology of Albanian”)(1961) and “Sintaksa e gjuhës shqipe” (“Syntax of the Albanian language”), part I (1968), part II (1969). He has also written several articles and syntactic studies on general issues of Albanian syntax and the development of its structure. In the field of language history, he has written several articles and reports on the problem of the origin of the Albanian language and on issues of relations between the Albanian language and the languages of the Balkans, especially romanian, such as: “Prapashtesa ilire dhe shqipe, përkime dhe paralelizma” (“Illyrian and Albanian extensions, alignments and parallelisms”) (1974 ), “Konsiderata mbi tiparet e përbashkëta të shqipes me gjuhët ballkanike dhe mbi studimin e tyre” (“Considerations on the common features of Albanian with Balkan languages and their study”) (1975), “Mbi disa përkime dhe paralelizma sintaksore shqipe-rumune” (“About some syntactic similarities and parallelisms between Albanian and Romanian”) (1977), “Probleme të historisë së formimit të gjuhës shqipe, arritje dhe detyra” (“Problems in the history of the formation of the Albanian language, achievements, and tasks”) (1982). Member of the organizing committee and delegate of the Spelling Congress (1972). He participated in the drafting commissions of a number of terminological dictionaries, including “Fjalori i termave të gjuhësisë” (“The glossary of Linguistic Terms”) (1975). As the author of a series of reviews, he has contributed to developing scientific criticism, paving the way for drafting a history of Albanian linguistic thought. He received the Republic Award of the first degree twice. (In the photo: Mahir Domi)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 504-505.
Photo: © https://ata.gov.al/
Graphic processing: AHCF
