Braun Jan

Jan Braun (b. May 15, 1926, Łódź – d. May 29, 2015) was a Polish linguist, Kartvelologist and Basqueologist.

He graduated from the University of Łódź (1951). In 1951–1955, he completed his postgraduate studies at the Tbilisi State University under the supervision of A. Shanidze and defended his candidate's thesis on the topic: “Multipleness of the Georgian Verb” (1955). He was involved in scientific and pedagogical activity at the University of Warsaw, where he taught courses in general linguistics, Sumerology and comparative grammar of the so-called Asiatic languages.

He was particularly fruitful in his research into the relationship between the Basque-Caucasian languages, defending the theory of the genetic kinship of these languages. Braun studied the Georgian manuscripts preserved in Krakow (1958). With his scientific cooperation and consultation, the first complete edition of The Knight in the Panther's Skin, translated by the poet Jerzy Zagórski, was published in Polish. He was also a scientific consultant for the Polish translation of the Anthology of Georgian Poetry by Igor Sikiritsky (Lodz, 1985) and the Polish translation of the Ancient Georgia (1972) by the British Kartvelologist David Marshall Lang. He translated into Polish several poems by N. Baratashvili, A. Tsereteli, G. Leonidze, the fables of Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, and works of Georgian folklore.

Jan Braun about Georgia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVFDsauCT-4&list=PLue6znsWBAfdUX4MSh1O4SH3xSo-2Brix&index=142

Z. Chumburidze