| Birth Date: | 17 April 1924 |
| Birth Place: | Pelekonys, Lithuania |
| Death Place: | Brighton, New York, US |
| Nationality: | Lithuanian |
| Occupation: | linguist |
| Known For: | comparative linguistics of Baltic, Slavic and Germanic languages |
Antanas Klimas (in Lithuanian pronounced as /ɐnˈtaːnɐs ˈkʲlʲɪmɐs/; April 17, 1924 in Pelekonys–18 September 2016 in Brighton)[1] was a prominent[2] [3] Lithuanian doctor of sciences, onomastician and comparative linguist specializing in the relationships between Baltic, Slavic and Germanic language groups as well as the history of Lithuanian language. He also created Lithuanian textbooks and dictionaries, was the editor for the language journal Lituanus, published academic articles on the Lithuanian and Indo-European linguistics.[4] Klimas has written more than 130 publications on linguistics and has made significant contributions to the comparative linguistics of Baltic, Slavic and Germanic languages. He also researched Lithuanian anthroponymy, word formation, phonology and morphology.[5]
From 1941 to 1943, Klimas did Lithuanian studies and philosophy at Vytautas Magnus University. In 1942, he graduated from the Kaunas Teacher Seminary. In 1944, as the Red Army troops began re-occupying Lithuania, he fled the country. From 1946 to 1947, Klimas studied linguistics and German at the former Baltic University of the University of Hamburg. In 1948, he resettled in the United States and continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in Alfred Senn's class up until 1950. In 1956, Klimas became a doctor of sciences and in 1970 he was an academician of the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Science and a professor. In 1989, he was awarded the title of professor emeritus.
From 1950 to 1957, he was a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1957 to 1989, he worked in the University of Rochester, New York, where he taught Germanic studies, Indo-European, Baltic, and Slavic linguistics. He died on September 18, 2016, in Brighton, New York.[6]