Liljana Minova-Ǵurkova was born in 1939 in Prilep. She graduated in 1963 at the Department of Macedonian Language at the Faculty of Philosophy. She began her career at the Institute of Macedonian Language “Krste Misirkov” in Skopje (1963‒1977), in the Department for Modern Language. In 1976 she received her PhD from the Faculty of Philology in Skopje (on the topic: “The Relative Sentence in the Macedonian Language in the 19th and 20th Centuries”). She continued her professional career as a professor at the same university, at the Department for Macedonian Language and South Slavic Languages at the Faculty of Philology (since 1977), and also held general courses in Modern Macedonian for the groups: Journalism, History of SFRY Peoples’ Literature, Albanian Language and Turkish Language. Since 1969 she was professionally linked to the International Seminar on Macedonian Language, Literature and Culture in Ohrid as a long-time lecturer and participant, as well as a coordinator of the Scientific Conference and the Debate course. Her teaching career included courses and lectures at many universities around the world as well: a Macedonian language lecturer at Moscow State University (1978/79), a grammar teacher at the Pedagogical Academy in Malmö (1982/83), a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Illinois in Chicago (1985/86), as well as a guest professor at the Universities of Tirana, Halle, Bratislava, Voronezh, Moscow, Krakow, Katowice, Sydney, etc.
Minova-Ǵurkova was an editor or a member of editorial boards of many scientific journals (Makedonski jazik, Literaturen zbor, Godišen zbornik of the Faculty of Philology). She also edited rubrics for language in various journals and newspapers: “Word-Two for the Words” in Naš svet (1967‒1972), “Razvigor’s Small Language School” in Razvigor (1967‒1970), language contributions in Nova Makedonija (1974/1975) and in the LIK (1992‒1994 and 2004/2005).
During her life, Prof. Minova-Ǵurkova was a president of the Macedonian Language Council (1998‒2002), a member of the International Commission for Study of the Grammatical Structure of Slavic Languages, as well as of the Macedonian National Slavic Committee; a deputy head of the Department for Macedonian Language and Southern Slavic Languages, and a head of the same Department; a President of the Presidency of the Union of Societies for Macedonian Language and Literature; and president of the Board for postgraduate studies in Macedonian language. In 1993 and 1995 she organized the Meetings of Young Macedonists at the Faculty of Philology, and was the head of many projects (for example, head of the Macedonian team in the international general Slavic project “The Latest History of the Slavic Languages /1945‒1995/”, with a center in Opole, Poland). She also conducted field studies, which took place in Albania (in Golo Brdo and Mala Prespa) and in Germany, as well as throughout Macedonia.
She was an author of over 300 articles and many monographs: Svrzuvački sredstva vo makedonskiot jazik (1997); Stilistika na sovremeniot makedonski jazik (2003); Gramatika na makedonskiot standarden jazik (with French translation) 2006, (with English translation), 2007. She appears as co-author and editor of Makedonski jazik (Opole, 1998); Makedonskiot jazik vo javnoto opštenje (1995); Stavovi za literaturata – stavovi za životot (1996); Makedonski jazik za srednoto obrazovanie (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), Opšta gramatika na makedonskiot jazik (2008), as well as Macedonian language and literature textbooks for secondary education.
She has been awarded “Goce Delčev” Prize for Science in 1995.
Photo: Liljana Minova-Ġurkova (Source: the photo was received by her daughter Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Ǵurkova).
Author: Biljana Ristovska-Josifovska