Jonas Juška

Jonas Juška (Polish: Jan Juszkiewicz; 1815–1886) was a Lithuanian teacher and linguist. He studied the Lithuanian language and worked on publishing works by his brother the Catholic priest Antanas Juška.

Educated at Kražiai College and Kharkiv University, Juška as a Roman Catholic could not obtain a job in Lithuania and had to live in and work as a school teacher in various Russian cities (Mogilev, Novgorod, Saint Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Kazan). In 1852, Juška established contacts with professor Izmail Sreznevsky who introduced him to the Russian Academy of Sciences and encouraged Juška to study Lithuanian language. He produced several studies, including the first more detailed study of Lithuanian dialects in 1861. When his Lithuanian textbook was met with criticism in 1863, Juška stopped writing studies but continued to closely cooperate with his brother Antanas who was also interested in Lithuanian language and culture and spent his life collecting Lithuanian vocabulary, proverbs, and folk songs from the people. In 1867, Juška prepared the first booklet with 33 Lithuanian songs for publication. Due to the Lithuanian press ban, the Lithuanian words had to be transcribed in the Cyrillic script. In 1875, Juška moved to Kazan and became acquainted with professor Jan Baudouin de Courtenay. With his help, Juškas brothers managed to get a permit to print Lithuanian texts in the Latin alphabet at the University of Kazan and began preparing Antanas' works for publication in earnest. They also managed to get a special exemption from Tsar Alexander II of Russia to publish a wedding song collection at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Antanas died in 1880, and Jonas published four volumes of Lithuanian folk songs and a small part of the Lithuanian–Polish dictionary before his own death in 1886.