Michael John De Koby Holman (born 15 May 1940) is a British linguist and Slavicist, fluent in Russian, Bulgarian, German and French. He studied at Lincoln College, Oxford and University of Leipzig, and worked as a senior lecturer for the University of Leeds Department of Russian Studies from 1966–1999.
Together with the Bulgarian linguists A. Danchev, E. Dimova and M. Savova, Holman developed a system for the English-oriented Romanization of Bulgarian known as Danchev System. He translated Nikolai Haitov's Wild Tales from Bulgarian (published by Owen in 1979) and authored the best-selling Teach Yourself Bulgarian Series (with M. Kovatcheva).
Honours DLitt honoris causa from Sofia University in 2005.
Publications A. Danchev, M. Holman, E. Dimova, M. Savova, An English Dictionary of Bulgarian Names: Spelling and Pronunciation, Nauka i Izkustvo Publishers, 1989, 288 pp. M. Holman, M. Kovatcheva. Teach Yourself Bulgarian: Complete Course Package, McGraw-Hill (2nd edition), 2004. M. Holman, M. Kovatcheva Complete Bulgarian McGraw-Hill 2011. M. Kovatcheva, M. Holman Speak Bulgarian with confidence. Audio-course. Hodder&Stoughton 2010.
External links Professor Michael Holman, University of Leeds website.