 In 1982 Zinkevičius became a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities; in 1991, of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and in 1995, of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and the Lithuanian Catholic Academy of Sciences.He was fluent in a number of languages, including English, German, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and French.Zinkevičius is considered as the most cited Lithuanian linguist.