Aleksandar Stoyanov Teodorov-Balan ( bg, Александър Стоянов Теодоров-Балан; 27 October 1859 – 12 February 1959) was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

. Balan was born in the village of Kubey in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, today in

Odessa Oblast Odesa Oblast ( uk, Оде́ська о́бласть, translit=Odeska oblast), also referred to as Odeshchyna ( uk, Оде́щина) is an oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administ ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, to a Bessarabian Bulgarian family. The Bulgarian general Georgi Todorov was his brother. Balan studied in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

graduating in

Slavistics Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...

from the

Charles University in Prague ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

. In 1884 he settled in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria, spending four years working for the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment. He became professor of Slavic ethnography and

dialectology Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , '' -logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their ass ...

and

history of the Bulgarian language The history of the Bulgarian language can be divided into three major periods: * Old Bulgarian (from the late 9th until the 12th century); * Middle Bulgarian (from the 12th century to the 16th century); * Modern Bulgarian (since the 17th century ...

, since 1893 head of the Bulgarian and Slavic literature department of the High Pedagogical School (the future

Sofia University Sofia University, "St. Kliment Ohridski" at the University of Sofia, ( bg, Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“, ''Sofijski universitet „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“'') is the oldest higher education i ...

). On 29 January 1889, he was elected the first

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the university and reelected several times (1896–1897, 1902–1903); he was also dean of the Faculty of History and Philosophy (1899–1900, 1904–1905). In the late 19th and early 20th century, he was secretary of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and from 1939 on he was ''

doctor honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad ho ...

'' of the Sofia University, as well as an active member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. From 1907 to 1910 he was also the head secretary of the Bulgarian Exarchate. Aleksandar Teodorov-Balan was also among the founders of the

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

movement in Bulgaria, a long-standing chairman of the Bulgarian Tourist Association and editor of the ''Bulgarian Tourist'' magazine. In addition, he was also Grand Master of the Grand

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

of Bulgaria.

Works

Among his most important scientific contributions ranks his work on Bulgarian grammar, the peculiarities of Bulgarian

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

, his struggle against

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...

s ( linguistic purism), the enrichment of the language using dialectal words. He also published works in the field of literary history. Some of his publications (including posthumous) include: * A study on '' Slavonic-Bulgarian History'', Plovdiv, 1898 * ''

Sophronius of Vratsa Saint Sophronius of Vratsa (or Sofroniy Vrachanski; bg, Софроний Врачански; 1739–1813), born Stoyko Vladislavov ( bg, Стойко Владиславов), was a Bulgarian cleric and one of the leading figures of the early Bu ...

'', Sofia, 1906 * ''

Cyril and Methodius Cyril (born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (815–885) were two brothers and Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs". They are credited wit ...

. Passionals'', Sofia, 1920 * ''New Bulgarian grammar'', Sofia, 1940 * ''Struggle for modern orthography (1921-1923)'', Sofia, 1924 * ''New Bulgarian grammar for everyone'', Sofia, 1958 * ''Selected works'', Sofia, 1987 * ''A book about myself'', Sofia, 1988 Balan's scientific legacy amounts to 886 titles, including books, studies, articles and notes, of which 310 devoted to the Bulgarian language, as well as many successful

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s. Despite his numerous contributions, Balan lived in relative poverty, with his French people, French wife often suffering from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

. Balan survived to almost

centenarian A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100 years. Because life expectancies worldwide are below 100 years, the term is invariably associated with longevity. In 2012, the United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centen ...

age, he died in Sofia on 12 February 1959.

Memory

Balan Ridge on

Alexander Island Alexander Island, which is also known as Alexander I Island, Alexander I Land, Alexander Land, Alexander I Archipelago, and Zemlja Alexandra I, is the largest island of Antarctica. It lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarc ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

is named after Aleksandar Balan,SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica:
Balan Ridge. as is the

Sofia Metro The Sofia Metro ( bg, Софийски метрополитен, translit=Sofijski Metropoliten, also colloquially called ) is the rapid transit network servicing the Bulgarian capital city Sofia. It began operation on 28 January 1998. , the Sofi ...

's Akademik Aleksandar Teodorov - Balan Metro Station in the Mladost district.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Teodorov-Balan, Aleksandar 1859 births 1959 deaths People from Odesa Oblast Bessarabian Bulgarians Charles University alumni Linguists from Bulgaria 20th-century Bulgarian historians Sofia University faculty Members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Dialectologists Bulgarian Freemasons Rectors of Sofia University 19th-century Bulgarian historians