Alexander (Sasha) Vladimirovich Vovin (russian: Александр Владимирович Вовин; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American
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. Lingu ...
and
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...
, and director of studies at the
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. He was a world-renowned linguist, well known for his research on East Asian languages.
Education
Alexander Vovin earned his M.A. in structural and applied linguistics from the
Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the ...
in 1983, and his Ph.D. in historical Japanese linguistics and premodern Japanese literature from the same university in 1987, with a doctoral dissertation on the ''
Hamamatsu Chūnagon Monogatari'' (ca. 1056).
Career
After serving as a
Junior Researcher at the St. Petersburg Institute of Oriental Studies (1987–1990), he moved to the United States where he held positions as assistant professor of Japanese at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
(1990–1994), assistant professor at
Miami University
Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the ...
(1994–1995), and assistant professor and then associate professor at the
University of Hawai'i (1995–2003). He was appointed full professor at the University of Hawai'i in 2003, and continued working there until 2014. He was visiting professor at the
International Research Center for Japanese Studies
The , or Nichibunken (日文研), is an inter-university research institute in Kyoto. Along with the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the National Museum of Japanese History, and the National Museum of Ethnology, it is one of the Natio ...
,
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
in 2001-2002 and again in 2008, a visiting professor at the
Ruhr University Bochum
The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction beg ...
, Germany (2008–2009), and a visiting professor at the
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) in Tokyo, Japan in May–August 2012.
In 2014 Vovin accepted the position of Director of Studies at the Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale (CRLAO) unit of the
EHESS, where remained until his death in 2022.
Alexander Vovin specialized in Japanese historical linguistics (with emphasis on
etymology
Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...
,
morphology, and
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 ...
), and Japanese philology of the
Nara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the c ...
(710–792), and to a lesser extent of the
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...
(792–1192). His last project before his death involved the complete academic translation into English of the
Man'yōshū (ca. 759), the earliest and the largest premodern
Japanese poetic anthology, alongside the critical edition of the original text and commentaries. He also researched the moribund
Ainu language
Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu, is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isolate ...
in northern Japan, and worked on
Inner Asian languages and
Kra–Dai languages, especially those preserved only in Chinese transcription, as well as on
Old
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
* Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, M ...
and
Middle Korean
Middle Korean is the period in the history of the Korean language succeeding Old Korean and yielding in 1600 to the Modern period.
The boundary between the Old and Middle periods is traditionally identified with the establishment of Goryeo in 9 ...
texts.
His latest work (published in 2021) is on the
''Bussokuseki no Uta'' of
Yakushi-ji
is one of the most famous imperial and ancient Buddhist temples in Japan, and was once one of the Seven Great Temples of Nanto, located in Nara. The temple is the headquarters of the Hossō school of Japanese Buddhism. Yakushi-ji is one of th ...
temple in
Nara
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...
.
Personal life
Vovin died on 8 April 2022, at the age of 61.
Publications
*
* Vovin, Alexander. (2000). Did the Xiong-nu speak a Yeniseian language?. ''Central Asiatic Journal, 44''(1), 87–104. .
* Vovin, Alexander. (2001). Japanese, Korean and Tungusic. Evidence for genetic relationship from verbal morphology. David B. Honey and David C. Wright (eds.), 183–202.
*
*
* Vovin, Alexander. (2003). Once again on lenition in Middle Korean. ''Korean Studies, 27'', 85–107. .
*
*
*
* , 20 volumes
*
* Vovin, Alexander. (2011)
Why Japonic is not demonstrably related to 'Altaic' or Korean In ''Historical Linguistics in the Asia-Pacific region and the position of Japanese, The International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) XX''.
* Vovin, Alexander. & McCraw, D. (2011)
Old Turkic Kinship Terms in Early Middle Chinese ''Türk Dili Araştırmaları Yıllığı Belleten, 59''(1), 105–116.
* Vovin, Alexander. (2017)
Koreanic loanwords in Khitan and their importance in the decipherment of the latter ''Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 70''(2), 207–215.
*
*
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vovin, Alexander
1961 births
2022 deaths
Russian emigrants to the United States
Russian Japanologists
American Japanologists
Japanese literature academics
Miami University faculty
University of Michigan faculty
University of Hawaiʻi faculty
Paleolinguists
Linguists of Puyŏ languages
Linguists of Ainu
Linguists of Yeniseian languages
Linguists of Xiongnu
Historical linguists
Linguists of Japanese
Linguists of Korean
Academics from Saint Petersburg