Alexei Alexandrovich Shakhmatov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Ша́хматов, – 16 August 1920) was a
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
n Imperial
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 as th ...
and historian credited with laying foundations for the science of
textology.
Shakhmatov held the title of Doctor of Russian language and philology (since 1894).
[Aristov, V. ]
Aleksei Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (ШАХМАТОВ ОЛЕКСІЙ ОЛЕКСАНДРОВИЧ)
'. Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine. 2013 He was a full member of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...
(before 1917 the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences) since 1899 and a chair of the Department of Russian language and philology of the Academy of Sciences (1908–1920), a member of the
Constitutional Democratic Party
The Constitutional Democratic Party (russian: Конституцио́нно-демократи́ческая па́ртия, translit=Konstitutsionno-demokraticheskaya partiya, K-D), also called Constitutional Democrats and formally the Party of P ...
(1905) and the Russian Empire State Council (1906–1911).
[
]
Biography
Born in Narva, present-day Estonia, Shakhmatov was brought up by his uncle near Saratov. He went to a public school in Moscow and developed interest for Old Russian language and literature at an early age. At the age of 16, his articles started to appear in the most authoritative journal of Slavic studies of that time, the ''Archive of Slavic Philology'' (german: link=no, Archiv für slavische Philologie).
Shakhmatov furthered his education at the Imperial Moscow University
Imperial Moscow University was one of the oldest universities of the Russian Empire, established in 1755. It was the first of the twelve imperial universities of the Russian Empire.
History of the University
Ivan Shuvalov and Mikhail Lomonoso ...
(1883–1887), later delivering lectures in the same institution. His first monograph, published in 1886, examined the language of ancient Novgorod charters. In 1891 he became so enthusiastic about ''zemstvo
A ''zemstvo'' ( rus, земство, p=ˈzʲɛmstvə, plural ''zemstva'' – rus, земства) was an institution of local government set up during the great emancipation reform of 1861 carried out in Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexande ...
'' that he gave up his scholarly pursuits for three years and held a minor administrative office in his native village.
In 1894, Shakhmatov returned to Moscow and won great acclaim for his PhD dissertation, entitled ''Studies in the Sphere of Russian Phonetics''. Five years later, he was admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across ...
, and over the following years became one of the most reputable academicians. He revived the Academy's linguistic periodicals, edited the academic dictionary of Russian language and was elected to represent the Academy at the State Council of Imperial Russia
The State Council ( rus, Госуда́рственный сове́т, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj sɐˈvʲet) was the supreme state advisory body to the Tsar in Imperial Russia. From 1906, it was the upper house of the parliament under the ...
and Imperial State Duma.
In 1909, Shakhmatov moved to work at Saint Petersburg 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 G ...
as a professor. By that time, he had been elected doctor '' honoris causa'' by the Charles University, Berlin University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
, Polish Academy of Sciences
The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society o ...
, and many other scholarly societies.
1917 Revolution
Shakhmatov participated in the set up in February 1917. He also helped prepare sweeping reforms of Russian orthography
Russian orthography (russian: правописа́ние, r=pravopisaniye, p=prəvəpʲɪˈsanʲɪjə) is formally considered to encompass spelling ( rus, орфогра́фия, r=orfografiya, p=ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə) and punctuation ( rus, � ...
, which would be implemented by the Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
s in 1918, and his orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...
is still used to this day. Shakhmatov refused to leave Petrograd for the West, a fatal decision that led to his premature death from malnutrition and exhaustion in 1920. The Academy subsequently cherished his memory and instituted a special Shakhmatov Prize, to be awarded "for the best works in source science, textology and linguistics".
Works
Shakhmatov is an author of several works in phonetics, dialectology, lexicography, syntax, history of East Slavic languages, modern Russian literary language, history of East Slavic people, history of Old Russian literature, Slavic accentology.[ In his monographies "Research in a field of the Russian phonetics" (Исследования в области русской фонетики, 1894), "To the history of sounds in the Russian language" (К истории звуков русского языка, 1903), and others, Shakhmatov set a goal to restore the All-Russian pronunciation in all of its phonetical details by way of juxtaposition of old and modern eastern Slavic dialects with involving of data from other Slavic languages.][
Shakhmatov is best remembered for having pioneered textological research of early Russian chronicles, notably the '' Primary Chronicle''. He established with a great degree of precision the stages of evolution of that key document, even attempting to reconstruct the postulated proto-version of Nestor's chronicle. His research proved seminal for subsequent generations of historians.
Shakhmatov was also responsible for publication and pioneering studies of minor or derelict Slavic languages. His studies of Slavic ]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 Phonological chan ...
revolved around the idea of close contacts and influences between the ancient Slavs and Celts, a hypothesis that was subsequently discarded. In particular, Shakhmatov was convinced that Prekmurje Slovene
Prekmurje Slovene, also known as the Prekmurje dialect, East Slovene, or Wendish ( sl, prekmurščina, prekmursko narečje, hu, vend nyelv, muravidéki nyelv, Prekmurje dialect: ''prekmürski jezik, prekmürščina, prekmörščina, prekmör ...
, spoken in Prekmurje
Prekmurje (; dialectically: ''Prèkmürsko'' or ''Prèkmüre''; hu, Muravidék) is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region of Slovenia, settled by Slovenes and a Hungarian minority, lying between the Mur R ...
and the Slovene March, contains Celtic elements due to its front rounded vowels ''ü'' and ''ö''. In fact, Prekmurje Slovene is simply a dialect of Slovene, and the sounds ''ü'' and ''ö'' are common in other dialects of Slovene, such as in Prlekija
Prlekija is a region in northeastern Slovenia between the Drava and Mura rivers. It comprises the eastern part of the Slovene Hills ( sl, Slovenske gorice), stretching from the border with Austria to the border with Croatia. It is part of the tra ...
and some parts of Carinthia. Hungarian nationalists employed this theory of Shakhmatov against the Slovenes as part of magyarization of the Slovene March.[Quelques remarques sur la brochure intitulée: La question du Prekmurje étudiée et présentée par M. Slavič. Par I. Melich et S. Mikola. Budapest – 1919.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakhmatov, Alexei
1864 births
1920 deaths
People from Ivangorod
People from Yamburgsky Uyezd
Russian Constitutional Democratic Party members
Members of the State Council (Russian Empire)
Philologists from the Russian Empire
Linguists from Russia
Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)