Erik Alfred Torbjörn "Björn" Collinder (22 July 1894 – 20 May 1983) was a Swedish

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 ...

who was Professor of

Finno-Ugric Languages Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

Biography

Collinder was born in

Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. History Th ...

, Sweden on 22 July 1894. After gaining a licentiate in

Nordic philology Scandinavian studies is an interdisciplinary academic field of area studies, mainly in the United States and Germany, that primarily focuses on the Scandinavian languages (also known as North Germanic languages) and cultural studies pertaining to ...

, Colinder developed a strong interest in

Finno-Ugric languages Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...

. Since 1929, Collinder was a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

in Finno-Ugric languages at Uppsala University. He subsequently succeeded his mentor K.B. Wiklund as Professor of Finno-Ugric Languages at Uppsala University. Collinder retired as

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

in 1961, and was succeeded by his protégé Bo Wickman. Collinder specialized in the Germanic loanwords in Finnic and

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...

. He was a highly productive author of scholarly literature, and also conducted fieldwork among the

Sámi people The Sámi ( ; also spelled Sami or Saami) are a Finno-Ugric languages#Speakers, Finno-Ugric-speaking people inhabiting the region of Sápmi (formerly known as Lapland), which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, ...

. He is also noted as the translator of a number of works, including

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...

, the

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic me ...

, the

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and r ...

, and many of the works of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

. Under the initials Bj. C., he was the author of a large number of entries in ''

Svensk uppslagsbok ''Svensk uppslagsbok'' is a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1929 and 1955, in two editions. First edition The first edition was started in 1929 by ''Baltiska förlaget AB'', but publishing was taken over by ''Svensk uppslagsbok AB'' in 1 ...

''. His

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

, ''Comparative Grammar of the Uralic Languages'', has remained the standard work on

Uralic languages The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...

up to the present day. Collinder was a member of a large number of scholarly organizations. This includes Member of the

Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy The Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy ( sv, Kungliga Gustav Adolfs Akademien) in Uppsala is one of 18 Swedish royal academies and dedicated to the study of Swedish folklore. The name is often expanded to ("...for Swedish Folk Culture"). The Academ ...

(1936), the

Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala The Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala ( sv, Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala) is a Swedish Royal academy for the study of the humanities. Founding The society was founded in 1889 by a donation from tannery factory owner ...

(1936), the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...

(1937), the

Finnish Academy of Science and Letters The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (Finnish ''Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia''; Latin ''Academia Scientiarum Fennica'') is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the Fi ...

(1941), the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

(1943), the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

(1945), the

Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten i Uppsala), is the oldest of the royal academies in Sweden, having been founded in 1710. The society has, by royal decree of 1906, 50 Swedish fellows and 100 foreign. ...

(1951), the

Finno-Ugrian Society Finno-Ugrian Society (french: Société Finno-Ougrienne, fi, Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura) is a Finnish learned society, dedicated to the study of Uralic and Altaic languages. It was founded in Helsinki in 1883 by the proposal of professor Otto ...

, the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters {{Infobox organization , name = The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters , full_name = , native_name = Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab , native_name_lang = , logo = Royal ...

(1951), and a Corresponding Member of the

Finnish Literature Society The Finnish Literature Society ( fi, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura ry or fi, SKS) was founded in 1831 to promote literature written in Finnish. Among its first publications was the ''Kalevala'', the Finnish national epic A national epic ...

(1941) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1966). Collinder died in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria on 20 May 1983.

Personal life

Collinder was the husband of Swedish soprano Britta Norrby-Collinder, and the brother of the famous astronomer

Per Collinder Per Collinder (22 May 1890 – 6 December 1975) was a Swedish astronomer. Born at Sundsvall, he is known for a catalog of open clusters that he published in 1931, which is today known as the Collinder catalogue. He has written the books ''His ...

Selected works

* 1929. ''Über den finnisch-lappischen Quantitätswechsel I.'' Uppsala. * 1934. ''Indo-uralisches Sprachgut.'' Uppsala. * 1938. ''Lautlehre des waldlappischen dialektes von Gällivare.'' Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen Seura. (= ''Mémoires de la Société finno-ougrienne'' 74.) * 1939. ''Reichstürkische Lautstudien.'' Uppsala. * 1940. ''Jukagirisch und Uralisch.'' Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell. * 1943. ''Lappisches Wörterverzeichnis aus Härjedalen.'' Uppsala. * 1947. ''La parenté linguistique et le calcul des probabilités.'' Uppsala. * 1949. ''The Lapps.'' New York: Princeton University Press for the American Scandinavian Foundation. * 1949. ''The Lappish Dialect of Jukkasjärvi: A Morphological Survey.'' Uppsala: Almquist & Wiksell. * 1954. ''Scandinavica et fenno-ugrica.'' Almqvist & Wiksell. * 1955. ''Fenno-Ugric Vocabulary: An Etymological Dictionary of the Uralic Languages.'' (Collective work.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Viksell. (Second, revised edition: Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag, 1977.) * 1957. ''Survey of the Uralic Languages.'' (Collective work.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Viksell. * 1957. ''Den Poetiska Eddan.'' Örebro: Forum. * 1960. ''Comparative Grammar of the Uralic Languages.'' Stockholm: Almqvist & Viksell. * 1964. ''Ordbok till Sveriges lapska ortnamn.'' Uppsala. * 1964. ''The Kalevala and Its Background.'' Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. * 1964. ''Sprachverwandschaft und Wahrscheinlichkeit. Ausgewählte Schriften neu veröffentlicht zum 70. Geburtstag des Verfassers 22. Juli 1964 zusammen mit einer Bibliographie der Werke von Björn Collinder 1921-1964.'' Uppsala. * 1965. ''An Introduction to the Uralic Languages.'' Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press * 1965. ''Hat das Uralische Verwandte ? Eine sprachvergleichende Untersuchung.'' Uppsala * 1968. ''Kritische Bemerkungen zum saussure'schen Cours de linguistique générale.'' Uppsala. * 1970. ''Noam Chomsky und die generative Grammatik. Eine kritische Betrachtung.'' Uppsala. * 1977. ''Svensk ordnyckel med förkortningslexikon.'' Brunna: Förlagshuset Fyris AB. * 1978. ''Sprache und Sprachen. Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft.'' Hamburg: Buske. * 1983. ''Stora ordboken. Svensk ordnyckel.'' Liber.

Sources

External links

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Photographs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collinder, Bjorn 1894 births 1983 deaths Finno-Ugrists Linguists from Sweden Linguists of Uralic–Yukaghir languages Linguists of Yukaghir languages Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters Members of the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala Paleolinguists People from Sundsvall Scandinavian studies scholars Translators of the Poetic Edda Uppsala University alumni Academic staff of Uppsala University 20th-century linguists

Biography

Personal life

Selected works

See also

Sources

External links