Igor Mikhailovich Diakonoff (occasionally spelled Diakonov, russian: link=no, И́горь Миха́йлович Дья́конов; 12 January 1915 – 2 May 1999) was a Russian historian,

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 ...

, and translator and a renowned expert on the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

and its languages. His brothers were also distinguished historians.

Life and career

Diakonoff was brought up in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He graduated from Leningrad State University (now

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 G ...

) in 1938. In the same year he joined the staff of the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...

in Leningrad (now

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

). In 1949, he published a comprehensive study of

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

, followed in 1956 by a

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

. Later on, he teamed up with the linguist

Sergei Starostin Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin (russian: Серге́й Анато́льевич Ста́ростин; March 24, 1953 – September 30, 2005) was a Russian historical linguist and philologist, perhaps best known for his reconstructions of hypotheti ...

to produce authoritative studies of the

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...

Afroasiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

, and

Hurro-Urartian languages The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language, extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian language, Hurrian and Urartian language, Urartian. Origins It is often assumed that the Hurro-Ur ...

. Diakonoff was honored in 2003 with a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

volume published in his memory, edited by

Lionel Bender Marvin Lionel Bender (August 18, 1934 – February 19, 2008) was an American linguist. Life Bender was born August 18, 1934, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He travelled throughout the world, particularly in Northeast Africa, and was an accompli ...

, Gábor Takács, and David Appleyard. In addition to articles on Afro-Asiatic languages, it contains a five-page list of his publications compiled by Takács.

Family

Diakonoff's family members are known for their contributions to various fields of knowledge, both sciences and humanities. His wife and two sons became well-known researchers and achieved ranks of full professors.

Brother's family

* Igor's brother Mikhail Mikhailovich Diakonoff was an authority in

Iranian studies Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

. * Mikhail Diakonoff's daughter Elena Diakonova is a translator from Old and Modern Japanese.

Wives

Igor's first wife Nina Dyakonova (1915–2013) was an historian and critic of English literature, with a special interest in English Romantic poetry of the early 19th century (

Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

, Shelley) and its reception in European and

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...

. A student of Professors

Viktor Zhirmunsky The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

and Mikhail Alexeyev, she was a professor at her alma mater

, and later, teacher-training

Herzen University Herzen University, or formally the Russian State Pedagogical University in the name of A. I. Herzen (russian: Российский государственный педагогический университет имени А. И. Герце� ...

. Second wife Ninel Yankovskaya (1925–2005) was a historian, assyriologist in the State

Sons

Igor's sons became prominent physicists. *

Mikhail Dyakonov Mikhail (Michel) Dyakonov (born 1940 in Leningrad) is a Russian professor of physics at Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C), Université Montpellier - CNRS in France. Career His name is connected with several physical phenomena: Dyakonov–Perel ...

(born 1940) – Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Chief Researcher\Honorary Fellow of the St. Petersburg Abram Ioffe Physicotechnical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and after that, since 1998 professor at the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier (french: Université de Montpellier) is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest univ ...

, laureate of the

State Prize of the USSR The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

; * (1949–2012) – Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Deputy Head of the Sector of Theoretical Physics of High Energies, Professor B. P. Konstantinov St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Selected bibliography

* 1965. ''Semito-Hamitic Languages''. Moscow: Nauka. * 1984. Co-authored with V. P. Neroznak. ''Phrygian''. Delmar, New York: Caravan Books. * 1985. "On the original home of the speakers of Indo-European". ''Journal of Indo-European Studies'' 13, pp. 92–174. * 1986. Co-authored with Sergei A. Starostin. ''Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language''. Munich: R. Kitzinger. * 1988. ''Afrasian Languages''. Moscow: Nauka. * 1992. Co-authored with Olga Stolbova and Alexander Militarev. ''Proto-Afrasian and Old Akkadian: A Study in Historical Phonetics''. Princeton: Institute of Semitic Studies. * 1995. ''Archaic Myths of the Orient and the Occident''. Acta universitatis gothoburgensis. * 1999. ''The Paths of History''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sources

* Dandamayev, M.A., Mogens T. Larsen, and J. Nicholas Postgate (editors). 1982. ''Societies and Languages of the Ancient Near East: Studies in Honour of I.M. Diakonoff.'' Warminster: Aris and Philipps. * Bender, M. Lionel and Gábor Takács (editors). 2003. ''Selected Comparative-Historical Afrasian Linguistic Studies in Memory of Igor M. Diakonoff.'' Munich: Lincom Europa.

References

External links

Article on Diakonoff
at ''

Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encycl ...

''
Diakonoff as a translator
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diakonov, Igor 1915 births 1999 deaths Writers from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Russian historians Russian orientalists Linguists from Russia Linguists from the Soviet Union Paleolinguists Soviet historians 20th-century translators Linguists of Caucasian languages Linguists of Afroasiatic languages Linguists of Hurro-Urartian languages Indo-Europeanists Linguists of Indo-European languages Burials at Bogoslovskoe Cemetery 20th-century linguists