Johann Erich Thunmann or Johannes or Hans (23 August 1746 — 17 December 1778) was a linguist, historian and theologian born in Thoresund (Södermanland) in Sweden. He studied at

Strängnäs Strängnäs is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Strängnäs Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 15,363 inhabitants in 2020. It is located by Lake Mälaren and is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Strängnäs, one of t ...

and

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

then left Sweden to study at

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostoc ...

. Thunmann was professor of philosophy at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

"Eastern Europeans"

Thunmann made extensive study of the peoples of

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

. He was the first author to use the term "Eastern Europeans" in a book title, in his ''Untersuchungen über die Geschichte der östlichen europäischen Völker'', 1774. Thunmann's work served as a liberal agenda for nations without

nation state A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...

s. Thunmann was one of the scientists who did not believe that Bulgarians are Slavs, or at least not "pure Slavs". He believed that

Vlach "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Eastern ...

s are descendants of old

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...

and

Dacian tribes This is a list of ancient tribes in Thrace and Dacia ( grc, Θρᾴκη, Δακία) including possibly or partly Thracian or Dacian tribes, and non-Thracian or non-Dacian tribes that inhabited the lands known as Thrace and Dacia. A great number o ...

or Getic people. In 1825, based also on Thunmann's works,

Mikhail Pogodin Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin (russian: Михаи́л Петро́вич Пого́дин; , Moscow, Moscow) was a Russian Imperial historian and journalist who, jointly with Nikolay Ustryalov, dominated the national historiography between the death ...

wrote his thesis "On the origins of the Rus'" which supports the

Normanist theory Anti-Normanism is a movement of historical revisionism in opposition to the mainstream narrative of the Viking Age in Eastern Europe, and concerns the origin of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and their historic predecessor, Kievan Rus'. At the centr ...

of Russian origins.

Albanians

Thunmann was one of the most important early authors writing about the language and origin of

Albanians The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...

. The first serious attempts to present scientific explanation of the

origin of Albanians The origin of the Albanians has been the subject of historical, linguistic, archaeological and genetic studies. Albanians continuously first appear in the historical record in Byzantine sources of the 11th century. At this point, they were alread ...

began with Thunmann. He believed that the history and language of Albanians, besides

Aromanians The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an Ethnic groups in Europe, ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian language, Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Alba ...

, were the least known European people in the West. Thunmann was the first scholar to disseminate the theory about the autochthonous

and to present the Illyrian theory of the origin of Albanians. Thunmann researched the origin of the term "Skipatar", the term Albanians use as their ethnic name. In 1774 Thunmann republished a three-language (

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and Aromanian) lexicon Theodor Kavalioti first published in 1770, and later added a Latin translation. Thunmann believed in Illyro-

unity.

Bibliography

Thunmann's notable works include: * * * * * - reprint

References

External links

''Über die Geschichte und Sprache der Albaner und der Wlachen'' (On the History and Language of the Albanians and Vlachs), Leipzig 1774
English translation published on the website of

Robert Elsie Robert Elsie (June 29, 1950 – October 2, 2017) was a Canadian-born German scholar who specialized in Albanian literature and folklore. Elsie was a writer, translator, interpreter, and specialist in Albanian studies, being the author of numerou ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thunmann, Johann Erich 1746 births 1778 deaths Philosophy academics 18th-century Swedish historians Linguists from Sweden Swedish theologians University of Halle alumni Albanologists Aromanian studies 18th-century Protestant theologians