HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr (, ''Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr''; , ''Nikoloz Iak'obis dze Mari''; — 20 December 1934) was a Georgian-born
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
and
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 gained a reputation as a scholar of the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
during the 1910s before embarking on his "Japhetic theory" on the origin of language (from 1924), now considered as pseudo-scientific, and related speculative linguistic hypotheses. Marr's hypotheses were used as a rationale in the campaign during the 1920–30s in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
of introduction of
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
s for smaller ethnicities of the country. In 1950, the "Japhetic theory" fell from official favour, with
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
denouncing it as anti- Marxist.


Biography

Marr was born on in Kutaisi, Georgia (then part of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
). His father, James Montague Marr (1793–1874), was an Englishman of Scottish descent, had originally moved to the Caucasus in 1822 to work as a trader, before moving into horticulture and worked with the Gurieli family of
Guria Guria ( ka, გურია) is a region (''mkhare'') in Georgia, in the western part of the country, bordered by the eastern end of the Black Sea. The region has a population of 113,000 (2016), with Ozurgeti as the regional capital. Geography ...
. His mother was a young Georgian woman (Agrafina Magularia). Marr's parents spoke different languages (James spoke English and Agrafina spoke the Gurian dialect of Georgian), and thus could hardly understand each other. When Marr was 8 his father died, leaving the family in difficult circumstances. In 1874 Marr was accepted into a Kutaisi boarding school, after his mother successfully secured funding from the local authorities for him. While a good student, Marr was nearly expelled as he was often in conflict with the school administration. He entered at St Petersburg University in 1884, where he specialized in Caucasian languages, and simultaneously studied Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Syriac, among others. Working under , the head of the department, Marr mainly worked with manuscripts. He completed his master's degree in 1899, with his thesis titled ''The Collection of the Parables of Vardan''. After graduating Marr taught at the university beginning in 1891, becoming dean of the Oriental faculty in 1911 and 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 ...
in 1912. Between 1904 and 1917 he undertook yearly excavations at the ancient
Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...
n capital of
Ani Ani ( hy, Անի; grc-gre, Ἄνιον, ''Ánion''; la, Abnicum; tr, Ani) is a ruined medieval Armenian city now situated in Turkey's province of Kars, next to the closed border with Armenia. Between 961 and 1045, it was the capital of the ...
. After a visit to Turkey in 1933 Marr developed influenza, followed several months later by a stroke. He died from complications of these ailments in
Leningrad 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 ...
on 20 December 1934.


Japhetic theory

Marr gained recognition with his Japhetic theory, postulating the common origin of
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 ...
, Semitic-Hamitic, and
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
languages. In 1924, he went even further and proclaimed that all the languages of the world descended from a single
proto-language In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattes ...
which had consisted of four "diffused exclamations": ''sal, ber, yon, rosh''. Although the languages undergo certain stages of development, his method of ''linguistic paleontology'' claims to make it possible to discern elements of primordial exclamations in any given language. One of his followers was
Valerian Borisovich Aptekar Valerian Borisovich Aptekar (Russian: Валериа́н Бори́сович Апте́карь, 24 October 1899 – 29 July 1937) was a Russian linguist and a propagandist of Nicholas Marr's New Theory of Language. In 1937, he was accused of anti ...
, and one of his opponents was
Arnold Chikobava Arnold Chikobava ( ka, არნოლდ ჩიქობავა) (March 14, 1898 – November 5, 1985) was a Soviet Georgian linguist and philologist best known for his contributions to Caucasian studies and for being one of the most activ ...
. In 1950 Marr's theories were criticized in a discussion in ''
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'', culminating in a June 20, 1950 article by Stalin, " Marxism and Problems of Linguistics". After that point Marr's theories were largely abandoned by Soviet linguists, and an emphasis on Russian language research was promoted instead.


Publications

Selected works: * * * * * * *


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marr 1864 births 1934 deaths 20th-century linguists Archaeologists from the Russian Empire Armenian studies scholars Burials at Kazachye Cemetery Deaths from influenza Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Georgian people of Scottish descent 20th-century historians from Georgia (country) Linguists from Georgia (country) Linguists from the Soviet Union Linguists of Caucasian languages Linguists of Kartvelian languages Paleolinguists People from Kutaisi People from Kutais Governorate Recipients of the Order of Lenin 19th-century historians from Georgia (country)