André Vaillant (November 3, 1890 – April 23, 1977), was a French

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 ...

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 grammarian who also specialized in

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the ...

. He was born in

Soissons Soissons () is a commune in the northern French department of Aisne, in the region of Hauts-de-France. Located on the river Aisne, about northeast of Paris, it is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital o ...

. After studying at

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, he became professor at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

, acting as a Chair of Slavic Languages and Literatures in 1952. In

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 ...

, he studied manuscripts written in Old Church Slavonic. He worked at the Institute of Slavic Studies of Paris. He collaborated in the drafting of the Journal of Slavic Studies which served as the basis for the development of his comparative grammar of Slavic languages . He wrote twenty books including the six-volume Comparative Grammar of Slavic languages (''Grammaire comparée des langues slaves''), the two-volume Handbook of Old Church Slavonic (''Manuel de vieux-slave'') and a grammar of

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

together with Antoine Meillet. He translated and published many liturgical texts written in Church Slavonic. He died in

Bibliography

* Histoire et philologie. Langues et littératures slaves du Moyen Âge / André Vaillant / Paris : EPHE École Pratique des Hautes Études - 1965 * Histoire et philologie. Langues et littératures slaves du Moyen Âge / André Vaillant / Paris : EPHE École Pratique des Hautes Études - 1969 * Pascal Pierre et Johannet José, ''André Vaillant (1890-1977), l’homme et le savant'', Revue des études slaves, t. 53, 1981, fasc. 3, p. 367-370. * Les "Piesni razlike" de Dominko Zlatarié, thèse complémentaire pour le doctorat ès lettres présentée à la Faculté des lettres de l'Université de Paris, par André Vaillant. * Grammaire comparée des langues slaves. Tome I, Phonétique. Lyon, I.A.C., 1950. * Grammaire comparée des langues slaves. Tome II, Morphologie. Première partie, Flexion nominale. Lyon : I.A.C, 1958. * Grammaire comparée des langues slaves. Tome II, Morphologie. Deuxième partie, Flexion pronominale. Lyon : I.A.C, 1958. * Grammaire comparée des langues slaves. Tome III, Le verbe. Paris : Klincksieck, 1966. * Grammaire comparée des langues slaves. Tome IV, La Formation des noms. Paris : Klincksieck, 1974. * Grammaire comparée des langues slaves. Tome V, La syntaxe. Paris : Klincksieck, 1977

References

Sources

Tributes André Vaillant on the Persée websiteSelected bibliography of André VaillantAndré Vaillant at the Slavic Studies Center at the University of Paris-Sorbonne
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaillant, Andre 20th-century linguists French philologists Linguists from France Slavists 1890 births 1977 deaths 20th-century philologists Foreign members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts