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

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

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 strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

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 Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...

. 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 ...

. After studying at

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

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, he became professor at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

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

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, he studied manuscripts written in

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

. He worked at the Institute of

Slavic Studies Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics, is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic peoples, Slavic peoples, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or ...

of Paris. He collaborated in the drafting of the ''Revue d'études slaves'' (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 known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

together with

Antoine Meillet Paul Jules Antoine Meillet (; 11 November 1866 – 21 September 1936) was one of the most important French linguists of the early 20th century. He began his studies at the Sorbonne University, where he was influenced by Michel Bréal, the Swiss l ...

. He translated and published many liturgical texts written in

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...

. He died in

Selected works

* 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 Zlatarić, 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 * Manuel du vieux slave. Tome I, Grammaire. Seconde édition revue et augmentée. Paris, 1964.

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 French linguists French philologists Linguists of Slavic languages 1890 births 1977 deaths 20th-century French philologists Foreign members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts