Yakov Karlovich Grot (russian: link=no, Я́ков Ка́рлович Грот) ( – ) was a nineteenth-century Russian philologist of German extraction who worked at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

. Grot was a graduate of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. In his lifetime, he gained fame for his translations of German and Scandinavian poetry, his work on the theory of

Russian orthography Russian orthography (russian: правописа́ние, r=pravopisaniye, p=prəvəpʲɪˈsanʲɪjə) is formally considered to encompass spelling ( rus, орфогра́фия, r=orfografiya, p=ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə) and punctuation ( rus, � ...

, lexicography, and grammar, and his approach to literary editing and criticism, exemplified in a full edition of the works of Derzhavin (1864–1883). His ''Russkoye Pravopisaniye'' (1878, 1885) (, ''Russian orthography'') became the standard textbook of Russian spelling and punctuation until superseded by the decrees of 1917–1918, although his definition of the theoretical foundations remains little changed to this day. Shortly before his death, he assumed the compilation of ''Academic dictionary of Russian'' (1891–1923), which, although continued by Aleksey Shakhmatov, was never to be completed. He was a 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 t ...

from 1858, its chairman from 1884, and its vice-president from 1889. He was appointed Russian-language tutor to the future tsars Alexander II and Alexander III. His spelling primers "reduced words to historical hieroglyphs of a kind, mismatched with the living spoken language of most Russians"; later linguists like

Baudouin de Courtenay Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay (13 March 1845 – 3 November 1929) was a Polish linguist and Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and phonetic alternations. For most of his life Baudouin de Courtenay worked at Imperi ...

and

Filipp Fortunatov Filipp Fyodorovich Fortunatov ( rus, Фили́пп Фёдорович Фортуна́тов; – ) was a Russian philologist, Indo-Europeanist and Slavist, best known for establishing the Fortunatov–de Saussure law. Biography Fortunatov wa ...

promoted reforms that would make spelling a better reflection of spoken language.Michael G. Smith, ''Language and Power in the Creation of the USSR, 1917-1953'' (Walter de Gruyter, 1998: ), pp. 22-23.

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External links

*A part of Grot's ''Russkoye Pravopisaniye'', 1885, in the old Russian orthography&mdas
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Grot, Yakov Karlovich Linguists from Russia Russian philologists 1812 births 1893 deaths Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum alumni People from the Russian Empire of German descent