Max Vasmer | |
|---|---|
 Vasmer in 1934 | |
| Born | (1886-02-28)28 February 1886 Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| Died | 30 November 1962(1962-11-30) (aged 76) West Berlin, West Germany |
| Citizenship | Russia West Germany |
| Occupations | |
Max Julius Friedrich Vasmer (German:[ˈfasmɐ],Russian:['fasmʲer];Russian:Максимилиан Романович Фасмер,romanized: Maksimilian Romanovich Fasmer; 28 February 1886 – 30 November 1962) was a Russian and Germanlinguist. He studied problems ofetymology inIndo-European,Finno-Ugric andTurkic languages and worked on the history ofSlavic,Baltic,Iranian, and Finno-Ugric peoples.
Max Vasmer was born on 28 February 1886 to German parents inSaint Petersburg.[1] Vasmer graduated fromSaint Petersburg University in 1907 as a student ofJan Baudouin de Courtenay andAleksey Shakhmatov.[1] From 1907 to 1908, he studied Greek dialects and the Albanian language in Greece.[1] He continued to study at the universities ofKrakow andVienna from 1908 to 1910.[1]
From 1910, he delivered lectures and taught at theBestuzhev Courses in 1912.[1] During theRussian Civil War of 1917–1922, he worked in the universities ofSaratov (1917–1918) andDorpat (1918–1921). From 1921 to 1925, he taught at theUniversity of Leipzig, and from 1925 to 1945, he taught at theUniversity of Berlin.[1] He also founded the journalZeitschrift für slavische Philologie.[1]
In 1938–1939, he delivered lectures atColumbia University in New York City. It was there that he started to work on hismagnum opus, theEtymological Dictionary of the Russian Language [ru]. He delivered the eulogy for ProfessorAleksander Brückner in Berlin-Wilmersdorf in 1939 and he took over the chair of Slavistic studies at the University of Berlin.[citation needed] In 1941, he published the book "The Slavs in Greece" (Die Slaven in Griechenland) and in 1944 the book "The Greek loanwords in Serbo-Croatian" (Die griechischen Lehnwörter im Serbo-Kroatischen).
In 1944, the bombing of Vasmer's house in Berlin destroyed most of his materials. Nevertheless, Vasmer persevered in his work, which was finally published in three volumes byHeidelberg University in 1950–1958 asRussisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. From 1947 to 1949, he taught at theStockholm University.[1] He was the head ofSlavic studies at theFree University of West Berlin.[1] Vasmer died inWest Berlin on 30 November 1962.[1]
The Russian translation of Vasmer's dictionary – with extensive commentaries byOleg Trubachyov – was printed in 1964–1973. As of 2015[update], it remains the most authoritative source for Slavic etymology. The Russian version is available onSergei Starostin'sTower of Babel web site.[citation needed]
Another monumental work led by Max Vasmer involved the compilation of a multi-volume dictionary of Russiannames of rivers and other bodies of water.[2] He initiated an even grander project, completed by a team of workers after his death: the publication of a monumental (11 volumes)gazetteer that included virtually all names of populated places in Russia found both in pre-revolutionary and in Soviet sources.[3]
