Rasmus Rask | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Rasmus Christian Nielsen Rasch (1787-11-22)22 November 1787 Brændekilde, Denmark |
| Died | 14 November 1832(1832-11-14) (aged 44) Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Copenhagen |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Linguistics,Philology |
| Sub-discipline | Historical linguistics Comparative linguistics |
Rasmus Kristian Rask (Danish:[ˈʁɑsmusˈkʰʁestjænˈʁɑsk]; bornRasmus Christian Nielsen Rasch;[1] 22 November 1787 – 14 November 1832) was a Danishlinguist andphilologist. He wrote several grammars and worked on comparativephonology andmorphology. Rask traveled extensively to study languages, first toIceland, where he wrote the first grammar ofIcelandic, and later toRussia,Persia,India, andCeylon (now Sri Lanka). Shortly before his death, he was hired as professor of Eastern languages at theUniversity of Copenhagen. Rask is especially known for his contributions tocomparative linguistics, including an early formulation of what would later be known asGrimm's Law.[1][2] He was elected as a member to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1829.[3]
Rask was born to Niels Hansen Rasch and Birthe Rasmusdatter in the village of Brændekilde nearOdense on the Danish island ofFunen. His father, asmallholder and tailor, was well-read and had a decently-sized book collection. As a child, Rask's scholastic abilities became apparent, and, in 1801, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to theLatin school in Odense, now known as the Odense Katedralskole. One of his friends from Latin school, Niels Matthias Petersen (1791–1862), who went on to be the first professor ofNordic languages at the University of Copenhagen, later remarked that "His short stature, his lively eyes, the ease with which he moved and jumped over tables and benches, his unusual knowledge, and even his quaint peasant dress, attracted the attention of his fellow students".[1] At the Latin school, Rask's interest inOld Norse andIcelandic language andliterature was awakened. His teacher, Jochum E. Suhr, loaned him a copy ofSnorri Sturluson'sHeimskringla in Icelandic, and the rector, Ludvig Heiberg, gave him a new translation of the same work as a prize for his diligence. By comparing the original work and the translation, he was able to make an Icelandic vocabulary, cross-referencing the Icelandic words with cognates inDanish,Swedish,German,Dutch andEnglish. In addition to Danish andLatin, Rask studiedGreek,Hebrew,French and German at Odense. An interest inorthography also led Rask to develop his own spelling system for Danish that more closely resembled its pronunciation, and it was at this time that he changed the spelling of his last name from "Rasch" to "Rask".
In 1808, Rask traveled toCopenhagen to continue his studies at theUniversity of Copenhagen, where he stayed in theRegensen dormitory. Although he was not particularly religious and even had expressed serious doubts, he signed up as a student oftheology, although in practice he simply studied the grammar of various languages of his own choosing.[2] By 1812, he had systematically studiedSami, Swedish,Faroese, English, Dutch,Gothic,Old English andPortuguese, and had started studies of German, French,Spanish,Italian, Greek, Latin,Russian,Polish andCzech, although Icelandic continued to be his main interest.
In 1809, he finished his first book,Introduction to the Icelandic or Old Norse Language, which he published in Danish in 1811. It was a didactic grammar based on printed and manuscript materials accumulated by his predecessors in the same field of research. According to Hans Frede Nielsen, it exceeded anything previously published on the topic.[1]
In 1811, theRoyal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters put out a call for a prize essay on the topic of language history that would "use historical critique and fitting examples to illuminate the source whence the old Scandinavian tongue can be most probably derived, to explain the character of the language and the relations that it has had through the middle ages to the Nordic as well as Germanic dialects, and to accurately ascertain the basic tenets upon which all derivation and comparison of these tongues should be constructed."[1]
In order to conduct research for the prize essay, Rask traveled toSweden in 1812 with his friend Rasmus Nyerup. There, he studied Sami andFinnish in order to determine whether they were related to the Scandinavian languages. When he returned to Denmark, he was recommended to theArnamagnæan Institute, which hired him to editBjörn Halldórsson'sIcelandic Lexicon (1814), which had long remained in manuscript. From 1813 to 1815, Rask visitedIceland, where he became fluent in Icelandic and familiarized himself with Icelandic literature and customs.
In 1814, while still living in Iceland, he finished his prize essay, "Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language" (1818), in which he argued that Old Norse was related to theGermanic languages, including Gothic, to theBaltic andSlavic languages, and even to Classical Latin and Greek, which he grouped together under the label Thracian. He further hinted thatPersian andIndo-Aryan languages might also be related.[4] He also argued that the Germanic languages were not related toBasque,Greenlandic, Finnish or theCeltic languages (on this last instance he was wrong, and he later acknowledged this). The academy accepted the essay but suggested that he could have spent more time comparing Icelandic withPersian and other Asian languages. Because of this, Rask envisioned a trip to India to study Asian languages such asSanskrit, which was already being taught by philologists such asFranz Bopp andFriedrich Schlegel in Germany. In 1814, after returning from Iceland, Rask worked as a sub-librarian at the University of Copenhagen library.[2]
In October 1816, Rask left Denmark on a literary expedition funded by the monarchy to investigate Asian languages and collect manuscripts for the University of Copenhagen library. He traveled first to Sweden, where he stayed for two years. During his time in Sweden, he took a short trip toFinland to study Finnish and published hisAnglo-Saxon Grammar (1817) in Swedish.
That same year, he published the first complete editions of Snorri Sturluson'sProse Edda and thePoetic Edda. The editions were bilingual, with the original Icelandic accompanied by his Swedish translations. In 1819, he leftStockholm forSt. Petersburg,Russia, where he wrote the paper "The Languages and Literature of Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland," which published in German in the sixth volume of theVienna Jahrbücher. Leaving Russia, he traveled throughCentral Asia toPersia, where he stayed inTabriz,Tehran,Persepolis, andShiraz. In about six weeks, he was said to have mastered enough Persian to be able to converse freely.
In 1820, he traveled fromBushehr, Persia toMumbai, India (then called Bombay), and during his residence there, he wrote (in English) "A Dissertation on the Authenticity of theZend Language" (1821).[5] From Bombay, he traveled through India toSri Lanka (then called Ceylon), arriving in 1822. Soon afterwards, he wrote (in English) "A Dissertation respecting the best Method of expressing the Sounds of the Indian Languages in European Characters".
Rask returned to Copenhagen in May 1823, bringing a considerable number of manuscripts in Persian, Zend,Pali andSinhala for Copenhagen libraries. In 1825, he was appointed a professor of literary history, and in 1829, and as a librarian at the University of Copenhagen. In 1831, just a year before his death, he was appointed professor of Eastern languages at the University of Copenhagen.[1][2]
After his return to Denmark, Rask publishedSpanish Grammar (1824),Frisian Grammar (1825),Essay on Danish Orthography (1826),Treatise respecting the Ancient Egyptian Chronology (1827),Italian Grammar (1827), andAncient Jewish Chronology previous to Moses (1828). He also publishedA Grammar of the Danish Language for the use of Englishmen (1830) and oversawBenjamin Thorpe's English translation of hisA Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Tongue (1830).
He died of tuberculosis in Copenhagen in 1832, at Badstuestræde 17, where a plaque commemorating him is found. He is buried inAssistens Cemetery in Copenhagen.[1] He bequeathed his manuscripts to his brother, who sold the Old Norse-Icelandic materials to theArnamagnæan Commission in Copenhagen, which still holds them.[7]
Rask was the first to show the relationship between the ancient Northern and the Western and EasternGermanic languages, as well as to show their relationship with theLithuanian,Slavonic, Greek and Latin languages. He formulated the first working version of what would later be known as "Grimm's Law" for the transmutation ofconsonants in the transition from the oldIndo-European languages to Germanic, although he only compared Germanic and Greek, asSanskrit was unknown to him at the time.
By 1822, he knew twenty-five languages and dialects, and he is believed to have studied twice as many. His numerous philological manuscripts were transferred to the Royal Danish Library at Copenhagen. Rask'sAnglo-Saxon, Danish and Icelandic grammars were published in English editions by Benjamin Thorpe,Þorleifur Repp andGeorge Webbe Dasent, respectively. Rask influenced many later linguists, and in particularKarl Verner carried on his inquiries into comparative and historical linguistics.[8][9]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rask, Rasmus Christian".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
