Nikolai Anderson

Nikolai Karl Adolf Anderson (born September 24, 1845 in Kulina , Estonia Governorate , † March 9, 1905 in Narva ) was a Baltic German philologist . His specialty was the comparative linguistics of the Finno-Ugric languages .

Life

Anderson was born in the village of Kulina near Wesenberg . He received his school education in Reval , after which he enrolled at the University of Dorpat in 1865 to study philology. He was a student of Leo Meyers , who was appointed to a professorship for German and comparative linguistics there that same year . During his studies, Anderson also became interested in Finno-Ugric languages, for which he was soon considered an expert.

From 1871 Anderson worked as a lesson teacher at Dorpat High School. In 1872 he took up a position as senior teacher for classical languages at the grammar school in Minsk ( Belarus ), where he continued studying the Finno-Ugric languages in his free time. Anderson married two years later (1874). His three sons, Wilhelm Anderson (1880–1940), Walter Anderson (1885–1962) and Oskar Anderson (1887–1960), all of whom started an academic career.

Nikolai Anderson submitted the results of his research, which compared Finno-Ugric and Indo-European languages , to Dorpat University in 1876, from which he was then awarded the candidate degree in Comparative Philology . Although still employed as a teacher in Minsk, Anderson continued his research and obtained a master's degree in comparative linguistics in 1891 . A year earlier, in 1890, he had become a corresponding member of the Finnish-Ugric Society and an associate member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society . Anderson's mentor Leo Meyer nominated him in 1892 for honorary membership in the Estonian Scholarly Society , which Nikolai Anderson was granted that same year.

In January 1894, Anderson was appointed to a professorship for Finno-Ugric languages to succeed Mihkel Veske from Kazan University ( Russia ), which he followed because this allowed him to embark on an academic career that gave him more time for his own Research work. The following year (1895) he became a corresponding member of the Finnish Literary Society .

In 1898, Anderson fell ill with a nervous condition and spent several months in the Dorpat hospital . In 1904 he suffered a relapse and was again hospitalized. When his condition improved in early 1905, he traveled to his sister to recuperate in Narva , where he contracted pleurisy and died shortly afterwards.

Works (selection)

Anderson's research was not limited to comparing the different Finno-Ugric languages . He was also one of the earliest proponents of the theory of a genetic relationship between the Finno-Ugric and Indo-European language families .

Nikolai Anderson: Sample of a comparative grammar of the Ugrofinnish and Indo-European languages. Dorpat , 1876
Nikolai Anderson: Studies comparing the Ugrofinnish and Indo-European languages. H. Laakmann, Dorpat , 1879/1891
Nikolai Anderson: Changes in the initial dental spirans in Ostyak. In: Mémoires de l'Académie impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg. Russian Academy of Sciences , Saint Petersburg , 1893

Awards

Imperial Russian Order of Saint Anne 3rd Class (awarded in 1877)
Imperial Russian Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd Class (awarded in 1885)
Imperial Russian Order of Saint Anne 2nd Class (awarded in 1889)
Imperial Russian Order of the Holy and Apostle-like Grand Duke Vladimir 4th Class (awarded in 1904)

literature

Wolfgang Schlueter: Nekrolog: Prof. Mag. Nikolai Anderson. In: Meeting reports of the Estonian learned society in Dorpat 1905. Estonian learned society , Dorpat , 1906, pp. XII – XVI
Eemil Nestor Setälä : † Nikolai Anderson. In: Anzeiger der Finnisch-Uugrischen Forschungen (Volume 5), 1905, pp. 187–189
Bernhard Munkácsi: Nikolai Anderson. In: Keleti Szemle (Volume 6), 1905, pp. 180-181
Artturi Kannisto: Anderson, Nikolai (1845–1905) . In: Wäinö Bonsdorff (Ed.): Tietosanakirja . tape 1 : A-Confort. Tietosanakirja-Osakeyhtiö, Helsinki 1909, p. 387-388 (Finnish, runeberg.org ).

Web link

Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Nikolai Anderson. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital

Individual evidence

^ Album academicum of the Imperial University of Dorpat . Dorpat, 1889
↑ Domestic . In: Rigasche Zeitung (38), 2 , March 25, 1881. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Формулярный списокь (service file): Николай Андерсон (Nikolai Anderson) . In: Oskar Nikolaevich Anderson (1907-1912) , Archives of the State Polytechnic Institute St. Petersburg “Peter the Great” in the Central State Historical Archive St. Petersburg, pp. 9-18. Retrieved September 11, 2015.

personal data
SURNAME	Anderson, Nikolai
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Anderson, Nikolai Karl Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-Baltic philologist
DATE OF BIRTH	September 24, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kulina, Estonia Governorate
DATE OF DEATH	March 9, 1905
Place of death	Narva, St. Petersburg Governorate

[1] Album academicum of the Imperial University of Dorpat . Dorpat, 1889

[2] Domestic . In: Rigasche Zeitung (38), 2 , March 25, 1881. Retrieved September 6, 2015.

[akte-oskar-anderson-3] Формулярный списокь (service file): Николай Андерсон (Nikolai Anderson) . In: Oskar Nikolaevich Anderson (1907-1912) , Archives of the State Polytechnic Institute St. Petersburg “Peter the Great” in the Central State Historical Archive St. Petersburg, pp. 9-18. Retrieved September 11, 2015.