Aleksandr Konstantinovich Matveyev (, July 8, 1926 – October 9, 2010) was a Russian linguist known for his works in toponymics (branch of linguistics studying toponyms),

onomastics Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

(studies of proper names), and

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

(origins and semantical development of words).

Biography

Aleksandr Matveyev was born in Sverdlovsk but because of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he entered and graduated from the Khabarovsk University. Starting in 1952 he worked at the

Ural State University The Ural State University (, , often shortened to USU, УрГУ) is a public university located in the city of Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian Federation. Founded in 1920, it was an exclusive educational establishment made of several in ...

in Sverdlovsk. In 1970 he defended his second thesis (Russian degree of ''doctor nauk'') and became professor of the philological department. Since 1961 – chief of the chair of Russian language and general linguistics at the

. In 1988 he received the title of ''Scientist Emeritus of Russia''. In 1991 he was elected a corresponding member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. Being the chief of the annual dialectological and toponymical expeditions he contributed to the creation of a huge collection of toponyms of the Northern part of Russia. His study of this material revealed a great number of substrate phenomena from

Uralic languages The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

and extended our knowledge of the formal and semantical development of toponyms as well as of the ancient state of the Uralic languages. He is noted for his work in advancing Slavic etymology in both scholarly and popular domains. He was also the head of a large group of linguists known as ''Ural school of onomastics''.

Main works

Aleksandr Matveyev is the author of several books including ''Finno-Ugric borrowings in Russian dialect of the Northern Urals'' (Sverdlovsk, 1959), ''Methods of toponymic researches'' (Sverdlovsk, 1986), ''Substrate toponymics of Northern Russia'' (vol. 1, 2, Yekaterinburg, 2001), the fundamental ''Onomatology'' (Moscow, 2006) and many popular books about language for non-linguists. Prof. A. Matveyev is the author of 270 publications. He was the editor-in-chief and member of editorial committees of several periodicals (including '' Questions of Onomastics'', ''Toponymical investigations'', ''Etymology'') and dictionaries (''Dictionary of Russian dialects of the Middle Urals'', ''Dictionary of dialects of Northern Russia'', ''Materials to a Dictionnary of Finno-Ugric borrowings in the dialects of Northern Russia'').

Notes

External links

Aleksandr Matveyev at the Ural State University biographical site

* ttp://www.eunnet.net/proceedings/?base=mag/0020(01_04-2001)&xsln=tableOfContents.xslt&doc=../content.jsp An issue of the Proceedings of the Ural State University dedicated to Aleksandr Matveyev Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences 1926 births 2010 deaths Academic staff of Ural State University {{Russia-bio-stub