Aleksandr Konstantinovich Matveyev (russian: Александр Константинович Матвеев, July 8, 1926 – October 9, 2010
) was a Russian linguist known for his works in toponymics (branch of linguistics studying
toponyms
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
),
onomastics (studies of proper names), and
etymology
Etymology () The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words ...
(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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
he entered and graduated from the Khabarovsk University. Starting in 1952 he worked at the
Ural State University 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
Ural State University. 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; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
.
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 Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian ...
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
Ural State University faculty
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