Aleksey Shakhmatov
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Aleksey Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (, – 16 August 1920) was a Russian
philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...
and historian credited with laying the foundations for the science of textology. Shakhmatov held the title of Doctor of Russian language and philology (since 1894).Aristov, V.
Aleksei Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (ШАХМАТОВ ОЛЕКСІЙ ОЛЕКСАНДРОВИЧ)
'. Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine. 2013
He was a full 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 ...
(before 1917 the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences) since 1899 and a chair of the Department of Russian language and philology of the Academy of Sciences (1908–1920), a member of the
Constitutional Democratic Party The Constitutional Democratic Party (, K-D), also called Constitutional Democrats and formally the Party of People's Freedom (), was a political party in the Russian Empire that promoted Western constitutional monarchy—among other policies ...
(1905) and the Russian Empire State Council (1906–1911).


Biography

Born in
Narva Narva is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in the Ida-Viru County, at the Extreme points of Estonia, eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva (river), Narva river which forms the Estonia–Russia border, E ...
, present-day Estonia, Shakhmatov was brought up by his uncle near
Saratov Saratov ( , ; , ) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River. Saratov had a population of 901,361, making it the List of cities and tow ...
. He went to a public school in Moscow and developed interest for Old Russian language and literature at an early age. At the age of 16, his articles started to appear in the most authoritative journal of Slavic studies of that time, the ''Archive of Slavic Philology'' (). Shakhmatov furthered his education at the Imperial Moscow University (1883–1887), later delivering lectures in the same institution. His first
monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...
, published in 1886, examined the language of ancient
Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( ; , ; ), also known simply as Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the oldest cities in Russia, being first mentioned in the 9th century. The city lies along the V ...
charters. In 1891 he became so enthusiastic about ''
zemstvo A zemstvo (, , , ''zemstva'') was an institution of local government set up in consequence of the emancipation reform of 1861 of Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Nikolay Milyutin elaborated the idea of the zemstvo, and the fi ...
'' that he gave up his scholarly pursuits for three years and held a minor administrative office in his native village. In 1894, Shakhmatov returned to Moscow and won great acclaim for his PhD dissertation, entitled ''Studies in the Sphere of Russian Phonetics''. Five years later, he was admitted to 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 ...
, and over the following years became one of the most reputable academicians. He revived the Academy's linguistic periodicals, edited the academic dictionary of Russian language and was elected to represent the Academy at the
State Council of Imperial Russia The State Council ( rus, Госуда́рственный сове́т, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj sɐˈvʲet) was the supreme state advisory body to the tsar in the Russian Empire. From 1906, it was the upper house of the parliament under t ...
and Imperial State Duma. In 1909, Shakhmatov moved to work at Saint Petersburg University as a professor. By that time, he had been elected doctor ''
honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
'' by the
Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...
, Berlin University,
Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...
, and many other scholarly societies.


1917 Revolution

Shakhmatov participated in the Commission for the Study of the Tribal Composition of the Population of the Borderlands of Russia set up in February 1917. He also helped prepare sweeping reforms of
Russian orthography Russian orthography () is an orthography, orthographic tradition formally considered to encompass spelling ( rus, орфогра́фия, r=orfografiya, p=ɐrfɐˈɡrafʲɪjə) and punctuation ( rus, пунктуа́ция, r=punktuatsiya, p=p ...
, which would be implemented by the
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
s in 1918, and his
orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...
is still used to this day. Shakhmatov refused to leave Petrograd for the West, a fatal decision that led to his premature death from malnutrition and exhaustion in 1920. The Academy subsequently cherished his memory and instituted a special Shakhmatov Prize, to be awarded "for the best works in source science, textology and linguistics".


Works

Shakhmatov is an author of several works in phonetics, dialectology, lexicography, syntax, history of East Slavic languages, modern Russian literary language, history of East Slavic people, history of Old Russian literature, Slavic accentology. In his monographies "Research in a field of the Russian phonetics" (Исследования в области русской фонетики, 1894), "To the history of sounds in the Russian language" (К истории звуков русского языка, 1903), and others, Shakhmatov set a goal to restore the All-Russian pronunciation in all of its phonetical details by way of juxtaposition of old and modern eastern Slavic dialects with involving of data from other Slavic languages. Shakhmatov is best remembered for having pioneered textological research of early Russian
chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...
s, notably the ''
Primary Chronicle The ''Primary Chronicle'', shortened from the common ''Russian Primary Chronicle'' (, commonly transcribed ''Povest' vremennykh let'' (PVL), ), is a Rus' chronicle, chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It is believed to have been or ...
''. He established with a great degree of precision the stages of evolution of that key document, even attempting to reconstruct the postulated proto-version of Nestor's chronicle. His research proved seminal for subsequent generations of historians. Shakhmatov was also responsible for publication and pioneering studies of minor or derelict Slavic languages. His studies of Slavic
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. ...
revolved around the idea of close contacts and influences between the ancient Slavs and
Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...
s, a hypothesis that was subsequently discarded. In particular, Shakhmatov was convinced that
Prekmurje Slovene Prekmurje Slovene, also known as the Prekmurje dialect, Eastern Slovene, or Wendish (, , Prekmurje Slovene: ''prekmürski jezik, prekmürščina, prekmörščina, prekmörski jezik, panonska slovenščina''), is the language of Prekmurje in Easte ...
, spoken in
Prekmurje Prekmurje (; Prekmurje Slovene: ''Prèkmürsko'' or ''Prèkmüre''; ) is a geographically, linguistically, culturally, and ethnically defined region of Slovenia, settled by Slovenes and a Hungarians in Slovenia, Hungarian minority, lying betwee ...
and the Slovene March, contains Celtic elements due to its front rounded vowels ''ü'' and ''ö''. In fact, Prekmurje Slovene is simply a dialect of Slovene, and the sounds ''ü'' and ''ö'' are common in other dialects of Slovene, such as in
Prlekija Prlekija is a region in northeastern Slovenia between the Drava and Mura rivers. It comprises the eastern part of the Slovene Hills (), stretching from the border with Austria to the border with Croatia. It is part of the traditional province of ...
and some parts of
Carinthia Carinthia ( ; ; ) is the southernmost and least densely populated States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The Lake Wolayer is a mountain lake on the Carinthian side of the Carnic Main ...
. Hungarian nationalists employed this theory of Shakhmatov against the Slovenes as part of
magyarization Magyarization ( , also Hungarianization; ), after "Magyar"—the Hungarian autonym—was an assimilation or acculturation process by which non-Hungarian nationals living in the Kingdom of Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, adop ...
of the Slovene March.Quelques remarques sur la brochure intitulée: La question du Prekmurje étudiée et présentée par M. Slavič. Par I. Melich et S. Mikola. Budapest – 1919.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakhmatov, Alexei 1864 births 1920 deaths People from Narva People from Yamburgsky Uyezd Russian Constitutional Democratic Party members Members of the State Council (Russian Empire) Philologists from the Russian Empire Linguists from the Russian Empire 19th-century historians from the Russian Empire Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Russian scientists Linguists of Ukrainian Historians of Kievan Rus' Graduates of the 4th Moscow Gymnasium