Bengt Ivar Hesselman (1875–1952) was a Swedish

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

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 ...

, specialising in

Scandinavian languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is al ...

Early life

Hesselman was born either in Stockholm or in Å,

Östergötland Östergötland (; English exonym: East Gothland) is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish) in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland and the Baltic Sea. In older English li ...

, on 21 December 1875. His parents were the factory owner Bror August Hesselman and Marie Louise Hesselman, née Åberg. He had several brothers, including the botanist Henrik Hesselman and the civil engineer

Jonas Hesselman Jonas Hesselman (9 April 1877- 20 December 1957) was a Swedish engineer. He built the first spark ignition engine with direct injection of fuel into the cylinder. Biography Knut Jonas Elias Hesselman was born at Å församling in Östergöt ...

Education and academic career

He passed his maturity examination (''mogenhetsexamen'') in Stockholm in 1893 and became a student at

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

in the same year. In 1902 he defended his doctoral thesis on some phonological features of East Swedish dialects (''Östsvenska mål'', spoken in parts of Finland and historically in parts of Estonia). He continued his studies on Swedish regional dialects, and published several books on dialect boundaries in Swedish, and on the historical development of Swedish vowel sounds. In the 1910s he started publishing research on place names and names of plants, and he broadened his studies to involve Scandinavian languages other than Swedish. He was appointed Professor of Scandinavian languages at the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

in 1914, but only stayed there until 1919 when he became Professor of Scandinavian languages at Uppsala University. He was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

in 1931, of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademien abbreviated KVHAA ( or or ) is the Sweden, Swedish Swedish Royal Academies, royal academy for the Humanities. Its ...

in 1933, and of the

Swedish Academy The Swedish Academy (), founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. Its 18 members, who are elected for life, comprise the highest Swedish language authority. Outside Scandinavia, it is best known as the body t ...

in 1935. His scholarly production includes works on phonological history, the emergence of

Standard Swedish Standard Swedish () denotes Swedish as a spoken and written standard language. While Swedish as a written language is uniform and standardized, the spoken standard may vary considerably from region to region. Several prestige dialects have deve ...

, and a large work on Scandinavian language history where the first part, ''Omljud och brytning i de nordiska språken'' was published in 1945, and later parts in 1948, 1952 and posthumously in 1953.

Personal life

Hesselman married Märta Charlotta von Post in 1906. He died in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

on 6 April 1952, and is buried at

Uppsala old cemetery Uppsala Old Cemetery () is a cemetery in Uppsala, Sweden. In July 2024, about 20 grave sites at Uppsala Old Cemetery were vandalized (overturned gravestones, broken grave lanterns and destroyed flower arrangements). Notable burials * Greta A ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hesselman, Bengt Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the Swedish Academy 1875 births 1952 deaths Dialectologists People from Stockholm Members of the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy