Filipp Fyodorovich Fortunatov ( rus, Фили́пп Фёдорович Фортуна́тов; – ) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

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 especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

, Indo-Europeanist and

Slavist Slavic (American English) or Slavonic (British English) studies, also known as Slavistics is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist or Slavicist was prim ...

, best known for establishing the Fortunatov–de Saussure law.

Biography

Fortunatov was born in

Vologda Vologda ( rus, Вологда, p=ˈvoləɡdə) is a city and the administrative center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the river Vologda within the watershed of the Northern Dvina. Population: The city serves as a major transport hub of ...

in 1848. His father was the director of public schools in

Olonets Governorate The Olonets Governorate or Government of Olonets was a '' guberniya'' (governorate) of north-western Imperial Russia, extending from Lake Ladoga almost to the White Sea, bounded west by Finland, north and east by Arkhangelsk and Vologda, and sout ...

, and Fortunatov entered the in

Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (russian: Петрозаводск, p=pʲɪtrəzɐˈvotsk; Karelian, Vepsian and fi, Petroskoi) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The populati ...

, which was also overseen by his father. Following his father's retirement in 1863, the family moved to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, where Fortunatov continued his studies at the . Fortunatov then entered the Faculty of History and Philology of

Imperial Moscow University Imperial Moscow University was one of the oldest universities of the Russian Empire, established in 1755. It was the first of the twelve imperial universities of the Russian Empire. History of the University Ivan Shuvalov and Mikhail Lomonosov ...

in 1864. During his time at the university, Fortunatov was influenced by

Fyodor Buslaev Fedor Ivanovich Buslaev (russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Бусла́ев; April 25, 1818 – August 12, 1898) was a Russian Empire philologist, art historian, and folklorist who represented the Mythological school of comparative literat ...

and his works on

comparative linguistics Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their history, historical relatedness. Genetic relat ...

. He graduated in 1868. In 1871, Fortunatov and Vsevolod Miller travelled to

Suwałki Governorate Suwałki Governorate (russian: Сувалкская губерния, pl, gubernia suwalska, lt, Suvalkų gubernija) was a governorate (administrative area) of Congress Poland ("Russian Poland") which had its seat in the city of Suwałki. It cove ...

, where they studied Lithuanian fairy tales and songs. After this trip, Fortunatov was sent aboard to Germany, France and England, spending two years aboard in total between 1871 and 1873. During the trip, Fortunatov attended lectures and also studied the

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

. After his return to Moscow, Fortunatov completed his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1875. From 1876 onwards, Fortunatov began lecturing in the university. In 1884, Fortunatov was made a part-time professor in the faculty at the Department of Comparative Linguistics and Sanskrit Language, and was promoted to a full-time professor two years later. While working at the Imperial Moscow University, Fortunatov became involved as a corresponding member in the Department of Russian Language and Literature of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1895. By 1898, Fortunatov's studies had attracted him attention and fame, and he was offered

honorary An honorary position is one given as an honor, with no duties attached, and without payment. Other uses include: * Honorary Academy Award, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, United States * Honorary Aryan, a status in Nazi Germany ...

doctorate degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

s in Comparative Linguistics by both the Imperial Moscow University and the

University of Kiev Kyiv University or Shevchenko University or officially the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv ( uk, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка), colloquially known as KNU ...

, and also elected as an

academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In syst ...

at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. During his tenure at the Imperial Moscow University, Fortunatov was made honorary professor in 1900 and an honorary member in 1902. In 1902, Fortunatov left Imperial Moscow University and moved to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, working at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences as a full-time academician. In 1904, Fortunatov headed a commission responsible for publishing recommendations regarding a Russian orthography reform, though the reform was shelved due to the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

and

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

. In 1912, Fortunatov was made a member of the Board of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

In the final decades of his life, Fortunatov and his wife frequently spent their summers in their

dacha A dacha ( rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ') or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an out ...

in , a village about 40 km from Petrozavodsk. On 3 October 1914, after returning to his dacha from a short walk, Fortunatov fell ill on his bed and died several hours later. He was buried in a local cemetery. Fortunatov's wife, Yulia Ivanovna, remained in Kosalma until her death in 1921, and was buried in the same cemetery.

Contributions

Fortunatov was the founder of the

Moscow linguistic circle The Moscow linguistic circle was a group of social scientists in semiotics, literary theory, and linguistics active in Moscow from 1915 to ca. 1924. Its members included Filipp Fortunatov (its founder), and the foremost representative of the

Neogrammarian The Neogrammarians (German: ''Junggrammatiker'', 'young grammarians') were a German school of linguists, originally at the University of Leipzig, in the late 19th century who proposed the Neogrammarian hypothesis of the regularity of sound change. ...

school in Russia. His studies specialized in the

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

of the

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, ...

, emphasizing the importance of using a strict historical approach in studying phonetic changes. His works included studies on the

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally prese ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and Lithuanian. Through the Moscow linguistic circle, Fortunatov had immense influence on the subsequent generation of Russian and foreign linguists, producing distinguished students like

Aleksey Shakhmatov Alexei Alexandrovich Shakhmatov (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Ша́хматов, – 16 August 1920) was a Russian Imperial philologist and historian credited with laying foundations for the science of ...

Dmitry Ushakov Dmitry Nikolayevich Ushakov (russian: Дми́трий Никола́евич Ушако́в; January 24, 1873 – April 17, 1942) was a Russian philologist and lexicographer.Nikolai Durnovo Nikolai Nikolayevich Durnovo (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Дурново́; – 27 October 1937) was a Russian linguist. He was sentenced to death and shot during the Great Purge. Biography Durnovo was born into the Durn ...

, Olaf Broch,

Aleksandar Belić Aleksandar Belić (Serbian Cyrillic: Александар Белић, ; 15 August 1876 – 26 February 1960) was a Serbian linguist and academic. Biography Belić was born in Belgrade. After studying Slavic languages in Belgrade, Odessa, and M ...

Mikhail Pokrovsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Pokrovsky (russian: Михаи́л Никола́евич Покро́вский; – April 10, 1932) was a Russian Marxist historian, Bolshevik revolutionary and a public and political figure. One of the earliest professi ...

Johan August Lundell Johan August Lundell (25 July 1851 in Kläckeberga, Möre – 28 January 1940 in Uppsala) was a Swedish linguist, professor of Slavic languages at Uppsala University. He is known for his work on Swedish dialects and for developing ''Landsmål ...

, Jiří Polívka and J. J. Mikkola. However, his international impact remained small due to his limited written works. In 1895, Fortunatov published ''On Stress and Length in the Baltic Languages'', where he established a law, now known as Fortunatov–de Saussure's law, related to stress shift in the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

and Slavic languages. A street in Petrozavodsk is also named after Fortunatov.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortunatov, Filipp Fyodorovich 1848 births 1914 deaths Philologists from the Russian Empire Slavists Balticists Linguists of Indo-European languages 20th-century linguists People from Vologda Imperial Moscow University alumni Professorships at the Imperial Moscow University Full members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences