Johann Erich Thunmann or Johannes or Hans (23 August 1746 — 17 December 1778) was a linguist, historian and theologian born in Thoresund (Södermanland) in Sweden. He studied at

Strängnäs Strängnäs is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Strängnäs Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 15,363 inhabitants in 2020. It is located by Lake Mälaren and is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Strängnäs, one of t ...

and

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 ...

then left Sweden to study at

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg. In 2021 it surpa ...

. Thunmann was professor of philosophy at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

"Eastern Europeans"

Thunmann made extensive study of the peoples of

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

. He was the first author to use the term "Eastern Europeans" in a book title, in his ''Untersuchungen über die Geschichte der östlichen europäischen Völker'', 1774. Thunmann's work served as a liberal agenda for nations without

nation state A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the State (polity), state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly ...

s. Thunmann was one of the scientists who did not believe that Bulgarians are Slavs, or at least not "pure Slavs". He believed that

Vlach Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula) ...

s are descendants of old

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

and

Dacian tribes This is a list of ancient tribes in Thrace and Dacia () including possibly or partly Thracians, Thracian or Dacians, Dacian tribes, and non-Thracian or non-Dacian tribes that inhabited the lands known as Thrace and Dacia. A great number of Ancient ...

or Getic people. In 1825, based also on Thunmann's works,

Mikhail Pogodin Mikhail Petrovich Pogodin (; ) was a Russian historian and journalist who, jointly with Nikolay Ustryalov, dominated the national historiography between the death of Nikolay Karamzin in 1826 and the rise of Sergey Solovyov in the 1850s. He is ...

wrote his thesis "On the origins of the Rus'" which supports the

Normanist theory Normanism and anti-Normanism are competing groups of theories about the origin of Kievan Rus' that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries concerning the narrative of the Viking Age in Eastern Europe. At the centre of the disagreement is the o ...

of Russian origins.

Albanians

Thunmann was one of the most important early authors writing about the language and origin of

Albanians The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...

. The first serious attempts to present scientific explanation of the origin of Albanians began with Thunmann. He believed that in terms of history and language, the Albanians and the

Aromanians The Aromanians () are an Ethnic groups in Europe, ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian language, Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgari ...

were the least known European peoples in Western Europe. Thunmann was the first scholar to disseminate the theory about the autochthonous

and to present the Illyrian theory of the origin of Albanians. Thunmann researched the origin of the term "Skipatar", the term Albanians use as their ethnic name. In 1774 Thunmann republished a three-language (

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

and Aromanian) lexicon Theodor Kavalioti first published in 1770, and later added a Latin translation. Thunmann believed in Illyro-

unity.

Bibliography

Thunmann's notable works include: * * * * * - reprint

References

External links

''Über die Geschichte und Sprache der Albaner und der Wlachen'' (On the History and Language of the Albanians and Vlachs), Leipzig 1774
English translation published on the website of

Robert Elsie Robert Elsie (June 29, 1950 – October 2, 2017) was a Canadian-born German scholar who specialized in Albanian literature and folklore. Elsie was a writer, translator, interpreter, and specialist in Albanian studies, being the author of numero ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thunmann, Johann Erich 1746 births 1778 deaths Philosophy academics 18th-century Swedish historians Linguists from Sweden Swedish theologians University of Halle alumni Swedish albanologists Aromanian studies 18th-century Protestant theologians People from Strängnäs Municipality