Lars Johanson (born 8 March 1936 in

Köping ''Köping'' was a Swedish denomination for a market town since the Middle Ages, derived from the Old Norse word '' kaupang''. The designation was officially abolished with the municipal reform of 1971, when Sweden was subdivided into the Munic ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) is a Swedish Turcologist and linguist, an emeritus professor at the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

, and docent at the Department of Linguistics and Philology,

University of Uppsala Uppsala University (UU) () is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially founded in the 15th century, the university rose to s ...

, Sweden. He has been instrumental in transforming the field of Turcology, which was traditionally more philologically oriented, into a linguistic discipline. Apart from his contributions to Turcology, Lars Johanson made a number of pioneering contributions to general linguistics and language typology, in particular to the typology of tense and aspect systems and the theory of language contact. In the period of 1966–2022 he published about 400 titles, books and scholarly articles. His most important books are ''Aspekt im Türkischen'' ('Viewpoint aspect' in Turkish), published in 1971, and ''Structural factors in Turkic language contacts'', published in 2002. His most recent publication,
Turkic
' (Cambridge University Press 2021), constitutes a monumental thousand-page survey of all the Turkic languages in their synchronic, diachronic, typological, areal and cultural dimensions. Chief Editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of Turkic Languages and Linguistics, to be published online in 2022 by Brill. In 2022 he and Éva Á. Csató published the second revised edition of the standard reference boo
The Turkic Languages
(Routledge). He has numerous publications also on Turkish literature. He was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Republic of Turkey Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * ...

. He earned his undergraduate and doctoral degree in Turkic Studies at the

. For many years he was a professor of Turcology at the Department of Oriental Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg

. Currently he is an emeritus professor at the University of Mainz and a senior lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and Philology,

, Sweden. A symposium in March 2016 celebrated his career achievements. He is the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of ''

Turkic Languages The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic langua ...

''.

Early life

He was born in 1936 in

, Sweden. In 1956–1959 he studied German and Scandinavian languages, Sanskrit and Turcology at the

. In 1961 he took an MA exam in German, Scandinavian languages and Slavic Languages at the same university and in 1963 in Turkic languages. In 1966 he took a doctoral degree ("filosofie licentiat") in Turkic Languages at the University of Uppsala with a thesis "Studien zur reichstürkischen Verbalsyntax".

Professional career

* In 1971, he successfully obtained his degree of '

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

' at the University of Uppsala, based on his thesis '"Aspekt im Türkischen"

* In 1981 he was appointed professor in Turcology at the

Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

. He has been invited as a visiting professor to several universities and research institutes: * 1997-1998 ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies * 2001 Resident at the Swedish Collegium of Advanced Study * 2001 Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Melbourn

* 2002 Sonderforschungsbereich 295 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft,

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

* 2002 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig * 2003-2004 guest professor at Bosporus University, Istanbul oğaziçi University* 2006 Resident at the Swedish Collegium of Advanced Study (The Image of Man in Linguistics) * 2006

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

, Japan * 2006 Yakutsk Academy of Sciences,

Yakutsk Yakutsk ( ) is the capital and largest city of Sakha, Russia, located about south of the Arctic Circle. Fueled by the mining industry, Yakutsk has become one of Russia's most rapidly growing regional cities, with a population of 355,443 at the ...

* 2008-2018 Central University of Nationalities, Beijing (Minzu)

Minzu University of China The Minzu University of China (MUC) is a national public university in Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the National Ethnic Affairs Commission of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construc ...

* 2008

University of Szeged The University of Szeged () is a Public university, public research university in Szeged, Hungary. Established as the Jesuit Academy of Kolozsvár in present-day Cluj-Napoca in 1581, the institution was re-established as a university in 1872 by ...

, Hungary * 2009-2010 General Linguistics at the University of Zürich

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

Several Festschriften have been dedicated to Lars Johanson: * 1996 Berta, Árpád, Brendemoen, Bernt and Schönig, Claus (eds.) ''Symbolae Turcologicae: Studies in honour of Lars Johanson on his sixtieth birthday 8 March'' * 1996.'' Stockholm : Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (Transactions 6.) Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. '' * 2002 Demir, Nurettin & Turan, Fikret (eds.) ''Scholarly depth and accuracy. A festschrift to Lars Johanson.'' Ankara. . * 2010 Boeschoten, Hendrik and Rentzsch, Julian (eds.) ''Turcology in Mainz.'' (Turcologica 82.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. . * 2011 Robbeets, Martine and Cuyckens, Robert (eds.) ''Shared Grammaticalization. With special focus on the Transeurasian Languages.'' (Studies in Language Companion Series 132.) Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamin
- catalog/books/slcs.132/main
He is a member of the "Permanent International Altaistic Conference", "Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft an der Universität Frankfurt", Honorary Member of the " Körösi Csoma Society", Budapes

Societas Uralo-Altaica, the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala and Honorary Member of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS)

Central Eurasian Studies Society The Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) is a North American-based society for scholars concerned with the Central Eurasian region. The society seeks to "promote high standards of research and teaching, and to foster communication among scholar ...

Awards

* 1988 Research Award of the Turkish Language Association

Turkish Language Association The Turkish Language Association (, TDK) is the List of language regulators, regulatory body for the Turkish language, founded on 12 July 1932 by the initiative of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey. The Institution acts as ...

* 1999 Doctor honoris causa of the University of Szege

* 2004 Turkic World, Turkic Languages Order of Merit (Türk Dünyası Türk Dili Şeref Ödülü), Türk Kültürüne Hizmet Vakf�

* 2008 Order of Merits of the Republic of Turkey ( :tr:Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Liyakat Nişan)

Publications

* 1971. ''Aspekt im Türkischen. Vorstudien zu einer Beschreibung des türkeitürkischen Aspektsystems''. Studia Turcica Upsaliensia 1. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell. * 1979. ''Alttürkisch als ‘dissimilierende Sprache’.'' Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, Geistes- und sozialwissenschaftliche Klasse, 1979: 3. Wiesbaden: Steiner. * 1981. ''Pluralsuffixe im Südwesttürkischen.''Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, Geistes- und sozialwissenschaftliche Klasse, 1981: 9. Wiesbaden: Steiner. * 1991. ''Linguistische Beiträge zur Gesamturkologie''. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. * 1992. ''Strukturelle Faktoren in türkischen Sprachkontakten.'' Sitzungsberichte der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der J. W. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, 29:5. Stuttgart: Steiner. * 1998. with Csató, Éva Á. (eds.) ''The Turkic Languages''. London: Routledge. Second edition 2006 * 2001. ''Discoveries on the Turkic linguistic map.'' (Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, Publications 5.) Stockholm: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. * 2002. ''Structural factors in Turkic language contacts''. ith an introduction by Bernard Comrie.London: Curzon. * 2010. with Robbeets, Martine (eds.) Transeurasian verbal morphology in a comparative perspective: genealogy, contact, chance. (Turcologica 78.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. * 2012 with Robbeets, Martine (eds.) ''Copies versus cognates in bound morphology''. (Brill's Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture 2.) Leiden: Brill. * 2016 with Éva Á. Csató et al. (eds.) ''Turks and Iranians: Interactions in Language and History. The Gunnar Jarring Memorial Program at The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study''. (Turcologica 105.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. , * 2021 ''Turkic''. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * 2022 ''The Turkic Languages'' 2nd revised edition. London and New York: Routledge. * 2023 ''Code Copying. The Strength of Languages in Take-over and Carry-over Roles'' (Brill's Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture 38). Leiden: Brill. url=https://brill.com/display/title/65039 * 2023 ''Aspect in the Languages of Europe'' Ankara: Nobel. * 2023 (Editor-in-Chief) Encyclopedia of Turkic Languages and Linguistics Online. Leiden: Brill. url=https://brill.com/search?q1=Encyclopedia+of+Turkic+Languages+and+Linguistics+Online * 2024 ''Om min penna ägde kraften … En blick tillbaka på turkisk litteratur och kultur'' f my pen had the power ... Looking back on Turkish Literature and Culture Stockholm: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. ISBN 978-91-8984020-1 url=https://srii.bokorder.se/tr-TR/article/5014/om-min-penna-agde-kraften

References

Sources

# Süer Eker, Yayın Değerlendirme: Lars Johanson (2002)- Türk Dili Haritası Üzerinde Keşifler Bilig, Sayı 265, Kış 2014 # Gunnar Jarring, İsveç’te Türkoloji Araştırmaları, Manas Journal

External links

Britannica profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johanson, Lars Linguists of Turkic languages Academic staff of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Linguists from Sweden Uppsala University alumni Historical linguists Living people 1936 births People from Köping, Sweden