Pent Nurmekund (16 December 190628 December 1996) was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

and

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...

. He could read over eighty languages.

Life

Nurmekund came from a poor peasant family and first attended school at the age of twelve. From 1930 to 1935, he studied

Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

and

Germanic philology Germanic philology is the philological study of the Germanic languages, particularly from a comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, with the discovery of literary t ...

Tartu University The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

, and graduated with a '' Magister Philosophiae''. In 1935, he became a founding member of the Estonian Oriental Society. From 1955 to 1986, he was a lecturer at Tartu University, and in the 1950s founded the Oriental department there. In 1991, he received the

Wiedemann Language Award Wiedemann Language Award ( et, Wiedemanni keelauhind, full name The State F. J. Wiedemann Language Award) is an Estonian state award which is granted each year to one natural person for outstanding merits upon study, organisation, teaching, promot ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nurmekund, Pent 1906 births 1996 deaths 20th-century linguists Academic staff of the University of Tartu Linguists from Estonia Multilingualism People from Saarde Parish University of Tartu alumni