Sergei Lvovich Nikolaev (; born 25 December 1954) is a Russian

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 ...

, specialist in comparative historical linguistics, Slavic accentology and dialectology. He is the author of a number of books and articles on

Indo-European studies Indo-European studies () is a field of linguistics and an interdisciplinary field of study dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct. The goal of those engaged in these studies is to amass information about the hypothetical p ...

, accentology, and Slavic dialectology. Nikolaev is a

Doctor of Sciences A Doctor of Sciences, abbreviated д-р наук or д. н.; ; ; ; is a higher doctoral degree in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and many Commonwealth of Independent States countries. One of the prerequisites of receiving a Doctor of Sciences ...

in Philological Sciences. He is also a major figure in the

Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics The Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics (also called the Nostratic languages, Nostratic School) is a school of linguistics based in Moscow, Russia that is known for its work in . Formerly based at Moscow State University, it is currently cente ...

Biography

Nikolaev graduated from the philological faculty of

Tver State University Tver State University () is university in the city of Tver, the oldest and one of the largest universities in the Tver Oblast, Tver region. Tver State University was founded in 1870 by public figure and teacher P.P. Maksimovich as the Tver Women ...

and

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

. Since 1986, he has worked at the Institute for Slavic and Balkan studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1987, he has been the head of regular dialectological expeditions in the area of East Slavic

subdialect Subdialect (from Latin , "under", and Ancient Greek , ''diálektos'', "discourse") is a linguistic term designating a dialectological category between the levels of dialect and idiolect. Subdialects are basic subdivisions of a dialect. Subdialect ...

s. In 1992, he received a

doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

with a dissertation comprising the totality of his works, and now heads the group of Slavic glottogenesis.

Contribution to linguistics

Sergei Nikolaev is a specialist in Slavic and Indo-European comparative historical linguistics. The scope of studies covers Slavic,

Balto-Slavic The Balto-Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family of languages, traditionally comprising the Baltic languages, Baltic and Slavic languages. Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits ...

and Indo-European historical accentology, comparative

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

North Caucasian languages The North Caucasian languages, sometimes called simply Caucasic, is a proposed language family consisting of a pair of well established language families spoken in the Caucasus, predominantly in the north, consisting of the Northwest Caucasian ...

, hypothetical Sino-Caucasian macro-family of languages, hypothetical

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

macro-family. Nikolaev connects the linguogeography and historical dialectology of Slavic languages with the problems of . In East Slavic dialectology, he established a number of the oldest (Late Proto-Slavic) dialect

isogloss An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistics, linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a ...

es. Reconstruction of the placement of these isoglossae on the territory of the oldest Slavic settlement showed their connection with the archaeological areas of large Proto-Slavic tribal associations. As a result of the field studies of the East Slavic dialects, the Institute has collected an East Slavic phonetic library and an archive of

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

recordings. Nikolaev is the author of the etymological dictionary of

(together with

Sergei Starostin Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin (; March 24, 1953 – September 30, 2005) was a Russian historical linguistics, historical linguist and philology, philologist, perhaps best known for his reconstructions of hypothetical proto-languages, including hi ...

), one of the authors of the series "Fundamentals of Slavic accentology", a participant in the international Internet projects "Evolution of language" and "tower of Babel" (etymological databases; he created a comparative database on Indo-European languages and databases on

Finno-Ugric Finno-Ugric () is a traditional linguistic grouping of all languages in the Uralic languages, Uralic language family except for the Samoyedic languages. Its once commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is based on criteria formulated in ...

and Amerindian languages). For more than 20 years, Nikolaev has been the leader and organizer of complex linguistic expeditions to the East Slavic dialects (the Carpathians, the Russian Northwest,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, Polesie) and to the archaic Old

Shtokavian Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige supradialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin stand ...

dialects of the

Serbo-Croatian language Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutuall ...

(

Slavonia Slavonia (; ) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria County, Istria, one of the four Regions of Croatia, historical regions of Croatia. Located in the Pannonian Plain and taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with f ...

, together with Croatian colleagues), author of special field programs on East Slavic historical dialectology. Nikolaev was nominated three times as a Corresponding Member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. In 2004, he was awarded the Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society (

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

). In 2014, after placing the accents, Nikolaev confirmed (with a significant transformation and many clarifications) 's idea of syncretic polyrhythm in ''

The Tale of Igor's Campaign ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' or ''The Tale of Ihor's Campaign'' () is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'' ...

''.''Nikolaev, S. L.'' (2014)
Лексическая стратификация «Слова о полку Игореве»
International Journal of Slavic Studies ''Slověne = Словѣне''; №2.

Contribution to the study of butterflies

As a boy, he first discovered in 1968 a significant population of '' Polyommatus damone'' in the Altai. In 1970, in

Tuva Tuva (; ) or Tyva (; ), officially the Republic of Tyva,; , is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. Tuva lies at the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders the Federal subjects of Russia, federal sub ...

, he caught two new

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

of the

Satyrinae The Satyrinae, the satyrines or satyrids, commonly known as the browns, are a subfamily of the Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies). They were formerly considered a distinct family, Satyridae. This group contains nearly half of the known divers ...

genus '' Oeneis'' (described by Yuri Korshunov as '' Oeneis judini'' and '' O. shurmaki''). During 1980–1985, he collected a large collection of

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

in the

Tver Oblast Tver Oblast (, ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was known as Kalinin Oblast (). Population: Tver Oblast is a region of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno. Much o ...

, now located in the Siberian Zoological Museum, and described the presumably new taxon '' Erebia polonina''. Together with Yuri Korshunov, he wrote articles on North Asian '' Oeneis'' and ''

Erebia ''Erebia'' is a Holarctic genus of brush-footed butterflies, family (biology), family Nymphalidae. Most of the about 90–100 species (see also #Taxonomy and systematics, below) are dark brown or black in color, with reddish-brown to orang ...

'' (the last article includes ''E. polonina'').

References

Notes

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nikolaev, Sergei Linguists from Russia Linguists from the Soviet Union 1954 births Living people Linguists of Slavic languages Historical linguists Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Long-range comparative linguists Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics