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Vilhelm ThomsenDanish linguist
Date of Birth: 25.01.1842
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Biography of Vilhelm Thomsen
Vilhelm Thomsen (1842-1927) was a Danish linguist who made significant contributions to the study of various languages. He was born on January 25, 1842, in Copenhagen. Thomsen studied at the University of Copenhagen, where he later obtained his doctoral degree and worked as an associate professor from 1871. He became a full professor in 1887 and served in this position until his retirement in 1913. In 1902, Thomsen was elected as the president of the university, and in 1909, he became the president of the Danish Royal Society of Sciences. He was also an honorary foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences from 1894. Vilhelm Thomsen passed away in Copenhagen on March 12, 1927.
Contributions to Linguistics
Thomsen was known for his work in the field of linguistics, particularly in the study of Indo-European languages. However, he did not limit himself to this area and also devoted much of his research to the historical study of Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Caucasian, and other languages. His early notable works focused on the contacts between Germanic and Baltic-Finnic languages and the identification of Germanic influences on the Finnish language, such as his work "On the Influence of Germanic Languages on Finnish" (1869). Thomsen also explored the connections between Finnish and Baltic languages in his publication "Connections between the Finnish and Baltic (Lithuanian-Latvian) Languages" (1891). His most famous achievement was the decipherment of ancient Turkic Orkhon-Yenisei inscriptions, initially decrypted by the Russian Turkologist V.V. Radlov (1837-1918). Thomsen published his findings in the works "Decipherment of Orkhon and Yenisei Inscriptions, Preliminary Report" (1893) and "Inscriptions of the Orkhon" (1896). Additionally, Thomsen proposed a hypothesis regarding the relationship between the Etruscan language and Eastern Caucasian languages. He also authored a comprehensive essay on the development of linguistics in the 19th century, which was highly influential during his time. Thomsen's interests extended beyond linguistics, as he also delved into historical research, supporting the Norman theory of the origin of the Russian statehood.