Editing Max Vasmer

{{Short description|Russian-German linguist (1886–1962)}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}

{{Infobox person
| image       = Max Vasmer.png
| imagesize   = 
| caption     = Vasmer in 1934
| name        = Max Vasmer
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1886|2|28|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Saint Petersburg]], Russia
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1962|11|30|1886|2|28|df=y}}
| death_place = [[West Berlin]], West Germany
| citizenship = Russia<br/>West Germany
| occupation  = {{hlist|Scholar of [[Slavic languages]] ([[Slavistics]])|[[philologist]]|[[lexicographer]]|[[etymologist]]}}
}}

'''Max Julius Friedrich Vasmer''' ({{IPA|de|ˈfasmɐ|lang}}; {{langx|ru|Максимилиан Романович Фасмер|Maksimilian Romanovich Fasmer}}; 28 February 1886 – 30 November 1962) was a Russian and German [[linguist]]. He studied problems of [[etymology]] in [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]], [[Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugric]] and [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] languages and worked on the history of [[Slavs|Slavic]], [[Balts|Baltic]], [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]], and Finno-Ugric peoples.

==Biography==
Max Vasmer was born on 28 February 1886 to German parents in [[Saint Petersburg]].{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}} Vasmer graduated from [[Saint Petersburg University]] in 1907 as a student of [[Jan Baudouin de Courtenay]] and [[Aleksey Shakhmatov]].{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}} From 1907 to 1908, he studied Greek dialects and the Albanian language in Greece.{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}} He continued to study at the universities of [[University of Krakow|Krakow]] and [[University of Vienna|Vienna]] from 1908 to 1910.{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}} 

From 1910, he delivered lectures and taught at the [[Bestuzhev Courses]] in 1912.{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}} During the [[Russian Civil War]] of 1917–1922, he worked in the universities of [[Saratov State University|Saratov]] (1917–1918) and [[University of Tartu|Dorpat]] (1918–1921). From 1921 to 1925, he taught at the [[University of Leipzig]], and from 1925 to 1945, he taught at the [[University of Berlin]].{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}} He also founded the journal ''Zeitschrift für slavische Philologie''.{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}}

In 1938–1939, he delivered lectures at [[Columbia University]] in New York City. It was there that he started to work on his ''magnum opus'', the {{ill|Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language|lt=''Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language''|ru|Этимологический словарь русского языка Макса Фасмера|WD=}}. He delivered the eulogy for Professor [[Aleksander Brückner]] in Berlin-[[Wilmersdorf]] in 1939 and he took over the chair of Slavistic studies at the University of Berlin.{{fact|date=March 2021}} In 1941, he published the book "The Slavs in Greece" (''Die Slaven in Griechenland'') and in 1944 the book "The Greek loanwords in Serbo-Croatian" (''Die griechischen Lehnwörter im Serbo-Kroatischen'').

In 1944, the bombing of Vasmer's house in Berlin destroyed most of his materials. Nevertheless, Vasmer persevered in his work, which was finally published in three volumes by [[Heidelberg University]] in 1950–1958 as {{lang |de|Russisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch}}. From 1947 to 1949, he taught at the [[Stockholm University]].{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}} He was the head of [[Slavic studies]] at the [[Free University of West Berlin]].{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}} Vasmer died in [[West Berlin]] on 30 November 1962.{{sfn|Kurkina|2017|p=207}}

The Russian translation of Vasmer's dictionary – with extensive commentaries by [[Oleg Trubachyov]] – was printed in 1964–1973. {{As of | 2015}}, it remains the most authoritative source for Slavic etymology. The Russian version is available on [[Sergei Starostin]]'s ''Tower of Babel'' web site.{{fact|date=March 2021}}

Another monumental work led by Max Vasmer involved the compilation of a multi-volume dictionary of Russian [[hydronym|names of rivers and other bodies of water]].<ref>"Wörterbuch der russischen Gewässernamen" (Dictionary of Russian [[Hydronym]]s); compiled by A. Kerndl, R. Richhardt, and W. Eisold, under leadership of Max Vasmer. [[Wiesbaden]], O. Harrassowitz, 1961</ref> He initiated an even grander project, completed by a team of workers after his death: the publication of a monumental (11 volumes) [[gazetteer]] that included virtually all names of populated places in Russia found both in pre-revolutionary and in Soviet sources.<ref>"Russisches geographisches Namenbuch" (The book of Russian Geographic Names), founded by Max Vasmer. Compiled by Ingrid Coper et al. [[Wiesbaden]], Atlas and Volumes 1–9. O. Harrassowitz, 1964–1981. The additional volume 11 appeared in 1988, {{ISBN|3-447-02851-3}}, and an additional atlas volume in 1989, {{ISBN|3-447-02923-4}}.</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Etymological dictionary]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last1=Kurkina |first1=L. V. |editor1-last=Kravets |editor1-first=S. L. |title=Болшая Российская энциклопедия. Том 33: Уланд — Хватцев |date=2017 |publisher=Болшая Российская энциклопедия |isbn=978-5-85270-370-5 |page=207 |language=ru |chapter=ФАСМЕР |url=https://old.bigenc.ru/linguistics/text/4706574}}

== External links ==
* [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/main.cgi?flags=eygtmnl Query the Russian dictionaries] at [[Sergei Starostin]]'s [http://starling.rinet.ru/main.html ''Tower of Babel'']

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasmer, Max}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:Saint Petersburg State University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:Russian people of German descent]]
[[Category:Etymologists]]
[[Category:20th-century German linguists]]
[[Category:Linguists from Russia]]
[[Category:Russian language]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University]]
[[Category:German Turkologists]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian scientists]]