Nikolai Anderson

{{Infobox scientist | name = Nikolai Anderson | image = Nikolai Anderson.jpg | image_size = 200px | caption = Nikolai Anderson around 1880 | birth_name = Nikolai Karl Adolf Anderson | birth_date = {{osd|6 October|1845|24 September}} | birth_place = Kulina, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire | death_date = {{osd|22 March|1905|9 March}} (aged 59) | death_place = Narva, Saint Petersburg Governorate, Russian Empire | resting_place = Yamburg | fields = Finno-Ugric languages | workplaces = University of Kazan | alma_mater = Imperial University of Dorpat | thesis_title = Studien zur Vergleichung der ugrofinnischen und indogermanischen Sprachen | thesis_url = http://hdl.handle.net/10062/5758 | thesis_year = 1879 | awards = Order of St. Anna, 3rd <ref name="rz1881">{{citation |author=  |date= 1881-03-25 |title= Inland |language= German |url= http://www.periodika.lv/periodika2-viewer/view/index-dev.html?lang=en#panel:pp%7Cissue:/p_003_rzei1881s01n038%7Carticle:DIVL30%7Cquery:Anderson%20Minsk%7CissueType:P |work= Rigasche Zeitung |volume= 38 |issue= 2 |location= Riga |access-date= 2015-09-06 |archive-date= 6 October 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141006114527/http://www.periodika.lv/periodika2-viewer/view/index-dev.html?lang=en#panel:pp%7Cissue:/p_003_rzei1881s01n038%7Carticle:DIVL30%7Cquery:Anderson%20Minsk%7CissueType:P |url-status= dead }}</ref> and 2nd class,<ref name="srk">{{citation |author =  |language = Russian |title = Формулярный списокь (service record): Николай Андерсон (Nikolai Anderson) |url = http://www.earchive-estlatrus.eu/web/guest/collections?p_p_id=earchivecatalog_WAR_earchiveportlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_pos=1&p_p_col_count=2&p_r_p_-714710835_view=document&_earchivecatalog_WAR_earchiveportlet_documentId=14697 |work = Oskar Nikolaevich Anderson (1907-1912) |publisher = Archives of the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute of the Emperor Peter the Great in the Central State Historical Archives of St. Petersburg |location = St. Petersburg |pages = 9–18 |access-date = 2016-06-15 |archive-date = 5 March 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305064715/http://www.earchive-estlatrus.eu/web/guest/collections?p_p_id=earchivecatalog_WAR_earchiveportlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_pos=1&p_p_col_count=2&p_r_p_-714710835_view=document&_earchivecatalog_WAR_earchiveportlet_documentId=14697 |url-status = dead }}</ref> Order of Saint Stanislaus, 2nd class,<ref name="srk"/> Order of Saint Vladimir, 4th class<ref name="srk"/> | academic_advisors = Leo Meyer | spouse = Adele Vogt<ref name="bbdl">{{Citation | contribution = Anderson, Nikolai Karl Adolf | contribution-url = https://bbld.de/0000000013333008 | title = BBLD – Baltisches biografisches Lexikon digital | url = https://bbld.de/ | publisher = Baltische Historische Kommission | location = Göttingen | year = 2012}}</ref> }}

'''Nikolai Karl Adolf Anderson''' ({{OldStyleDate|6 October|1845|24 September}} – {{OldStyleDate|22 March|1905|9 March}}) was a Baltic German philologist who lived in the Russian Empire. He specialized in comparative linguistics of Finno-Ugric languages.<ref name="bbdl" />

== Life == Anderson was born in the village of Kulina, Estonia, close to the town of Wesenberg. After receiving a private education in Saint Petersburg<ref name="svdrgg">{{Citation | last = Hradetzky | first = H. | title = Schüler-Verzeichnis des Revalschen Gouvernements-Gymnasiums: 1805-1890 | publisher = Kluge & Ströhm | place = Reval/Tallinn | year = 1931 | page = 151| hdl = 10062/39470}}</ref> he attended the Gouvernements-Gymnasium (Grammar School of the Governorate) in Reval<ref name="bbdl" /><ref name="svdrgg" /> and in 1865 he enrolled in the Imperial University of Dorpat to study philology,<ref name="aaud">{{Citation | last1 = Hasselblatt | first1 = A. | last2 = Otto | first2 = G. | url = http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00000433/image_594 | title = Album academicum der Kaiserlichen Universität Dorpat | publisher = Verlag C. Mattiesen | place = Dorpat | year = 1889 | page = 586}}</ref> where he was a student of Leo Meyer who in the same year had been appointed as the university's professor of Germanistics and Comparative philology.<ref name="schlueter">{{Citation |last = Schlüter | first = Wolfgang |contribution = Nekrolog: Prof. Mag. Nikolai Anderson (Obituary) |title = Sitzungsberichte der gelehrten estnischen Gesellschaft zu Dorpat 1905|publisher = Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft (Dorpat) |pages = XII–XVI | year = 1906| hdl = 10062/20907 }}</ref> While at university he became interested in Finno-Ugric languages and quickly became an expert in the field.

In 1871 Anderson worked as an hourly paid teacher at the Gymnasium in Dorpat before taking up a post as teacher for classical languages at the Gymnasium in Minsk (now in Belarus) in 1872,<ref name="aaud"/> but he continued his studies of Finno-Ugric languages in his spare time. In 1874, he got married and soon started a family.<ref name="bbdl"/> Nikolai Anderson's three sons were Wilhelm Anderson (born 1880),<ref>{{Citation|last1 = Kuusk|first1 = P.|last2 = Martinson|first2 = I.| title = Tartu astrofüüsik Wilhelm Anderson | url=http://muuseum.to.ee/Reprints/HTML/wilhelm_robert_karl_anderson.htm | journal = Akadeemia | volume = 2 | pages = 358–375 | year=1997 | accessdate=9 March 2013}}</ref> Walter Anderson (born 1885),<ref>{{Citation | contribution = Anderson, Walter Arthur Alexander | contribution-url = https://bbld.de/000000011031540X | title = BBLD – Baltisches biografisches Lexikon digital | url = https://bbld.de/ | publisher = Baltische Historische Kommission | location = Göttingen | year = 2012}}</ref> and Oskar Anderson (born 1887),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Seneta | first = Eugene William | title = Oskar Anderson | encyclopedia = StatProb: The Encyclopedia Sponsored by Statistics and Probability Societies | url = http://statprob.com/encyclopedia/OskarANDERSON.html | publisher = Springer Science+Business Media, LLC | year = 2010 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20131029194000/http://statprob.com/encyclopedia/OskarANDERSON.html | archivedate = 29 October 2013 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> who all went on to choose academic careers.

In 1876 Anderson submitted the results of his research, comparing Finno-Ugric and Indo-Germanic languages to the University of Tartu, for which he was awarded a degree in Comparative philology. Still working as a teacher in Minsk, he continued his research, and in 1891 he gained a Magister degree in Comparative Linguistics.<ref name="schlueter"/> In 1892 his mentor Leo Meyer nominated Anderson for an honorary membership of the Learned Estonian Society (Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft),<ref name="schlueter"/> a corresponding member of which he had been since 1871,<ref name="bm">{{Citation | author = Bernhard Munkácsi | contribution = Nikolai Anderson | contribution-url = https://archive.org/details/keletiszemlekzl00akadgoog | title = Keleti Szemle | volume = 6 | pages = 180–181 | year = 1905}}</ref> which was granted to Anderson in the same year.

In January 1894 Anderson was offered a professorship in Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Kazan (Russia) to replace Mihkel Veske,<ref name="ens">{{Citation | author = Emil Nestor Setälä | contribution = † Nikolai Anderson | contribution-url = https://archive.org/details/finnischugrische05helsuoft | title = Anzeiger der Finnisch-ugrischen Forschungen | volume = 5 | pages = 187–189 | year = 1905}}</ref> which he accepted, as this allowed him to take up an academic career that would allow him more time for his research. As a professor he had the rank of ''Статский советник'' (State Councillor), meaning that he held personal nobility in the Imperial Russian hierarchy.<ref name="schlueter" />

In 1898 Anderson fell ill with a nervous disorder and was hospitalized for several months in Tartu. In 1904 he relapsed and was once again hospitalized. After his condition improved in early 1905 he visited his sister in Narva, where he fell ill with pleurisy and died shortly thereafter.<ref name="schlueter"/> Anderson was buried with his parents in Yamburg.<ref name="bbdl"/><ref name="schlueter"/><ref name="rafikova">{{Cite journal|last1 = Рафикова (Rafikova)|first1 = Г. (G.)|last2 = Ибрагимова (Ibrahimova)|first2 = Ф. (F.)| title = Биографика Казанского университета: Андерсоны (Kazan University Biography: Anderson)|language= ru| url=http://echovek.ru/ru/article/g-rafikova-f-ibragimova-biografika-kazanskogo-universitetaandersony |url-access=subscription | journal = «Гасырлар авазы – Эхо веков» | volume = 2016 1/2 | year=2016 }}</ref>

== Works ==

In his work, Anderson not only compared different Finno-Ugric languages but also argued for a genetic relationship between Finno-Ugric and Indo-Germanic languages, making him one of the first scholars to investigate possible links between these two language families.<ref>{{Citation | last = Pedersen | first = Holger | others = translated by John Webster Spargo | title = Linguistic Science in the Nineteenth Century: Methods and Results | publisher = Harvard University Press | place = Cambridge, Massachusetts | year = 1931}}</ref> At the time of his death, Anderson was the only professor for Finno-Ugric languages in the Russian Empire.<ref name="bm"/>

* {{Citation |last = Anderson | first = Nikolai | title = Probe einer vergleichenden Grammatik der ugrofinnischen und indogermanischen Sprachen| year = 1876}} * {{Citation |last = Anderson | first = Nikolai | title = Studien zur Vergleichung der ugrofinnischen und indogermanischen Sprachen|publisher = H. Laakmann (Dorpat) | orig-date = 1879 | year = 1891| hdl = 10062/5758 | type = Thesis }} * {{Citation |last = Anderson | first = Nikolai |title = Wandlungen der anlautenden dentalen Spirans im Ostjakischen |series = Mémoires de l'Académie impériale des sciences de St.-Pétersbourg | url = https://archive.org/details/mmoiresdel74018921893impe |publisher = Imperial Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg) | year = 1893}}

==Honours and awards== * 30px|link=Order of St. Anna Imperial Russian Order of St. Anna, 3rd class (awarded 1877) <ref name="rz1881"/><ref name="srk"/> * 30px|link=Order of Saint Stanislaus (House of Romanov) Imperial Russian Order of Saint Stanislaus, 2nd class (awarded 1885) <ref name="srk"/> * 30px|link=Order of St. Anna Imperial Russian Order of St. Anna, 2nd class (awarded 1889) <ref name="srk"/> * 30px|link=Order of St. Vladimir Imperial Russian Order of Saint Vladimir, 4th class (awarded 1904) <ref name="srk"/>

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Nikolai}} Category:1845 births Category:1905 deaths Category:People from Vinni Parish Category:People from Kreis Wierland Category:Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire Category:Philologists from the Russian Empire Category:Russian people of German descent Category:19th-century Estonian educators Category:Historical linguists Category:Linguists of Indo-Uralic languages Category:University of Tartu alumni Category:Academic staff of Kazan Federal University

Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 2nd class Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class Category:19th-century Estonian writers