(Ostenek Alexander Voldemar) (03/16/1781, Arensburg, Livonia Province - 02/08/1864, St. Petersburg), Slavic philologist, poet, paleographer, archeographer, academician, in the PB 1815-44.
Illegitimate son of Baron X. I. Osten-Saken. He was educated in the land gentry cadet, corps (1788-94) and Acad. Arts (1894-1903), where he became friends with A. I. Ermolaev m. From 1801 he began to print poetry. In 1801 - member. Islands of lovers of the elegant, will soon be renamed. in VOLSNH. Published in "The Scroll of the Muses" (Book 2, 1893), ed. O-vom. In 1809 he finished tr. "Etymological vocabulary". Scientific searches in versification subsequently took shape in the book. "Experience on Russian versification" (1817). In 1803 he began serving in the Acad. pom. b-rya. Under the influence of Ermolaev, he began to study the Slavs, yaz. and monuments of the ancient Slavs. writing.
In 1804 he moved to the service of an interpreter in Komis. according to comp. laws, where he worked until May 1824, at the same time in 1811 he was a translator in Dep. heraldry.
Dec 1 1815 admitted to the staff of the PB, worked in it for almost 29 years: in 1815-28 pom. custodian of the Depot of Manuscripts, and from July 12, 1828 to March 15, 1844 - custodian. Work in B-ke expanded his scientific. opportunities for the study of the Slavs, yaz. and paleography. In 1820 his Discourses on the Slavic Language appeared. He took part in the acquisition and description of manuscripts, while serving readers, he performed scientific. consultations, took part in round-the-clock duty. At the request of many scientists copied manuscripts for them. In 1821 he made a register of "rare and curious manuscripts". Corrected all descriptions in previous inventories. He proved the impossibility of distributing manuscripts according to bibliogr. system of A. N. Olenin, proposed his own system - to arrange the manuscript. book. in lang. in the alphabet of auto., anonymous - in the alphabet of objects. In the 1830s, he was also assigned the head. printed books. On him. and Polish. lang. and duties of a secret; from 1843 he conducted "current affairs in foreign languages." He took an active part in the "Bibliographic sheets" (1825-26), ed. P.I. Koeppen. March 15, 1844 dismissed from the PB.
From May 1824 to May 1844 he worked in the Rumyantsev Museum, first as the personal library of N. P. Rumyantsev, then Art. b-rem and from March 22, 1828 - ch. museum curator. Wrote a project ex. museum, brought to Alf. and chronol. the order is all manuscript. book. and manuscripts. In 1842 the "Description of Russian and Slovene Manuscripts of the Rumyantsev Museum" was published. Resigned from the museum May 15, 1844.
On the instructions of M-va nar. education prepared "Abbreviated Russian grammar for use in lower educational institutions"(1831) and" Russian grammar. According to the outline of an abbreviated grammar, more fully stated "(1831), which received the Demidov Prize. In 1843 he published the Ostromir Gospel with a "word index" and "Grammar Rules of the Slavic Language, Extracted from the Ostromir Gospel". The publication was also awarded the Demidov Prize. Published 2 v. "Dictionary of the Church Slavonic language" (1858, 1861), "Grammar of the Church Slavonic language, set out according to the most ancient written monuments thereof."
From 1820 - member. Ros. acad. In 1826 he was elected Corresponding Member. Academy of Sciences, in 1841-ordinary, acad. From 1839 - member. and Ch. ed. Archaeological comis. Honor, prof. Tubingen University, member. Russian Department of the Copenhagen Royal Island North. Antiquary, Dr. of the Prague Charles University, member. Islands of History and Antiquities of Yugoslavia, member. Islands of Serbian literature, honor, member. Moscow and Kharkov University.
Awarded with orders: Vladimir 2nd, 3rd and 4th degree, Anna 1st and 2nd degree, Anna 2nd degree, decoration. imp. crown. He had the rank of D. Art. owls.
Buried at the Volkovsky cemetery. In Petersburg.
Op.: Lyrical experiments and other small compositions in verse (In 2 hours of St. Petersburg, 1805-06; 2nd ed.: In 3 books, 1821); Experience in Russian versification (St. Petersburg, 1817); Discourse on the Slavic language (St. Petersburg, 1820); Russian grammar. According to the outline of an abbreviated grammar, more fully stated (St. Petersburg, 1831; 3rd ed. 1838); Description of Russian and Slovenian manuscripts of the Rumyantsev Museum (St. Petersburg, 1842); Dictionary of the Church Slavonic language. T. 1-2 (St. Petersburg, 1858-61); Grammar of the Church Slavonic language, expounded on the basis of its most ancient written monuments (St. Petersburg, 1863); Philological observations (St. Petersburg, 1865); Correspondence of A. Kh. Vostokov in time order / Note. I. Sreznevsky // Sat. ORAS. 1868. Vol. 5, no. 2; Notes by A. Kh. Vostokov about his life // Ibid. 1902. Vol. 70, No. 6; Unpublished translations from Goethe //LN. 1932. Vol. 4-6; Poems (M., 1935); Poems. Tell in verse. Bohemian songs. Serbian songs // Radishchevtsy poets. L., 1952; Serbian songs of Alexander Vostokov / Per. R. Marojevic (Gornji Milanovac, 1987).
Bibliography: Sreznevsky V. I. Time-based index of scientific printed works of Vostokov // Vostokov A. X. Philological observations. Pb., 1865; His own. List of poems by A. Kh. Vostokov // Sat. ORAS. 1902. Vol. 70, No. 6.
Ref.: TSB; CLE; Brockhaus; Vengerov. Sources; East Slavic linguists. Minsk, 1976; Gennady. Literature; Gennady. Dictionary; Bibliology; Mezhov. Story; Muratova (1); NES; Rus. writers; Slavic studies.
Lit.: Pletnev P.A. Ivan Andreevich Krylov //Contemporary. 1845. V. 37, No. 1; Karelkin N. P. Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov, his scientist and literary activity//Oz. 1855. Vol. 98, No. 1, sec. 2; Sukhomlinov M. I. History of the Russian Academy. T. 7. St. Petersburg, 1885; Kochubinsky A. A. Admiral Shishkov and Chancellor gr. Rumyantsev: Began, years Rus. Slavic studies. Odessa, 1887-88; Sobolytsikov V. I. Memoirs of an old librarian // IV. 1889. V. 38, No. 10; Petukhov E. Several new data from the scientific and literary activities of A. Kh. Vostokov // ZhMNP. 1890. No. 3, sec. 2; Grot Ya. K. A. X. Vostokov // Slav, review. 1892. No. 4; Ikonnikov; Maykov L. N. To the biography of A. X. Vostokov. SPb., 1896; Sreznevsky V. I. Notes on Vostokov's poems relating to his life // In memory of L. N. Maykov. St. Petersburg, 1902; I. V. Yagich. History of Slavic Philology; SPb., 1910; Rozanov I. A. Vostokov // Rozanov I. Russian lyrics. M., 1914; Sobolevsky A. I. In memory of A "X. Vostokova // Izv. P. General history and its representatives in Russia in the 19th and early 20th centuries Ch. 1. L., 1929; Sergievsky I. Vostokov and Gnedich // Lit. review 1936. No. 11; Derzhavin N. S. Contribution of the Russian people in world science in the field of Slavic philology // Uch. app. Moscow university 1946. Vol. 3, book. 2, no. 107; Orlov V. N. Russian enlighteners, 1790-1800. M., 1953; Zeitlin R. M. Brief essay history of Russian lexicography. M., 1958; Konovalova M. N. A. Kh. Vostokov - librarian of the Public Library: (On the 100th anniversary of his death) //Tr. /GPB. 1964. Vol. 12; Amirova T. A., Olkhovikov B. A., Rozhdestvensky Yu. V. Essays on the history of linguistics. M., 1975; Priyma F. Ya. "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" in the Russian Historical and Literary Process of the First Third of the 19th Century. M., 1980; Golubeva O. D. Keepers of wisdom. M., 1988; Her own. What did the autographs say? SPb., 1991.
100th anniversary. pp. 142-43.
Necr.: Sev. mail. May 6, 1864; News. Apr 12; Day. Feb 22; Grotto Ya. K. Vostokov's funeral. SPb., 1864.
Arch.: Arch. RNB. F. 1, op. 1, 1815, No. 14; RGALI. F. 1237; PFA RAS. F. 108.
Iconography: Munster; Rovinsky; Adaryukov; Rus. writers.
O. D. Golubeva
Vostokov Alexander Khristoforovich
AT Ostokov Alexander Khristoforovich - a famous philologist. Born in Ahrensburg, on the island of Ezele, March 16, 1781 in the German Ostenek family. His original spoken language was German; but for seven years he knew Russian and listened to the tales of the garrison sergeant Savely. Given to the St. Petersburg land gentry corps, he became completely Russified and had been writing poetry for 13 years. He showed great ability, but his stuttering hindered him a lot. In view of this, the authorities transferred him in 1794 to the Academy of Arts, where he learned French. After completing the course, he was left for three years as a boarder; but he was not at all attracted to art. In the journals of the Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts (see XI, 535), of which he became a member in 1801, his first literary and scientific works appeared. His poems were collected and published under the title: "Lyrical Experiences" (St. Petersburg, 1805 - 1806; new edition 1821). They are artistically very weak, although they are not devoid of thought and sometimes animation, as, for example, "To Harpocrates"; Vostokov's unsuccessful attempt to write with those meters that were used in classical poetry is curious. The critical articles of Vostokov, which he wrote as a "censor" of society and which were extracted from journals, are also of little importance; parsing concerns only the correctness or incorrectness of any expression. He served in the Commission for drafting laws, in the Public Library and in the Department of Spiritual Affairs. Already in 1803, he began to study the monuments of Old Russian and Church Slavonic languages. In 1810, he was already well acquainted with such monuments as Russkaya Pravda, Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh, Nestor's Chronicle, The Tale of Igor's Campaign, and Svyatoslav's Collection of 1076. In 1810, he read (probably in the company of lovers of literature) his translation of Dobrovsky's notes on Schlozer's discussions on the Old Church Slavonic language, supplied with his own notes. In 1808, he added to the "Concise Guide to Russian Grammar" several notes, revealing the future detailed and accurate observer and descriptor of linguistic facts. In the "St. Petersburg Bulletin" in 1812, he placed "An Experience on Russian Versification", which was published separately (St. Petersburg, 1817). Here, for the first time, Vostokov quite correctly determined the size, that is, the stress in folk verse. In 1820, Vostokov's work appeared, which gave him European fame: "Discourse on the Slavic language, which serves as an introduction to the grammar of this language" (in "Proceedings of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature at Moscow University", vol. XVII). Here Vostokov indicated the chronological place of the monuments of the Church Slavonic language, determined its differences from Old Russian, indicated the meaning of nasal and voiceless vowels, the use of wide vowels after backlingual ones, the presence of nasal vowels in Polish, explained the formation of endings in adjectives, discovered the absence of gerunds and the presence of supin, which he called the attainable mood. All these conclusions were complete news not only for Russians, but also for European scientists; only the attaining inclination was noted earlier by Dobrovsky under the name supina. This scientist, who at that time was publishing "Institutiones linguae Slavicae dialecti veteris", having familiarized himself with Vostokov's work, wanted to destroy the beginning of his work and did not do this, only yielding to the convictions of Kopitar. The Russian Academy and other learned societies elected Vostokov as their member. Then Vostokov took up the description of the manuscripts of the Metropolitan of Kyiv and the Lavrentiev copy of the Nestor Chronicle; participated in the "Bibliographic Sheets", where he placed, among other things, an article about a supraslkoy manuscript. His article dates back to 1827: "Grammatical explanations for three articles of the Freisingen manuscript" (in the "Collection of Slovene monuments located outside Russia"), important both for the impeccable edition of the text and for the remarks that are still correct. Of great importance was the publication of Vostokov's legend: "The murder of St. Vyacheslav, Prince of Czech" ("Moscow Bulletin", 1827, No. 17). Freed in 1824 from service in various institutions, Vostokov, who had established relations with the count even earlier, got the opportunity to deal with the description of the manuscripts of his collection. After the death of Count Rumyantsev, his collection went to the treasury, and in 1828 Vostokov was appointed to manage it. After spending some time as a curator of manuscripts in the Imperial Public Library, Vostokov was appointed senior librarian of the Rumyantsev Museum. In the same year, Vostokov published two grammars: "Abridged Russian Grammar" and "Russian Grammar, which is more fully stated in the outline of the abbreviated grammar. These are wonderful textbooks for that time, in which, however, Vostokov's fear of boldly going against the established philological traditions affected. 1841 - 1842 under his editorship published: "Historical Acts relating to Russia, extracted from foreign archives and libraries" (2 volumes). In 1842, his "Description of Russian and Slavic Manuscripts of the Rumyantsev Museum" was published, which has a huge price Only after this work did it become possible to study ancient Russian literature and Russian antiquities. In 1843, an equally important work of his was published: "The Ostromir Gospel with an Appendix to the Greek Text of the Gospels and with Grammar Explanations" (St. Petersburg), which has now lost its significance due to the new phototype edition. At the same time, he wrote an analysis of the Reims Gospel. Of the rest of Vostokov's works, dictionary works stand out the most. As early as 1835, he was appointed "a member of the committee for the publication of a dictionary in alphabetical order"; but he took up dictionaries with particular zeal when, in 1841, he was appointed an ordinary academician. In 1847, under his editorship, the second volume of the "Dictionary of the Church Slavonic and Russian Language" was published, in 1852 - "The Experience of the Regional Great Russian Language" ("Supplement" to it, St. Petersburg, 1858). Responsibility for these works is largely removed from Vostokov, because the 2nd Division of the Academy of Sciences laid its hand on them. Vostokov's constant occupation for many years was the "Slavic-Russian Etymological Dictionary", which he began around 1802, and perhaps earlier and for his time, was in many ways remarkable, but remained unpublished (see "Essay on the History of Linguistics in Russia" , vol. I, 653 - 667). Instead, he published an extensive "Dictionary of the Church Slavonic language" (St. Petersburg, 1858 - 1861, 2 volumes). Together with the "Grammar of the Church Slavonic language" ("Scientific Notes", 1863, VII), this work is a major acquisition of Russian science. February 8, 1864 Vostokov died. Vostokov's merits were recognized both in Russia and abroad. Specially philological works of Vostokov are collected in the book "Philological observations of A.Kh. Vostokov" (St. Petersburg, 1865), where he made an assessment in the preface. Vostokov's scholarly correspondence was also published by Sreznevsky ("Collection of the II Department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences", vol. V, issue 2, St. Petersburg, 1873). In the personality of Vostokov, a remarkable feature is his love for the Russian language, which made him even change his native surname Ostenek to the surname of Vostokova. Vostokov's amazing modesty was the reason why the academy, so generous with material rewards in relation to its members, bypassed him. So, when the mediocre secretary of the academy ("sovereign" - in the satire "House of Madmen") was given 13,000 rubles "for tireless work and zeal", Vostokov received the same award as the 14-year-old girl who received 500 rubles for poetry. - See I. Sreznevsky in "The Solemn Meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on December 29, 1864." (St. Petersburg, 1865, pp. 86 - 138); his own "Works and anniversary of Vostokov" ("Scientific notes of the 2nd department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences", book II, issue 1, 1856); N. Korelkin "Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov, his scientific and literary activity" ("Notes of the Fatherland", 1855, No. 1); "In memory of Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov" (St. Petersburg, 1864); M.D. Khmyrov in the "Portrait Gallery of Russian Figures", published (vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1869); E. Petukhov "Some new data from the scientific and literary activity of Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov" ("Journal of the Ministry of National Education", 1890, part CCLXVIII);
On March 16, 1781, in the city of Ahrensburg (later Kingisepp, Kurssaare), on the coast of the Gulf of Riga, a boy appeared in the German Ostenek family. Who could then have imagined that in the near future Alexander (as the newborn was called) would change his German surname to the Russian Vostokov, would consider himself Russian and go down in the history of world science as an outstanding Russian philologist, although he was predicted a different future, prepared for another career. In 1788, a seven-year-old boy was sent to the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps, and then, since he stuttered a little and could not perform the duties of an officer after graduating from a military school, he was transferred to the Academy of Arts. However, Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov devoted his life to philology.
He can rightfully be called one of the first lexicographers: he participated in the compilation of the Dictionary of the Church Slavonic and Russian Languages (1847), under his editorship the Experience of the Regional Great Russian Dictionary (1852) and its supplement (1858) were published. , he is the author of the "Dictionary of the Church Slavonic language" (1858-1861).
Several generations in the 19th century studied Russian according to the textbooks of A. Kh. Vostokov.
He wrote Abridged Russian Grammar (1831), published 16 times (until 1877), and Russian Grammar (1831), published 12 times (until 1874). V. G. Belinsky called Vostokov's grammars the best teaching aids of his time.
European fame came to A. Kh. Vostokov in 1820, when his work “Discourse on the Slavic language, which serves as an introduction to the Grammar of this language, compiled according to the most ancient written monuments of Ongo”, appeared.
In his research, he determined the chronological place of the monuments of the Church Slavonic language, its difference from the Old Russian language in the field of phonetics and morphology. The value of the work of A. Kh. Vostokov for general linguistics becomes clear if we say that all his conclusions were new, not only for Russian, but also for European scientists.
A brilliant connoisseur of the Old Slavonic and Old Russian languages, A. Kh. Vostokov not only studied the texts of the most ancient monuments, but also prepared them for publication. In 1842, "Description of Russian and Slavonic Manuscripts" was published. The following year, he publishes the first of the dated manuscripts of the Ostromir Gospel (1056-1057) that have come down to us, which is considered one of the best and only type-setting edition (1843). Of particular value to scientists are A. Kh. Vostokov's detailed linguistic comments on the text of the monument.
Study of monuments in the Old Slavonic and Old Russian languages, their description, commentary on them; selection of vocabulary material for compiling dictionaries; writing grammars - all this was connected with working on the word, its meaning; phonetic and semantic transformations in the word, and most importantly - its origin, its etymology.
A. Kh. Vostokov was a pioneer in etymology. He began to study it when the methodology for collecting and processing linguistic material had not yet been developed in Russian linguistics, the goals and objectives of etymological research had not been formulated, no one had yet determined the principles for compiling an etymological dictionary, no one had substantiated the need for etymological analysis on a scientific basis, no one had shown his theoretical and practical significance. This will be done later. So what is the merit of A. Kh. Vostokov? What questions was he trying to solve? What did he write about this in his articles, notes, manuscripts?
It is known that even in early XIX c., when they tried to reveal the etymology of a word, they acted rather primitively, found a similar-sounding word and transferred its meaning to the one whose origin had to be explained. At the same time, the researcher was not embarrassed that the commonality of sound was often very remote, and perhaps even accidental.
Who, for example, would now think of comparing the words of the Etruscans and the cunning in order to derive the etymology of the names of the most ancient tribes that inhabited in the 1st millennium BC. e. northwest of the Apennine Peninsula, whose advanced civilization had a beneficial effect on Roman culture? Etruscans - scientific term of foreign origin, a. kitrushki - the word is Russian, colloquial, stylistically reduced. What can unite them? Is it just a partial sound match? However, it was on this basis that V. K. Trediakovsky built both an explanation of the origin of the word Etruscans and an etymology own name Igor, comparing it with the adjective playful.
A. Kh. Vostokov perfectly understood the inconsistency of such comparisons, therefore he tried to prove the expediency and possibility of scientific etymological research. First of all, it was necessary to change the method of processing language material. In the handwritten work, which the scientist called "Etymological word painted", we read: "I know how much this subject is confusing, I know that etymology is called a useless exercise that serves only to satisfy empty curiosity. But is it not possible, being guided by caution and never losing sight of the whole in analyzing trifles, to go into etymology, it is true, not far, but surely, to extract from this chaos as much, at least as much light, as is necessary for a thorough and philosophical word-knowledge? »
How tactfully and figuratively A. Kh. Vostokov expresses his thoughts! He calls for caution in etymological analysis, not to miss the little things, but not to forget about the whole. If the analysis has scientific basis, is carried out reliably, then the incomprehensible will become clear, the light of knowledge will be shed on the darkness of ignorance.
Further, A. Kh. Vostokov defines the goals and purpose of the research: “My goal ... was to, having approved, if possible, the word production of the Russian language with historical and logical evidence, to explain this historical part of grammar for our future lexicographers and to stop through those once and for all all sorts of arbitrary and unfounded word productions, which among us were thrown into the light by self-intelligent ignorance or all-guessing half-learnedness.
How the tone of the presentation changes! A. Kh. Vostokov defends science, which always requires hard work, deep knowledge, erudition, and a conscientious attitude to research and its results.
This is exactly how A. Kh. Vostokov himself worked: “I was most interested in archaeological and etymological studies of the Russian language, and for about a year they have been my main exercise in free hours. I am working on an etymological comparative dictionary, or a glossary, of Slavo-Russian and other European languages \u200b\u200bof the same root with it, that is, not only Polish, Bohemian and other Slavic dialects, but also German, Greek, Celtic with their dialects to show various degrees of affinity between all languages and the gradual origin and transition of words FROM ONE language to another.
A. Kh. Vostokov understands that for scientific analysis it is necessary to compare the words of several languages, not only close in kinship, but also distant, not only modern, but also ancient. Then the study will be scientifically sound, and the result is reliable.
In the archive of A. Kh. Vostokov’s manuscripts, a small notebook is kept, on which is written in his hand: “Korn and primitive words of the Slavic language.” What are these words that the researcher called indigenous and primitive? This means that not all words were of interest to A. Kh. Vostokov, but those consisting only of the root, the most ancient, primitive ones. What a capacious definition for words - primitive. This is both the first formed (then derivatives will be created from them, nests of related words will form, and the primitives will head them, become the tops of word-forming nests), and, as it were, conveying the first image, i.e. with. the characteristic that served as the basis for the name.
Each page is dotted with words with a lot of inserts, additions, additions. It can be seen that the owner of the notebook filled it in for a day or two and not a month, but for a long time, constantly returning to it, making more and more new entries. From what languages did he take words for comparison? Next to the Russians are Old Slavonic, Greek, Latin, English, German. The etymological investigations of A. Kh. Vostokov begin with this notebook.
Here is what he writes about the methodology of his work: “I divided each page in my notebooks into 8 columns, of which the first and second were assigned to the Slavic languages, the third and fourth to German, the fifth to Greek, the sixth to Latin, the seventh to Celtic, which remnants have been preserved in France and Great Britain, while the eighth column remains for inserting notes and additions against each word.
A true student of language is forced to do real archaeological excavations to establish the etymology of a single word. But how exciting and interesting! What satisfaction should a scientist receive when the origin of a word is unraveled and one can give a correct answer to the question of why an object, phenomenon, action was named this way and not otherwise!
To illustrate, let us cite A. Kh. Vostokov's reasoning about the term Slavs: church books for the Bulgarians and for the Moravians. Further, a note is given to the word Slovenian: “The Greeks, and after them other foreigners, use a in the name of the Slavs: Sklavi, Sklavshіy, Sklavatsi, but the Slavs themselves call themselves Slovenes, Slovenians, Slovaks: and I believe them more than foreigners. However, glory and the word come, as Dobrovsky notes, from the same root, from the verb to be known, to be known (old, word, servant), and according to general laws word production is used in one case a, in another o, in the third y or s, since from the verb plov, swim, swim, swimmer, etc. The ending of glory in proper names (Svyatoslav, Yaroslav, etc.) meant, according to Dobrovsky, slovu-tsy or named, and not the main or famous, under the Slovenes or Slovyayami - as most scientists interpret according to - they meant verbal people, whose speech can be understood, as opposed to the GERMANS.
This etymology is considered the most correct at the present time. So, in the “Brief Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language” by N. M. Shansky, V. V. Ivanov, T. V. Shanskaya we read:
Slavs. General Slav. Modern the form developed from the word under the influence of the words tina Romans, Polonians, townspeople, etc. Most likely (there are a lot of etymologies) it is a suffix derivative (cf. Polonians, trainees, etc.) from the noun. word.
The original meaning is "understandable, clearly speaking" (as opposed to German).
The word German, as the same dictionary explains, is also common Slavic, formed with the help of the suffix -ць, which then passed into -ets from. nem - "unclear, incomprehensibly speaking." The primary meaning is "any foreigner who speaks a foreign, incomprehensible language."
Comparison of “single-root” languages leads to the idea of their kinship, about which A. Kh. Vostokov writes in the article “The task for lovers of etymology”: “A language, despite all the changes, must be produced in it by centuries and local relations, unless it is exterminated by some forcible means, does not lose even after the lapse of millennia, in the most remote and opposite climates, its general similarity or identity of roots, in the reasoning of their sound and meaning. This is proved by comparing the ancient languages with the latest ones, if written monuments have been preserved from the former. According to these monuments, it is possible to assert with certainty about the affinity of Arabic
from whom with Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German and Slavic with Persian and Sanskrit.
Comparing the data of different languages, establishing their relationship, A. Kh. Vostokov develops a method that was new for that time, which was called comparative historical. On the example of his research, he clearly showed the methodology for applying this method.
The comparative historical method, in the development of which A. Kh. Vostokov took part, is considered one of the main methods of linguistics. Its essence is determined by the following principles:
- each language has its own characteristics that distinguish it from other languages;
- these features are known in comparison;
- comparison reveals kinship in some languages; related languages are grouped into language families;
- the difference between related languages can only be explained by their continuous historical change, which is recognized as the most important property of any language;
- sounds change faster than other elements; their transformation within the same family is strictly natural; the basic elements of the language (word roots, inflections and affixes) remain stable, sometimes for thousands of years; these data can be used to reconstruct the scheme of the original common language, "proto-language".
VOSTOKOV, ALEXANDER HRISTOFOROVICH(1781–1864), Russian linguist, philologist, poet. He was born on March 16 (27), 1781 in Ahrensburg (Kuressaare) on the island of Saaremaa (now Estonia). German by origin, real name - Ostenek. He studied in St. Petersburg in the Cadet Corps, then at the Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in 1802. He worked in the Public Library, from 1831 the senior librarian of the Rumyantsev Museum. Academician since 1841, Ph.D. of the University of Tübingen (1825) and Doctor of the University of Prague (1848), member of foreign learned societies. In the early period of his activity, he wrote poetry ( Lyric experiments and other small compositions in verse, 2 vols., 1805–1806); in Experience on Russian versification(1812), highly appreciated by A.S. Pushkin, for the first time determined the size of Russian folk verse. Vostokov died in St. Petersburg on February 8 (20), 1864.
Of outstanding importance for its time was Discourse on the Slavic language, which serves as an introduction to the Grammar of this language, compiled according to the most ancient written monuments thereof Vostokova. This work, which was published in 1820, i.e. almost simultaneously with the works of F. Bopp, R. Rusk and J. Grimm published in 1816–1819, put Vostokov on a par with the founders of comparative historical linguistics and laid the foundation for the scientific study of history Slavic languages. AT reasoning the relation of the Church Slavonic language to Russian was determined, three periods were singled out in the history of the Slavic languages.
In 1831 Vostokov published two educational grammars of the Russian language, a short one ( Abbreviated Russian grammar for use in lower educational institutions) and complete ( The Russian grammar of Alexander Vostokov, according to the outline of his own abbreviated grammar, is more fully stated), which was repeatedly reprinted in the 19th century. He was the first to single out words in Russian that have only one numerical form ( walking, sled and other varieties) and words of the general gender (such as headman), made a number of other observations, expressed ideas that influenced further development grammar theory in Russia.
He has edited important editions of documents: Acts of history relating to Russia, extracted from foreign archives (1841), Description of Russian and Slavic manuscripts of the Rumyantsev Museum(1842). In 1843 he published the most important Slavonic monument of the 11th century. Ostromir gospel. Participated in the compilation and editing Dictionary of Church Slavonic and Russian(vols. 1–4, 1847) and Experience of the Regional Great Russian Dictionary(1852). Author Church Slavonic Dictionary(2 vols., 1858–1861) and Grammars of the Church Slavonic language (1863).
Continuing our stories about curious book editions, today we (together with Magnitsky's Arithmetic) want to talk about Alexander Vostokov's Grammar. True, our story will be summer vacation, and will touch not only the textbook, the most popular in the 19th century, but also its author, an interesting Slavist researcher and ... librarian.
Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov - an outstanding philologist, the founder of Russian Slavic studies - for many years was in charge of the Public Library's Manuscript Depot. What kind of Depot it was, what the author of the grammar textbook has to do with it - all this will be discussed.
OH. Vostokov was born in 1781 on the island of Ezele (Saarema) in the former province of Livonia. He was the illegitimate son of a noble Ostsee nobleman, Baron Kh.I. Osten-Saken, major of the Russian army. As an illegitimate child, he was placed in foster care in Reval, and his first language was German, but as early as early childhood Vostokov learned Russian, and all his life he considered it native. However, he was not Vostokov either: Kh.I. Osten-Saken, not wanting to recognize his offspring, sent him to Petersburg - and gave the seven-year-old boy the surname Ostenek. The child did not like the surname very much; at the end of his studies, he changed it to Vostokov.
Alexander Khristoforovich studied in the 1st Land Cadet Corps, but was not a cadet, but a "gymnasium student". Gymnasium students accepted children of non-noble origin and trained corps teachers from them. He studied in the cadet corps of Vostokov for six years, and then was expelled. He stuttered from childhood; in adolescence stuttering began to increase, making him unsuitable for teaching. This illness, aggravated by Vostokov's exceptional shyness, subsequently doomed him to almost complete muteness for the rest of his life. He explained himself mainly in writing, and only with very close people could he speak more or less fluently.
Oddly enough, the physical handicap did not interfere with A.Kh. Vostokov to make friends and create circles that lived with literary interests. Apparently, Alexander Khristoforovich was so attractive: his erudition, many-sided talents and excellent spiritual qualities. From cadet corps he got into the Academy of Arts and graduated with a medal for architectural projects. A circle of “friends for life” formed there: I.A. Ivanov, A.I. Ermolaev, sculptor S.I. Galberg, whose sister Vostokov later married. Close to Vostokov were N.I. Utkin - the famous Russian engraver, V.I. Demut-Malinovsky, O.A. Kiprensky.
But the profession of an architect did not attract Vostokov: for some time he served as an assistant librarian at the Academy of Arts, then he moved to the Commission for drafting laws as a translator.
Scientific and literary activity of Alexander Khristoforovich proceeded outside the service. In 1808, he entered the newly organized Society of Lovers of Fine Arts, soon renamed Free Society lovers of literature, sciences and arts, in which he became, according to contemporaries, "an indisputable authority in matters of literary skill and aesthetic taste." His opinion was valued by Gnedich, Zhukovsky and Delvig. It was at the request of Delvig Vostokov that he translated and published some Serbian songs from collections published by V. Karadzic in the Northern Flowers for 1825. B. Tomashevsky wrote about the influence of Vostokov's translations on Pushkin's "Songs of the Western Slavs".
No less important was the work of Vostokov in the field of the theory of poetics. In 1812 he published "Experience on Russian versification", which marked the beginning of the study of Russian verse.
Since 1810, Vostokov devoted himself entirely to linguistics. By this time, he speaks not only German, French and Italian, but also Greek, Latin and all Slavic languages. But the comparative study of the Slavic languages was very difficult, often of an accidental nature due to the lack of the necessary manuals and sources - books and manuscripts.
Since 1809 A.Kh. Vostokov dreams of getting a job in the emerging Public Library. It officially opened in 1814, but work was underway, the staff was recruited - and Vostokov persistently sought admission. Within two and a half years (1809-1811), he visited the director of the library A.N. Olenin inquire about the place. Olenin wrote to the Minister of Education: “Mr. Vostokov has the misfortune of being very tongue-tied, and this only stopped me in relation to him ...”
In 1814, Alexander Khristoforovich received access to the library as a reader, and on December 1, 1815, he was hired there as an assistant custodian (head) of the Depot of Manuscripts (Department of Manuscripts). In 1828, Vostokov was appointed to the post of curator, which he held until March 1844, when, already being an academician, he resigned in order to devote himself entirely to scientific activity at the Academy of Sciences.
In the library, Vostokov finally got the opportunity to successfully and fruitfully engage in his favorite science. A large collection of monuments of ancient Slavic and Russian literature ensured the completeness and breadth of his research. The first result of Vostokov's work with sources was the Discourse on the Slavic Language, published in 1820, which serves as an introduction to the grammar of this language, compiled according to the most ancient written monuments thereof. "Reasoning ..." is still called the cornerstone of Slavic philology: Vostokov discovered the ancient Church Slavonic language, indicated its main distinctive features and defined it as an ancient Bulgarian-Slavic language.
The Czech philologist I. Dobrovsky (we talked about him in the article on the Kraledvorskaya manuscript) recognized the priority of Vostokov's opinion and abandoned his theory of the Serbian-Macedonian origin of the Old Slavic language. Vostokov turned into a world-famous scientist, a recognized authority in Slavic philology. On June 5, 1820, Vostokov was elected a member of the Russian Academy Sciences.
But it should be noted that in parallel with philological research, Alexander Khristoforovich took an active part in organizing the work of the Public Library.
It can be said that his memos on the development of catalogs were ahead of their time: for example, he proposed a very progressive at that time refusal to divide the entire catalog into languages: “only those languages need special catalogs that have a special alphabet, namely for Russian , for Greek, for Hebrew and for other oriental languages. Yet European languages using the Latin alphabet can be included in one directory.
The public library refused such an offer, but time has confirmed the correctness of the scientist: this is how the catalogs on foreign languages in our libraries.
The experience of cataloging, acquired by Vostokov in the Public Library, helped him in subsequent works on the description of manuscripts in private collections, including in the largest - Rumyantsev. Back in 1822, N.P. Rumyantsev gave Vostokov free use of his library, and subsequently made him a librarian. After the death of Rumyantsev A.Kh. Vostokov was appointed head of the Rumyantsev Museum. He also remained in this post until 1844.
List scientific papers Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov is extensive: from huge etymological dictionaries to publications of sources in the Church Slavonic language.
To everyone who is interested in the life and work of Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov, we recommend the corresponding section of the GPIB subject catalog.
And now let's return to the beginning of the story - to the "Grammar", which this outstanding scientist and failed teacher published in 1831.
At the end of the 1820s. Vostokov was instructed by the Ministry of Public Education to compile a textbook on the Russian language. The preparation of the textbook took three years. In 1831, his “Abridged Grammar for Use in Lower Educational Institutions” was published, and at the same time “Russian Grammar according to the outline of an abbreviated grammar, more fully presented” (the so-called “complete grammar”). Both Vostokov's grammars were compiled on the material of a language that was alive at that time. V.G. Belinsky considered Vostokov's grammar to be the best of all published so far. Before the publication of Vostokov's grammar, the grammar of N.I. Buckwheat compiled according to samples teaching aids France and Germany. In Grech's grammar, not the properties of the living Russian language were analyzed, but literary speech, which N.M. Karamzin.
Vostokov's complete grammar was reprinted twelve times (the last edition in 1874) and became the largest contribution to Russian linguistics.
Vostokov's "grammar" consists of four parts: part one - word production, second - word composition, third - spelling, fourth - syllable stress. Each part consists of several chapters. For example, in the first part there are eight chapters, the titles of which are “On the noun”, “On the adjective”, “On the pronoun”, “On the verb”, etc. Before the individual parts there is another introduction, which we will gladly quote:
1. Grammar is a guide to the correct use of words in speaking and writing. Words are the sounds of the voice, with which a person expresses his concepts and feelings.
2. Grammar is general and particular. General Grammar shows the foundations of speech common to all languages. Particular Grammar shows the special use of any language verbal
and written.
Thus, Russian Grammar teaches you to speak and write in Russian correctly.
At a time when grammatical science was dominated by a universal theory about the presence of three main members of a sentence: subject, predicate and copula, A.Kh. Vostokov managed to strengthen the doctrine of the two main members of the sentence in grammatical science. In "Russian Grammar" for the first time a complete and deep description of the main forms of phrases in the Russian language, especially prepositional and non-prepositional control, is given. OH. Vostokov for the first time - albeit briefly - expounded the doctrine of simple and complex sentence.
Let's not forget that it was a textbook - a simple and understandable textbook for schoolchildren, which systematized and clearly presented clearly innovative grammar schemes of the Russian language.
The merits of this edition were exceptional for its time. V.V. Vinogradov wrote about him like this: “The Russian grammar of A.Kh. Vostokova continues and deepens the Lomonosov tradition of grammatical study of the Russian language system. Unusual conciseness and depth of penetration into the essence linguistic phenomenon, accuracy and simplicity of grammatical generalizations, the ability to separate the main grammatical category from random admixtures, the coverage of vast material and the ability to select the most essential for presentation - all these features of a linguistic genius with amazing force make themselves felt in Vostokov's Russian grammar, especially in its morphological section ... "
Vostokov's "grammar" had a strong influence on subsequent grammars and on their compilers. For example, A.A. Shakhmatov found in it the main support in compiling his Essay on Modern Russian literary language» (1911-1912).
You can order editions of Grammar different years from the funds of the GPIB book storage and see for yourself what a wonderful job the outstanding scientist did to convey his knowledge and understanding of the Russian language to an ordinary student of an ordinary gymnasium of the Russian Empire.
