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Vladimir Dal

Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (also: Dahl, Владимир Иванович Даль) (November 10, 1801September 22 1872) was a famous Russian amateur lexicographer.

He became famous for his studies of the vernacular Russian language and its dialects, as a strong proponent of native rather than adopted vocabulary. His four-volume dictionary (Толковый словарь живого великорусского языка, Explanatory dictionary of live Great Russian language) was produced in the mid 19th century and was the basis for Sergei Ozhegov's later work.

The encompassing nature of Dal's dictionary gives it critical linguistic importance even today, especially because a large proportion of the dialectal vocabulary he collected has since passed out of use.

To the 200th anniversary of Vladimir Dal's birthday, UNESCO declared the year 2000 The International Year of Vladimir Dahl.

Biography

Vladimir Dal was born in Lugansk , Russian Empire, now in Ukraine. His father Yohan Cristian Dahl was Dane by nationality. The name Yohan was russified into Ivan, hence Vladimir's patronymic: Ivanovich.

In 1814 Vladimir joined St. Petersburg navy.

In 1826 he gave up navy and entered the medical department of Derpt University and eventually became military doctor. During his service he travelled much. During his travels he collected material for his dictionary.

He is interred in the Vagankovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

External link

  • Vladimir Ivanovich Dal, in Russian http://www.rulex.ru/01050022.htm
  • Searchable version of Dal's dictionary http://vidahl.agava.ru/




Last updated: 02-10-2005 22:27:06
Last updated: 03-01-2005 14:28:44