Rasmus Christian Rask

Background

Rasmus was born at Brandekilde in the island Funen in Denmark on November 22, 1787 to to Niels Hansen Rasch and Birthe Rasmusdatter. His father, a smallholder and tailor, was well-read and had a decently-sized book collection.

Education

He studied at the university of Copenhagen, and at once showed remarkable talent for the acquisition of languages.

Career

Rask began his long association with the University of Copenhagen as assistant keeper of the library in 1808, and in 1811 he published the first systematic grammar of Old Norse, published in an English translation in 1843. During a stay in Iceland that he spent in mastering the language and studying the literature, manners, and customs (1813–15), he wrote the work on which his fame rests, Undersøgelse om det gamle Nordiske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse (1818; Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language). It was primarily an examination and comparison of the Scandinavian languages with Latin and Greek. Rask was the first to indicate that the Celtic languages, which include Breton, Welsh, and Irish, belong to the Indo-European family and also stated that Basque and Finno-Ugric do not. He established the relationship of Old Norse to Gothic and of Lithuanian to Slavic, Greek, and Latin.

Although he turned his attention mainly to Indic languages around 1816, he published the first Anglo-Saxon grammar in 1817 and edited two major works of Icelandic literature, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda (1818). In 1816 he began travels that took him to Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and finally Iran. The Persian manuscripts he collected remain among the national treasures of Denmark. In 1820 he continued on to India and Ceylon. When he returned to Copenhagen in May 1823, he brought with him many manuscripts in Pāli, Sinhalese, and other languages. Subsequently, Rask was appointed professor of literary history (1825), university librarian (1829), and professor of Oriental languages (1831). His later works include grammars of Spanish (1824), Frisian (1825), and other languages. Over his lifetime Rask had mastered 25 languages and dialects and is reputed to have studied twice as many.

Achievements

• He was the first to point out the connexion between the ancient Northern and Gothic on the one hand, and the Lithuanian, Sclavonic, Greek and Latin on the other, and he also deserves credit for having had the original idea of "Grimm's Law" for the transmutation of consonants in the transition from the old Indo-European languages to Teutonic, although he only compared Teutonic and Greek, Sanskrit being at the time unknown to him. In 1822 he was master of no less than twenty-five languages and dialects, and is stated to have studied twice as many. His numerous philological manuscripts were transferred to the king's library at Copenhagen.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Oldnordisk læsebog: indeholdende prøver af de bedste sagaer i den gamle islandske text, gjennemset og rettet efter de bedste oldbøger, samt forsynet med ... over de vanskeligste ord (Danish Edition)

    (Oldnordisk læsebog indeholdende prøver af de bedste sagae...)

  • A short practical and easy method of learning the old Norsk tongue or Icelandic language after the Danish of E. Rask: with an Icelandic reader, an account ... the Norsk poetry and the sagas, and a mode

    (A short practical and easy method of learning the old Nor...)

  • Danish grammar for Englishmen: With extracts in prose and verse

    (Danish grammar for Englishmen With extracts in prose and ...)

  • Anvisning till islândskan eller nordiska fornspråket (Swedish Edition)

    (Anvisning till islândskan eller nordiska fornspråket. 338...)

  • A grammar of the Icelandic or Old Norse tongue

    (A grammar of the Icelandic or Old Norse tongue. 302 Pages)

  • Letter of Erasmus Rask to Henry Wheaton

    (Letter of Erasmus Rask to Henry Wheaton. 18 Pages)

  • Singalesisk skriftlære

    (Singalesisk skriftlære. 347 Pages)

Religion

He was not particularly religious and even expressed serious doubts.

Connections

Father:

Niels Hansen Rasch

He was a smallholder and tailor

Mother:

Birthe Rasmusdatter