Editing Vilhelm Thomsen

{{Short description|Danish linguist and Turkologist (1842–1927)}}
{{Infobox person
| image        = Vilhelm-Thomsen 01.jpg
| name        = Vilhelm Thomsen
| alt         = 
| caption     = 
| birth_name  = Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1842|01|25|df=y}}
| birth_place = Copenhagen
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1927|05|12|1842|01|25|df=y}}
| death_place = Copenhagen
| nationality = Danish
| other_names = 
|alma_mater   = University of Copenhagen
| occupation  =  professor<br>linguist<br> Turkologist
|awards= [[Order of the Elephant]]
}}
'''Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen''' (25 January 1842 – 12 May 1927) was a [[Denmark|Danish]] [[linguistics|linguist]] and [[Turkologist]]. He successfully deciphered the Turkic [[Orkhon inscriptions]]  which were discovered during the expedition of [[Nikolai Yadrintsev]] in 1889.<ref>Konow, Sten. 1927. Vilhelm Thomson. ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'', No. 4 (October 1927): 929–934.</ref>

==Early life and education==
Vilhelm Thomsen was born in Copenhagen. He was the son of Chamber Councillor (''kammerråd'') Ludvig Frederik Thomsen and the elder brother of painter and illustrator [[Carl Thomsen]] (1847–1912).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Carl_Thomsen_-_maler|title=Carl Thomsen – maler|website=  Dansk Biografisk Leksikon|date=18 July 2011 |access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>

He studied at the [[University of Copenhagen]] in 1859,  graduating  in 1867 and earning a [[PhD]] in 1869 with a dissertation on Germanic loanwords in Finnic.

==Career==
He taught Greek at the Borgerdyd school in Copenhagen before becoming a professor at the [[University of Copenhagen]]. From 1875, he was an associate professor of comparative linguistics at the University of Copenhagen, and in 1887 he was appointed professor.
<ref>{{cite web|url=   https://runeberg.org/dbl/17/0240.html|title= Thomsen, Vilhelm Ludvig Peter f. 1842 |website= Dansk biografisk Lexikon  |access-date=August 1, 2020}}</ref>
 
In 1876 he was invited to give the [[Ilchester Lectures]] at the [[University of Oxford]], which were later published as ''The Relations Between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia, and the Origin of the Russian State''.<ref>Vilhelm Thomsen, ''The Relations Between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia, and the Origin of the Russian State'' (B. Franklin, 1877)</ref>

Thomsen made a number of important contributions to linguistics, including his work on the Germanic, Baltic, and Indo-Iranian influences on Finnic.<ref>Konow 1927</ref> In 1893, he deciphered the Turkic [[Old Turkic epigraphy#Corpus|Orkhon inscriptions]] ahead of Russian linguist  [[Wilhelm Radloff]] (1837–1918). Thomsen first published the translation in French in 1899. He then published another interpretation in Danish in 1922 with a more complete translation.<ref>Ross, E. Denison (1930). "The Orkhon Inscriptions: Being a Translation of Professor Vilhelm Thomsen's Final Danish Rendering". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 5 (4): 861–76.</ref>

According to an article on "The history of Uralic linguistics" by Bo Wickman (1988:808):
:The Danish scholar Vilhelm Thomsen (1842–1927) was one of the greatest linguists of all times. He was active in an astoundingly great number of linguistic disciplines, and he was equally masterful in all of them.

==Personal life==
[[File:Sprogforskeren, professor Vilhelm Thomsen.jpg|thumb|160px|Bust of Thomsen by [[Kai Nielsen (sculptor)|Kai Nielsen]], 1923]]
Thomsen married Karen Charlotte Allen (22 August 1852 – 15 August 1934), a daughter of historian C.F. Allen (1811–71) and Ide Marie Dorph (1812–1910), on 5 May 1876 in [[Frederiksberg]]. Thomsen's daughter Kristiane Nicoline Thomsen (1877–1968) was the second wife of the Finnish linguist [[Emil Nestor Setälä]].

He died on 12 May 1927 in Copenhagen and is buried in [[Solbjerg Park Cemetery]].

==Honours==
*In 1912 he received membership of the [[Order of the Elephant]].
*Thomsen is honored on a [[stele|stela]] set up in central [[Copenhagen]] along with three other Danish pioneers of modern linguistics; [[Rasmus Christian Rask|Rasmus Rask]], [[Niels Ludvig Westergaard]] and [[Karl Verner]].
*Thomsen was President of the Danish Academy from 1909 until his death, and was an honorary member of the [[Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland]].<ref>Konow 1927</ref>
*''Wilhelm Thomsen Caddesi'' is a  street that is named after him in [[Ankara]], [[Turkey]], on which the [[National Library of Turkey]] is located.

==Selected publications==
*The relations between ancient Russia and Scandinavia and the origin of the Russian state. Three lectures delivered at the Taylor Institution, Oxford, in May, 1876, in accordance with the terms of Lord Ilchester's bequest to the university
*1896: ''Inscriptions De L'Orkhon Déchiffrées''
*''On the influence of the Germanic languages on the Finnish-Lappish''

==See also==
*[[Old Turkic script]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* Brøndal, Viggo. 1927. "L'œuvre de Vilhelm Thomsen." ''Acta philologica scandinavica'' 2:289–318. København.
* Wickman, Bo. 1988. "The history of Uralic linguistics." In ''The Uralic Languages: Description, History and Foreign Influences'', edited by Denis Sinor. Leiden: Brill.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomsen, Vilhelm}}
[[Category:Balticists]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish linguists]]
[[Category:Linguists of Turkic languages]]
[[Category:Historical linguists]]
[[Category:1842 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:University of Copenhagen alumni]]
[[Category:Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)]]
[[Category:Corresponding Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:Rectors of the University of Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Danish philologists]]
[[Category:Linguists of Indo-Uralic languages]]