XII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2020

Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky is an outstanding philologist, an expert of Slavic languages, an ethnographer, a paleographer and an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1851). He is also a compiler of «Dictionary of the Old Russian language» and an author of numerous tractates on Russian language, archeology, bibliography and history of Old Russian literature.

The Russian philologist was born in 1812 to the family of a professor of the Demidov Lyceum which is situated in Yaroslavl. When he was a little boy, his family moved to Kharkiv. His first education was a private one, but at the age of 14 I.I.Sreznevsky entered the University of Kharkiv where he studied political and ethical sciences. His studies were very successful, and three years later he got the degree of the candidate of sciences.

However, he was not attracted by the government service. Sreznevsky spent hours studying literature, Ukrainian ethnography, history and so on. In 1831 together with I.V.Roskovshenko, a famous translator of Shakespeare's masterpieces, he published «Ukrainian almanac». I.I.Sreznevsky put his own poems in said almanac and an article «Thoughts and remarks».

During his trip to Kharkiv, Poltava and Ekaterinoslav gubernias he studied the people, their way of life, customs, Ucranian language and poetry. It was a productive time when the scholar conducted investigation on Ucrainian folklore collecting songs and rhymes.

The result of that journey was a great collection of materials called «Zaporozhian eld». This work drew public attention to I.I.Sreznevsky, he became a famous person and established relations with prominent writers of that time. N.V. Gogol and V.N. Karamzin are among those. His articles were to be published in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

In 1839 I.I.Sreznevsky left for a trip abroad. His main goal was to study countries, their climate and geography, dialectical peculiarities of different languages. Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky also worked on collecting legends and stories which helped to study the deep sense of folklore literature. His route went through numerous countries including Moravia, Silesia, Carinthia, Croatia, Galicia, Hungary and so on. All in all, the trip took the scholar three years, since 1839 till 1842.

After Sreznevsky's return, the investigator began to work at the department of literature in the University of Kharkiv. During that perod Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky wrote various articles about his trip to Europe accompanied by certain discoveries: «Public Readings on the Slavs» (1843), «Friulian Slavs» (1844) and many others.

In 1847 Sreznevsky moved to Saint Petersburg, where he read multiple lectures in Slavic Philology at Saint Petersburg University. The main issues his courses enlightened were the historical image of the Slavs in reference to life, religion and education, peculiarities of the Slavic language and its dialects and the study of Old Russian.

Given the fact that during Sreznevsky's working and living at St. Petersburg University the scholar had an open access to new materials, his investigations were mainly conducted in the field of history of the Russian language. One of the most important works of that time was a speech named «Thoughts about the History of Russian Language». It was published several times.

This work was the first attempt of Russian scholars to devide the history of Russian language into periods. It also helped him to present an idea: studying a language is impossible without studying its history, because, in his opinion, the history of a language is an important part of philological science.

Besides, I.I.Sreznevsky joined Russian Geographical society in 1847. In 1850 he joined the Archeological society and was its member till the death. This fact shows that the scholar was a person with a wide range of interests.

By the second half of 1850-s the scholar had decided on the new line of his investigation. It was promotion of written records of Old Church Slavic and Old Russian.

Another fact which is worth mentioning is that after 1847 Sreznevskydevoted himself to the task of preparing a comprehensive dictionary of the Old East Slavic (Old Russian). This work spanned several decades and required the study of numerous obscure medieval texts including the Hypatian and Laurentian Codices.

This outstanding work called «Materials for the Dictionary of Old Russian Language Based on Written Records» was published a few years after Sreznevsky's death in 1880. His will was to be buried in Ryazan.

However, the materials were scarecely changed, so Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky can be named a compiler of «Dictionary of the Old Russian language». The importance of his work is undeniable, because modern scholars still actively use it. It is one of the most authoritative resourses for linguists who study the history of the language.

The contribution made by Izmail Ivanovich Sreznevsky to linguistics was exceptional. Analyzing poems and legends, the scholar aspired to understand the national spirit through the language. Besides, he tried to cognize the history of the language. On the whole his work was fundamental. It was definitely important for the further development of linguistics.

Списокиспользованной литературы:

Булаховский Л. А. И. И. Срезневский // Русский язык в школе. — 1940. — № 6;

Русское языкознание в Петербургском — Ленинградском университета. — Л., 1971;

Смирнов С. В. Измаил Иванович Срезневский (1812—1880) // Русская речь. — 1972. — № 6;

Булахов М. Г. Восточнославянские языковеды: биобиблиографический словарь. Т. 1. — Минск, 1976;

Богатова Г. А. И. И. Срезневский. — М.: Просвещение, 1985. — 94, [2] с.: ил.- (Люди науки);

Богатова Г. А. Измаил Иванович Срезневский (1812—1880) // Отечественные лексикографы: XVIII—XX века / Под ред. Г. А. Богатовой. ИРЯ им. В. В. Виноградова РАН; Лексикографический семинар; Кабинет «Славянский мир». — М.: Наука, 2000; 

Лаптева Л. П. История славяноведения в России в XIX веке. — М.: Индрик, 2005. — 848 с.