Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen (25 January 1842 – 12 May 1927) was a Danish linguist and Turkologist. He successfully deciphered the Turkic Orkhon inscriptions which were discovered during the expedition of Nikolai Yadrintsev in 1889.

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). 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. 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. Thomsen made a number of important contributions to linguistics, including his work on the Germanic, Baltic, and Indo-Iranian influences on Finnic. In 1893, he deciphered the Turkic 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. According to an article on "The history of Uralic linguistics" by Bo Wickman (1988:808):

Personal life

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

Selected publications

Sources