Liapunov, Boris

Liapunov, Boris [Ляпунов, Борис; Ljapunov], b 6 August 1862 in Bolobonovo, Kurmysh county, Simbirsk gubernia, Russia, d 22 February 1943 in Borovoe, Akmolinsk oblast, Kazakh SSR. Russian Slavist; full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1923. After graduating from Saint Petersburg University (1881–5) and Kharkiv University (1886–91, where he studied under Marin Drinov and Oleksander Potebnia), he taught at Kharkiv University (1892–1900) and Odesa University (1900–23) and then worked at various institutions in Leningrad. His publications deal with Proto-Slavic (see Common Slavic), Old Church Slavonic, the etymology of Slavic words, and a number of old monuments of the Ukrainian language such as the Dobrylo Gospel of 1164 and the Odesa Gospel. In his booklet Edinstvo russkogo iazyka v ego narechiiakh (The Unity of the Russian Language in Its Dialects, 1919) he defended the theory of a common Russian language in the Princely era. A bibliography of his works can be found in Voprosy iazykoznaniia (1958, no. 2). His article on the earliest relations between Russian and Ukrainian and their separation was published posthumously in 1968.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]