Vladislav Illich-Svitych
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Vladislav Markovich Illich-Svitych (1934-1966) was a founding father of comparative Nostratic linguistics.
Of Ukrainian descent, he was born in Kiev but later moved to work in Moscow. He resuscitated the long-forgotten Nostratic hypothesis, originally expounded by Holger Pedersen in 1903, and coined the modern term Nostratics. His untimely death prevented him from completing the Comparative Dictionary of Nostratic Languages, but the ambitious work was continued by his colleagues.