Eugene ArnoΔΎdoviΔ Helimski (Russ. ΠΠ²Π³Π΅ΜΠ½ΠΈΠΉ ΠΡΠ½ΠΎΜΠ»ΡΠ΄ΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ Π₯Π΅Π»ΠΈΜΠΌΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ, 15 March 1950, Odessa, USSR β 25 December 2007, Hamburg, Germany) β a Russian linguist (in the latter part of his life working in Germany), Doctor of Philosophy (1988), Professor. Researched Samoyedic and Finno-Ugric languages, problems of Uralic and Nostratic linguistic affinity, language contact, theory of genetic classification of languages, cultural history of Northern Eurasia and shamanism. One of the world's leading specialists in Samoyedic languages.
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Graduated from the Department of Structural and Applied Linguistics of Moscow State University (1972); completed a Dissertation on "Ancient Ugro-Samoyedic Linguistic Ties" (Tartu, 1979); completed the Doctoral Dissertation on "Historical and Descriptive Dialectology of the Samoyedic Languages" (Tartu, 1988); worked at the Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences (1978β1997); lectured at the RSUH (1992β1998), University of Budapest (1994β1995) and other European universities. From 1998 onward, Professor of Hamburg University and Director of the Institute of Finno-Ugrian and Uralic Studies in Hamburg.[1]
Participant and organizer of numerous linguistic expeditions to Siberia and to the Taimyr Peninsula; field studies of all Samoyedic languages, one of the authors of the well-known "Studies on the Selkup Language" which were based on field studies and which have substantially broadened the linguistic understanding of Samoyedic. Exposed a number of regularities in the historical phonetics of Hungarian, substantiated the existence of grammatical and lexical Ugro-Samoyedic parallels. Gathered all accessible data on Mator, the extinct South-Samoyedic language, and published its dictionary and grammar. Proposed a number of novel Uralic, Indo-European and Nostratic etymologies, collected a large body of material on the borrowed lexicon of the languages of Siberia (including Russian).[2]
Proposed a number of modifications to the traditional theory of the "genealogical tree" with respect to the Uralic data, which had an impact on comparative studies in general.
Worked on problematics of shamanism among the Samoyedic peoples, collected and published texts of shamanistic incantations.
Published several editions of "Π’Π°ΠΉΠΌΡΡΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ ΡΡΠ½ΠΎΠ»ΠΈΠ½Π³Π²ΠΈΡΡΠΈΡΠ΅ΡΠΊΠΈΠΉ ΡΠ±ΠΎΡΠ½ΠΈΠΊ" ("Taimyr Ethno-Linguistic Compendium", RSUH) and other works on Uralistics.
Initiated the development of a digital database of Uralic, which later became part of Sergei Starostin's StarLing Project.[3] (The database is based largely on KΓ‘roly RΓ©dei's Uralic Etymological Dictionary, UEW[4])