Deputy Director (research), Head of the Department of Indo-European Languages
Viktor Kalygin was born on October 18, 1950 in the city of Kovrov, Vladimir region. Ever since his studies at Leningrad State University, he had been learning Indo-European languages, including Celtic languages.
In 1975, Kalygin entered the postgraduate program at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences (with Enver Makaev and Viktoria Yartseva as his research supervisors). In 1979, he defended his PhD thesis "The language of ancient Irish poetry in comparative-historical light". In 1989, his monograph "Introduction to Celtic philology", co-authored by Andrey Korolev, was published.
In 1989, Viktor Kalygin entered the doctoral program at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1990 to 1992, he worked in Germany as a holder of the scholarship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation — first at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, then at the University of Bonn under the supervision of K. Schmidt. In 1993, he received a grant from the American IREX Foundation and spent a year in the Department of Celtic Studies at Harvard University. When he came back to Russia, he continued his work in the field of Celtic studies and in 1997, he defended his Dr.habil. thesis on the topic "The origins of the Ancient Irish mythopoetic tradition".
In May, 2001, Viktor Kalygin became the Deputy Director (research) of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 2002, he became the Head of the Department of Indo-European Languages.
His research interests included the Breton language. Kalygin was one of the few scholars of Celtic studies who believed that the study of the Breton language and its history was as important for comparative linguistics as the study of Old Irish and Old Welsh.
Science Index
Selected publications
- Jazyk drevnejshej irlandskoj poèzii [The language of ancient Irish poetry]. Moscow, Nauka, 1986; French translation: Victor Kalyguine, La langue de la poésie irlandaise archaïque. Hamburg, Helmut Buske Verlag, 1993, 164 p. (review: J. Corthals in Cambrian Medieval Celtic studies N 27, 1994, p. 93.)
- Vvedenie v kel'tskuju filologiju [Introduction to Celtic philology]. Moscow, Nauka, 1989, 254 p. (co-authored by Andrey Korolev).
- Principes de l'organisation phonique du texte dans la poésie irlandaise archaiquе. // Metrik und Medienwechsel. Metrics and media. Tübingen, 1991, S. 189-195.
- Aspects mythologiques de la tradition grammaticale vieil-irlandaise // Études celtiques. Vol. 29, 1992, p. 241-248.
- La poétique irlandaise archaique du point de vue mythologique: domestication de l'espace. // La Bretagne linguistique. Vol.8, 1992, p. 135-143.
- Indogermanische Dichtersprache und altirische mythopoetische Tradition. Vortrag in memoriam R. Thurneysen // Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie. Bd. 46, 1994, S. 1-10.
The material was prepared by Anna Muradova