Igor Diakonov

Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov
Born	December 30, 1914 (January 12, 1915) Petrograd
Died	May 2, 1999 St Petersburg
Residence	Russia
Nationality	Russian
Fields	Ancient Near East and its languages
Institutions	Oriental Institute, St Petersburg Branch
Alma mater	St Petersburg University
Known for	contributions to the study of the Ancient Near East and its languages

Igor Mikhailovich Diakonov (Russian: И́горь Миха́йлович Дья́конов) was a Russian historian, linguist, and translator and a renowned expert in the Ancient Near East and its languages.

Diakonov, whose brothers were also distinguished historians, was brought up in Norway and graduated from the Leningrad University in 1938, joining the staff of the Hermitage Museum the same year. In 1949, he published a comprehensive study of Assyria, followed by the monograph on Medea in 1956. Later, he teamed with the linguist Sergei Starostin to produce authoritative studies of the Caucasian, Afro-Asiatic and Hurro-Urartian languages.

He was honored with a volume published in his memory in 2003, edited by M. Lionel Bender, Gábor Takács, and David Appleyard. In addition to articles on Afro-Asiatic languages, it contains a five page list of his publications, compiled by Takács (p. viii-xii).

Major published works

• 1985 - Diakonov, Igor. On the Original Home of the Speakers of Indo-European. Journal of Indo-European Studies, Volume 13, p. 92.
• 1988 - Diakonoff, I.M. "Afrasian languages". Nauka
• 1995 - Diakonoff, Igor, M. Archaic Myths of the Orient and the Occident. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
• 1999 - Diakonov, Igor. The Paths of History. Cambridge University Press.

Publication related to Diakonoff

Bender, M. Lionel and Gábor Takács. 2003. Selected Comparative-Historical Afrasian Linguistic Studies in Memory of Igor M. Diakonoff. Münich: LINCOM Europa.

External links

• Diakonov as a Translator
• Indo-European Origins in Southeast Europe