Rask, RASMUS CHRISTIAN, philologist, was born at Brändekilde, near Odense, in the island of Fünen, 22d November 1787, studied at Copenhagen, and in 1808 published his first work on the rules of the Icelandic language. During the years 1807–12 he occupied himself with drawing up grammatical systems for most of the Germanic, Slavonic, and Romance tongues, and in comparing them with those of India. He then visited Sweden, and in 1813 proceeded to Iceland, where he lived for three years. On his return to Copenhagen he was appointed sub-librarian to the university, and in 1818 published his splendid researches concerning the origin of the Icelandic language. After spending a year (1817) in Stockholm, where he published his admirable Anglo-Saxon grammar and the first critical edition of the Snorra Edda and the Edda Sacmundar, he went to St Petersburg, and there devoted himself for two years to the study of the oriental languages, principally Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic, while at the same time he also acquired a competent knowledge of Russian and Finnish. Thus equipped, he proceeded to Astrakhan, and then commenced a journey through the country of the Turkomans, the Caucasus, Persia (adding meanwhile the Mongol and Manchu dialects to his already enormous linguistic acquisitions), and finally Ceylon, where he made himself acquainted with Sinhalese and Pali, and wrote his Singalesisk Skriftlære (1822). In 1823 Rask returned to Copenhagen, laden with learning and rare manuscript treasures, of which the greatest part was presented to the university. In 1825 he was appointed professor of Literary History, in 1828 of Oriental Languages, and in 1831 of Icelandic. But his immense labours had exhausted his energies, and he died, 14th November 1832, at the early age of forty-five, a victim of hard work. Rask also wrote on Frisian grammar (1825), on ancient Egyptian chronology (1827), on Hebrew chronology (1828), grammars of several languages, and a great number of miscellaneous articles in the learned journals of the North, which were collected after his death, and published (3 vols. 1834–38). There are English editions of his Anglo-Saxon,
Danish, and Icelandic grammars. See the Lives by Petersen (1870) and Rønning (1887).