Estonian linguist and polyglot
Pent Nurmekund (16 December 1906 – 28 December 1996) was an Estonian linguist and polyglot. He could read over eighty languages.[2][3]
Life
Nurmekund came from a poor peasant family and first attended school at the age of twelve.[1]
From 1930 to 1935, he studied Romance and Germanic philology at Tartu University, and graduated with a Magister Philosophiae.[3]
In 1935, he became a founding member of the Estonian Oriental Society.[4]
From 1955 to 1986, he was a lecturer at Tartu University, and in the 1950s founded the Oriental department there.[3]
In 1991, he received the Wiedemann Language Award.[3]
References