Rask

Rask, Rasmus Christian (1787-1832), Danish philologist, was born of very poor parents, but was enabled to enter Copenhagen University. He made a special study of the Northern languages, and urged the importance of Icelandic literature. In 1816 he went on a tour in the East, and studied its languages, returning in 1823. In 1829 he was appointed professor of Oriental languages at Copenhagen. He had a most accurate and extensive knowledge of English, and produced in 1817 the first good Anglo-Saxon grammar. He published grammars of other languages also, and demonstrated the affinity between the Scandinavian and Latin, Greek, and Sclavonic languages.