Sergei Yakhontov

Sergey Yevgenievich Yákhontov (Russian: Серге́й Евге́ньевич Я́хонтов, Sergej Jevgen'evič Jachontov; December 13, 1926 in Leningrad – 28 January 2018) was a Russian linguist, an expert in Chinese, comparative, and general linguistics.

He was the son of astronomer Nataliya Sergeevna Samoilova-Yakhontova (1896-1994), the namesake of the minor planet 1653 Yakhontovia. His daughter Natalia Yakhontova is a well-known Mongolist from the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.

In 1950, Yakhontov graduated from the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad State University.^[1] In 1962–1963, he underwent training in Beijing and visited Nanyang University (Singapore) from 1971 to 1972. He taught at the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg State University.^[2]

Yakhontov studied under Alexander Dragunov and developed on many ideas of his teacher, creating the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) school of Sino-Tibetan linguistics. He published dozens of articles, many translated into English, Chinese, and Japanese. In particular, he made major contributions to Old Chinese phonology, proposing the *l medial (now commonly treated as *r) and a rounded vowel *o, which led to the six vowel system that is now accepted by most researchers.^[3][4]