36.3837, All: In Memory of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lars Johanson

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3837. Mon Dec 15 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3837, All: In Memory of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lars Johanson

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Date: 15-Dec-2025
From: Ayşe Sumru Özsoy [asumruozsoy at gmail.com]
Subject: In Memory of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lars Johanson


Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Lars Johanson (born March 8, 1936) of Turcology
sadly passed away in Mainz, Germany on November 24, 2025.
Lars Johanson, Swedish-born linguist, played a crucial role in
establishing the study of Turkic languages as a modern linguistic
discipline. In addition to his significant work on Turkic linguistics,
his studies in general linguistics, primarily language typology, are
of great importance. His theoretical models for the study of verbal
aspect systems, evidentiality, and contact linguistic phenomena have
been applied to a number of languages.
Born in the small Swedish town Köping. Lars spent the first years of
his life alone with his mother Birgit, in great love and intimacy. His
father was serving in the military in a Swedish location unknown to
the family. Lars’ mother Birgit was asthmatic, but she enjoyed singing
while working, pausing between verses. In this way, Lars easily
learned countless Swedish songs, which he hummed throughout his life.
Lars learned the letters from shop signs while he and his mother went
shopping. And he spent his life under the spell of these letters.
There was not a day that he did not sit down to write, as he said, but
to keep knocking, initially on a typewriter, later on a computer. This
determined the order of his life and this brought him joy every day.
He lived in the world of letters. He learned Esperanto as a child and
on his first trip abroad, accompanied by his mother, he attended an
Esperanto conference in Oslo. He was always first in school, without
any effort. This gave him time for linguistic adventures.
He studied German, Scandinavian, Slavic, general linguistics,
Turcology and Sanskrit at Uppsala University and studied Oriental
Studies in Vienna from 1959 to 1960. He received his BA in 1959 and
his MA in 1961. From 1960 onwards, he specialized in Turkic languages
and received in Uppsala his “licentiat” degree in 1966 and his
“docent” degree in 1971 with his studies on Turkic linguistics. He
researched the mysteries of the functioning of languages and made
epoch-making discoveries – mainly immersing himself in the inner order
of the Turkic languages – without joining fashionable linguistic
trends. In 1972-1973  he was Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at
the University of Mainz and in 1973 made his German Habilitation (with
the title “Professor”) in Turcology at that university.
His 1971 groundbreaker book Aspekt im Türkischen was recognized in
linguistic circles. In the following years, he conducted research and
visited several Turkic-speaking countries and China. In 1979–1980, he
was a visiting professor at the University of Frankfurt, and from 1981
at the University of Mainz. In 1982, he was appointed professor for
lifetime at the latter. He remained affiliated as “docent” with
Uppsala University, his alma mater, during his whole life.
Between 1966 and 2025, he published more than 500 studies. Among the
books published in the last few years of his life, the most
significant is Turkic, Cambridge University Press 2021, a monumental
work, a comparative description of the Turkic languages. This
unparalleled handbook will also be published in paperback next year
(2026). His theory of verbal aspect is presented in his book Aspect in
the Languages of Europe, published in 2023. In this, Johanson proves
that his theory applied to the description of the Turkish verb system
is also excellently suited for an adequate and novel analysis of the
verb systems of European languages.
His contact language model is summarized in his book Code Copying. The
Strength of Languages in Take-over and Carry-over Roles, published in
2023. In addition to presenting the model, the book aims to prove that
copying from other languages does not make the copying language suffer
of “structuritis”, a sickness of the language’s structure. On the
contrary, it can also be a means of survival for endangered languages.
Throughout his work, he was interested in the linguistic evidence of
old Turkish texts in non-Arabic script. His last book, published in
2025, together with his wife Éva Á. Csató, is a translation of a
17th-century Latin-script Bible into Azeri.
Lars has been continuously expanding the online edition of the
Encyclopedia of Turkic Languages and Linguistics Online (Brill), which
contains hundreds of articles and which he initiated and edited. In
the future, Éva Á. Csató together with the editorial board will
continue its editing.
He was convinced that linguistics and literary studies are closely
related. During his life, he wrote numerous articles on Turkic
literary history, which he collected and published in Swedish in a
volume in 2024. His Swedish legacies also include a Turkish grammar,
which he co-authored with Birsel Karakoç and Éva Á. Csató and which
will be published in 2026.
In addition to his research and teaching activities in Mainz, he
published the highly successful Turcologica monograph series at the
Harrassowitz publishing house in Wiesbaden from 1985 onwards, in which
more than 130 volumes have been published to date. From 1995, he
founded and edited the journal Turkic Languages, which had published
29 volumes by the time of his death.
Lars carried out his teaching activities with great enthusiasm and
dedication. As a result, most of his doctoral students have worked as
professors in different countries, following and further developing
their professor's teaching in Turkic linguistics.
As an internationally recognized scholar, he was a visiting professor
or researcher in many countries: in Tokyo, Kyoto, Melbourne, Beijing,
Istanbul at the Boğaziçi University, Yakutsk, Zurich, at the
Max-Planck Institute in Leipzig, and the Swedish Collegium for
Advanced Study in Uppsala. His cherished connection was with the
Department of Altaic Studies, University of Szeged, where in 1999, he
was appointed an honorary doctor, of which he was very proud.
Lars Johanson is survived by his wife Éva Á. Csató, his children Karin
and Andreas and his sister Kerstin.  He will be put to his eternal
rest in Köping, Sweden in the Johanson family grave.

Linguistic Field(s): Genetic Classification
                     Historical Linguistics
                     Linguistic Theories
                     Typology

Subject Language(s): Turkish (tur)

Language Family(ies): Turkic



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