Nicolaas van Wijk (; 4 October 1880 – 25 March 1941) was a Dutch linguist, literary scholar, and philanthropist. He is best known for his contributions to Slavistics, serving as the first chair of the Balto-Slavic languages at Leiden University from 1913 until his death in 1941.
Born to a family of Dutch Reformed preachers, Van Wijk began his academic life studying Dutch literature before becoming involved in comparative and historical linguistics. After receiving his doctorate from the University of Amsterdam, he secured a grant to work at Leipzig University and traveled to Russia to study the language there, where he became enthralled by Russian literature. He was then hired as a curator and deputy librarian at the Royal Library of the Netherlands before being hired as a professor at Leiden University. His publications led to him being selected for the newly-created chair of Balto-Slavic languages, which was controversial as many prominent scholars in Russia disapproved. Following his appointment, he began a trip across Eastern Europe in order to acquire books in his fields for the university's library and establish contacts in academia there.
Beginning shortly after the outbreak of World War I until his death during World War II, Van Wijk was a noted philanthropist. He had allowed several people from Eastern Europe to stay with him in the Netherlands as they escaped war and persecution, including Polish Jews and Russian dissidents of communism. In 1915, he traveled to Poland to oversee the application of aid provided from the Netherlands. His contacts with Eastern Europeans led to his being suspected by the Dutch government of being a communist, though in reality Van Wijk was a harsh critic of communism. Following his death, his personal library, which comprised around 7,000 books, was donated to the Leiden University Library.
Early life and education
Nicolaas van Wijk was born on 4 October 1880 in Delden, the only son of Aart Willem van Wijk, a liberal minister in the Dutch Reformed Church from Weesp, and Bregitta (), the daughter of Weesp's . The youngest of five, Aart and both of his brothers – Pieter and Nico – were all Reformed ministers, as was their father for whom Nicolaas was named. On 30 October, Nicolaas was baptized.
The family moved to Zwolle in 1886 following Aart's assignment as the new minister; Nicolaas shortly thereafter attended the local . Following a successful entrance exam, he began schooling at the in 1892. During his time at the gymnasium, Van Wijk studied Dutch and geography under the tutelage of , a Frisian linguist who taught Dutch from a descriptivist and scientific lens and was a key figure in the modernizing linguistic education. Known for his "unbridled energy and pig-headedness" in teaching this way – for which he was reprimanded by the scholastic board – he remained an important influence, correspondent, and confidant after Van Wijk's graduation. Van Wijk and his classmate became good friends and intellectual rivals. Van Wijk was a model student with exceptionally high marks in Dutch history, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew, although he struggled in High German. He struggled similarly in mathematics, but by the end of his schooling he had earned the highest score during the graduating exams. After completing gymnasium in 1898, Van Wijk began studying Dutch literature at the University of Amsterdam.
On 3 October, Van Wijk moved to and began studying under , , and in history, geography, and , respectively. Kan was particularly impressed with Van Wijk's work, writing that he had "given ample proof of serious study, insight and the gift of expressing himself clearly and succinctly." Van Wijk had made an impression with another professor, Uhlenbeck, then employed by the university as a though the following year he was promoted to a full professorship. Van Wijk recounted during his inaugural lecture in 1913: "From the first day that I heard a Wulfila lecture I have worked under your influence." He met Van Wijk regularly on Saturday afternoons to teach him Sanskrit. Following Uhlenbeck's departure from the university, his professorship was filled by his colleague Boer. During this period, Van Wijk kept a remarkably low profile; it is likely that he was an attendee of the Jacob van Maelant Association, a student's association for Dutch literature, but – outside of one essay lecture he gave on , a poem in the Poetic Edda, in 1900 which ended in a debate with David Wijnkoop – he does not appear to have had any appreciable role in the association. It is possible that he assisted in inviting guest speakers for the ('Literary Students Union'), a student organization for classicists and Netherlandicists.
After passing his exam – granting him the equivalent of a master's degree – in May 1901, Van Wijk returned to Zwolle on 7 October to begin writing his doctoral dissertation. Around this time, Van Wijk began taking steps to choose comparative linguistics as his topic of study. On 24 November, he sent a letter to Wilhelm Streitberg, editor of the academic journal ('Indo-European Research'), requesting his article be published; he wrote that Uhlenbeck had urged him to send the article for publication after reviewing it himself. It is unknown what Streitberg's reply was, but the article – entitled ('On the Original Stem Form of the So-Called - and -Stems') – was not published.
In 1902, after receiving a grant from the ('University of Amsterdam Association'), Van Wijk completed his doctoral dissertation, ('The Nominal Genitive Singular in Indo-European in its Relationship to the Nominative'). Van Wijk argued that certain nominative and genitive singular forms, such as in Latin and , arose from a common origin. Although it was initially met with skepticism, the paper was considered bold and received renewed interest several decades later. Van Wijk, however, later distanced himself from the dissertation, writing ten years later: "I asserted a great deal in my own dissertation which, on further reflection, appears to me all too fantastical and which I have increasingly come to regret". Still, the dissertation had its supporters; Jacobus van Ginneken, another of Uhlenbeck's doctoral students, wrote about Uhlenbeck's reaction to it thus:
The thesis was thereafter published in book form in two editions by the Zwolle-based publisher Tijl. The book form was dedicated to Van Wijk's parents.
Early career
Following his doctorate, Van Wijk attended Leipzig University, which had become a center for Indo-European studies and historical and comparative linguistics around this time under Karl Brugmann. On 24 September, he received word that he would receive a grant from the ; the grant, secured by Boer and Uhlenbeck, authorized him sixty guilders (ƒ) per month for up to ten months. At the time, the Netherlands had compulsory military service, but he shortly received an exemption from service; on 9 October, he received a letter from the provincial Queen's Commissioner informing him that he was "irrevocably exempted from service" on the grounds that he was his parents' "only legal son". Van Wijk registered his departure from Zwolle on 15 October and registered at Leipzig University ten days later. At the time, Van Wijk considered Karl Brugmann and Brugmann's pupil Hermann Hirt to be "representatives of the two mainstreams of thought" in historical linguistics and wrote that he considered himself more sympathetic to Hirt than Brugmann.: "So far, Hirt's direction has held for me the greater attraction [...]". While at Leipzig, Van Wijk attended the lectures and of three specialists: Brugmann, whose work focused on the Greek and Italic languages; Ernst Windisch, on Sanskrit; and August Leskien, on the Slavic languages. He was notably taken with Leskien and found his courses to be the most interesting and impressively condensed; Leskien had covered the grammars of Proto-Slavic, Bulgarian, Serbian, Russian, and Ukrainian comprehensively – and Polish partially – in a single semester. He later recounted that:
Although Hirt advised Van Wijk not take his classes as they were aimed at novices to the field, the two commonly discussed their work at Hirt's home.
In 1903, Van Wijk left Leipzig for Moscow. He had opportunities to go to Budapest, Helsinki, and Lithuania, but chose Moscow in part because Uhlenbeck had spoken to him enthusiastically about Russia. Van Wijk considered it crucial to speak a language that was different than his mother tongue, a conviction that predated – but was encouraged by – his companionship with Hirt. He wrote that he had chosen Russian for three reasons. First, he considered it the most difficult and believed this would help him learn other Slavic languages more quickly. Second, he believed that Russian's preservation of Proto-Slavic accent would be useful in further study. Third, Russia in general – and Moscow in particular – gave him the best opportunity to make connections with other academics in the field and give him the opportunity to learn the language with the prestige dialect, rather than learning Russian in the Empire's peripheral territories.
Although Van Wijk attempted to learn Russian before his departure, once in Russia he found it difficult to converse with Russians and understand the lectures. He boarded with two Russian families, one in Moscow and another in the countryside nearby, for about six months and became fluent in Russian, writing later in his report: "I have managed to learn the language in such a way that when I speak or read Russian, I feel the spoken and written just like a Russian does." Van Wijk wrote that he considered the trip successful and that he gained a new subject of study: Russian literature. Following his return to the Netherlands in August, he attempted – and failed – to secure a . In November, Van Wijk moved to Arnhem and began teaching at the Hogere Burgerschool there, though he left less than two months later. Sometime in early January 1904, Van Wijk departed for Goes to take another teaching job at the state-run school there. Despite the relative isolation there, he remained in touch with academics; he reported his academic journey to the board of the and and Bakhuis Roozeboom used the report to advocate that a chair should be created for Russian.
While living in Goes, Van Wijk began publishing work in several academic journals, including , ('Journal of Dutch Linguistics and Literature'), and ('Language and Literature'). He published several papers on Dutch and at least one each on Greek syntax, the , and the Indo-European ablaut. He also published a noteworthy paper comparing Old High German first-person plural verb declensions to their Slavic counterparts in Serbian and Slovene.
On 4 June 1905, Johan Tjeenk Willink – a former schoolmate of Van Wijk's at gymnasium – wrote to inquire about the latter writing a Dutch grammar textbook for young students. Tjeenk Willink offered to pay ƒ35 per quire of 16 pages, estimating the number of quires to be between ten and twelve. Van Wijk had requested to use the new orthography advocated by their old teacher Buitenrust Hettema, but Tjeenk Willink intended to sell the books to schools, who had not received any official approval from the minister of the interior, and so denied the request. Still, Van Wijk assented and requested for Buitenrust Hettema to review his copy. He finished the book early and half-a-quire oversized, but Tjeenk Willink accepted the book and paid Van Wijk accordingly. The book – ('The Dutch Language') – was successful and saw six editions, though despite this success it was ultimately recommended for older students than its intended audience. The book received positive acclaim for its clarity and accuracy and found use at universities.