Ivar Andreas Aasen (
August 5,
1813 –
September 23,
1896) was a
Norwegian philologist,
lexicographer,
playwright and
poet.Aasen was born at Åsen in
Ørsta (then Ørsten), in the district of
Sunnmøre, on the west coast of
Norway. His father, a small peasant-farmer named Ivar Jonsson, died in 1826. He was brought up to farmwork, but he assiduously cultivated all his leisure in reading, and when he was eighteen he opened an elementary school in his native parish. In 1833 he entered the household of H. C. Thoresen, the husband of the eminent writer Magdalene Thoresen, in
Herøy (then Herø), and there he picked up the elements of
Latin. Gradually, and by dint of infinite patience and concentration, the young peasant became master of many languages, and began the scientific study of their structure.
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