Vasily Abaev

Vaso (Vasily) Ivanovich Abaev (Ossetian: Абайты Иваны фырт Васо, Georgian: ვასილ აბაევი, Russian: Василий Иванович Абаев, also transilterated as Abaity and Abayev) (15 December 1900 – 18 March 2001) was an ethnically Ossetian Soviet linguist specializing in Ossetian and Iranian linguistics. He was born in Kobi, Georgia, Russian Empire.

Abaev studied at the Gymnasium of Tiflis in 1910-1918 and graduated from the Leningrad University in 1925. He studied Iranian philology under Friedman's direction and, as many other young linguists, fell under the influence of the controversial Nicholas Marr, joining Marr's Yaphetic Institute in 1928. After Marr's death, he moved to broad Iranian topics and field work in Ossetia until the end of the World War II. In 1945 he moved back to Leningrad where he published his work on the Nart sagas, a dictionary and grammar book of Ossetian. With Joseph Stalin's condemnation of Marr's linguistic theories the Yaphetic Institute was purged, but Abaev was spared.