Hjalmar Falk

Peterolsen Groth Hjalmar Seierstedt Falk (2 April 1859 – 2 November 1928) was a Norwegian linguist and philologist.

A professor of philology at the University in Kristiania for about thirty years, he is particularly known for his etymological dictionary of the Norwegian and Danish language in cooperation with Alf Torp.

Early life and education

Falk was born in Vang Municipality in Hedmark on 2 April 1859, a son of merchant Gustav Falk and Dorothea Margarethe Sejersted. In 1903 he married Laura Caroline Staff. and was appointed a docent. He received his doctorate in 1888 with the dissertation Om nomina agentis i det oldnorske Sprog (Nomina Agentis in Old Norwegian).

He died in Oslo on 2 November 1928.

Selected works Vanskabninger i det norske sprog, populaere foredrag (Errors in Norwegian, Popular Lectures, 1893) Sprogets visne blomster: fortsættelse af "Vanskabninger i det norske sprog." (The Language's Withered Flowers: A Continiation of "Errors in Norwegian", 1894) Kulturminder i Ord (Culture Memories in Words, 1900)

Positions and awards Chair of the Norwegian Students' Society (1895) Dean of the Faculty of History and Arts (1906–1909) Election to and chair of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav (1911)