Sergei Yakhontov

Sergey E. Yakhontov (Russian: Серге́й Евге́ньевич Я́хонтов, Sergej Jevgen'evič Jachontov; December 13, 1926 in Leningrad – 28 January 2018) was a Russian linguist, an expert in Chinese, comparative, and general linguistics.

In 1962–1963, he underwent training in Beijing and visited Nanyang University (Singapore) from 1971 to 1972.

[1] Yakhontov studied under Alexander Dragunov and developed on many ideas of his teacher, creating the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) school of Sino-Tibetan linguistics.

He published dozens of articles, many translated into English, Chinese, and Japanese.

In particular, he made major contributions to Old Chinese phonology, proposing the *l medial (now commonly treated as *r) and a rounded vowel *o, which led to the six vowel system that is now accepted by most researchers.