Valentin Vydrin

Valentin Feodosyevich Vydrin is a Russian Africanist born on February 6, 1961, in Belogorka, Leningrad Oblast. He served as the head of the Department of Ethnography of African Peoples at the Kunstkamera until 2011 and held the titles of Professor and Doctor of Philology. Vydrin graduated from the Department of African Studies at Saint Petersburg State University, where he later became a lecturer. Since 2010, he has been a professor of Mande languages at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in Paris.

Vydrin is a prominent author of scientific works on Mande languages, published in Russian, French, and English. His publications include dictionaries, treatises on grammatical features, and studies on the genetic classification of Mandé languages. Notable works by Vydrin include *Manding-English Dictionary (Maninka, Bamana)*, *The Mandé Language Family of West Africa: Location and Genetic Classification*, and *Язык бамана: Учебное пособие*. He has also contributed to journals such as *Вопросы языкознания* and *Acta Linguistica Petropolitana*.

Vydrin’s daughter, Alexandra Vydrina (1988–2021), was also a linguist. His academic work focuses on the phonological typology, tonal systems, and morphological reconstruction of Proto-Mande languages.