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PAUL ARISTE - Academician, linguist and folklorist, the legendary grand old man of language

2009-08-26 15:30:47
Tartu University has also contributed to the preservation of Latvia's Livonian heritage through the energetic work of Finno-Ugric research linguist Paul Ariste. He has conducted several expeditions to Latvia and collected valuable materials in this regard.

/The President of Latvia, H. E. Vaira Vike-Freiberga/

During his long career as an academician, Paul Ariste devoted much of his energies to linguistics and folklore. But every now and then, he also published the results of his research into Finno-Ugric literature, history, and anthropology. Even today, Paul Ariste is the best known and most often quoted Estonian academician of the second half of the 20th century.

Paul Ariste was born into a blacksmith's family in Rääbise on 3 February 1905. From 1925 to 1929, he studied Estonian and German philology at the University of Tartu, and in 1931 he received his master's degree. He also studied at the universities of Helsinki, Uppsala, and Hamburg. In 1933, he became a lecturer at the University of Tartu. In 1939, he received his doctorate of philology.

Paul Ariste Paul Ariste was given the honorary doctorate of Helsinki University in 1969, Szegedi University in 1971, Tampere University in 1975, and Latvian University in 1989. He was a remarkable lecturer, teaching general linguistics, and several languages, including not only the Finno-Ugric languages, but also Swedish, Latvian, and Esperanto. He was a true polyglot, who could immerse himself in the history, literature, and folklore of many nations. He even did noteworthy research in the fields of Gypsy and Jewish literature and culture.

By the 1930s, he was a highly acclaimed folklorist and linguist. He was the leading researcher of the Votian language in the 20th century. He developed Finno-Ugric studies in Tartu to an internationally acclaimed level. Ariste published as many as 1,300 articles, including about 50 monographs. Paul Ariste died in Tartu on 2 February 1990.