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Prehistory of Uralic studies First accounts on Uralic peoples (?) – Pytheas of Massilia (ca. 380–310 BC): Thule – in Norway or in Estonia (tule- ‘fire’)?? – Tacitus: Germania (98 AD): Fenni etc. (cetera iam fabulosa... Tuomo Pekkanen: Hellusi and Oxiones as shamans with elk or bear (Fi. *oksi) masks?) Jordanes: Getica (551 AD): Thiudos Inaunxis, Vasinabroncae, Merens, Mordens, Imniscaris... Screrefennae, Finni mitissimi... – Ottar of Hålogaland (ca. 890 AD): travels to Finnas, Terfinnas, Beormas Mediaeval sources • Old Russian chronicles (Nestor ca. 1100 AD &c): Finnic (Sum, Jam, Korela) and other FU tribes (Merja, Muroma, Meščera) • Heinrici Chronicon Lyvoniae (12th-13th century): Estonian & Livonian names, some words and phrases • First accounts on Hungarians in old Arabic, Persian & Byzantine sources • early travellers in Russia (Brother Julianus in Magna Hungaria in the 1230s &c) First texts • Hungarian: Funeral sermon (Halotti Beszéd) ca. 1200 • Permic/Komi: Old Komi literary language (14th – 17th/18th century?) • Finnic: Novgorod birchbark letter 292 (early 13th century) Renaissance: Finno-Ugrians enter the European learning • Humanism, Reformation, interest in vernacular languages • Reformation: new literary languages (Finnish, Estonian) • Diplomacy and business relations with Russia > information about Russian minorities First Comparisons: Background • Many loanwords (e.g. Germanic > Finnic, Slavic > Hungarian) correctly identified already in the 16th and 17th century • Ideological background – Early Nationalism > search for classical or biblical origins of the national language – search for national origins and primeval homes – Reformation > cultivation of vernacular languages > interest in language teaching and multilingualism (J. A. Comenius/Komenský 1592–1670 &c), first attempts at European language typology Guesses at FU relatedness • Bengt Skytte (1614–1683): contacts with Comenius, Fi.-Hu. lexical comparisons • Martin Fogel (1635–1675): De Finnicae Linguae Indole Observationes (published 1893): lex. & gramm. comparisons between Finnish and Hungarian • Georg Stiernhielm (1598–1672) in his edition of “Codex argenteus”: bene multa vocabula Ungarica... Finnis communia • Spontaneous observations by 16th-17th century travellers, diplomats etc. Focus on Field Linguistics • Projects initiated at European universities (G. W. von Leibniz &c) • Projects initiated in Russia (D. G. Messerschmidt, P. S. Pallas &c), missionary work in Russia http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/Padova2006/

in the late 18th century • The Carolins (Ph. J. v. Strahlenberg &c) The Founding Fathers • János Sajnovics: Demonstratio idioma Ungarorum et Lapponum idem esse 1770 • Sámuel Gyarmathi: Affinitas linguae Hungaricae cum linguis Fennicae originis grammatice demonstrata 1799 • contemporary phenomena: – Indo-European language relatedness discovered, birth of comparative-historical linguistics – Romantic Nationalism, national revival and language reform in Hungary Institutionalization of FU Studies • First university chairs for national philologies: Hungarian 1791, Finnish 1850 > gradual professionalization of Finno-Ugristics • Dramatic increase in dictionaries, grammars, textbooks etc.; first etymological dictionaries appear (Budenz 1873–81, Donner 1874–88) • FU relatedness and status as discipline established; Indo-Europeanists sporadically interested The First Field Linguists • A. J. Sjögren (1794–1855): Finno-Ugrist and Caucasologist (St. Petersburg Academy) • M. A. Castrén (1813–1852): First Professor of Finnish in Helsinki, founding father of Sibirology and Samoyedology • Antal Reguly (1819–1858): expeditions to Russia and Siberia, most material edited and published only posthumously The Golden Era of FU Field Linguistics in Russia • State support programmes, Finno-Ugrian Society (Helsinki, 1883–) • From ca. 1890 until World War I: stipendiates collecting language, folklore & ethnological observations among the Finno-Ugrians of Russia • Large materials and publication efforts (until late 20th century!): chrestomathies, dictionaries, text samples, folklore Neogrammarian Historical Linguistics • Positivism > focus on material & dialectology • Linguistics as a nature science, sound laws as laws of nature > focus on Lautgeschichte, meticulous phonetic transcription (FU transcription!) • Focus on phonology and lexicology (etymology, Wörter und Sachen), neglect of syntax (and morphology?) 20th-century FU Studies • Paradigm change in linguistics: Separation of comparative-historical Finno-Ugristics from national philologies, marginalization of historical linguistics • Rise and fall of the Soviet Union: – West of the Iron Curtain, Finno-Ugristics becomes an “archive science” – From massive language planning experiments in the 1920s to the Great Terror in the 1930s and increasing silent assimilation after WW II