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Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies
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Welcome to the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies! The Department of Finno-Ugrian Studies at the University of Helsinki is one of the biggest university institutions in the world in its field, and its aims and activities cover extensively the whole Finno-Ugrian (Uralic) language family, providing instruction and research in the following subjects. Small department bearing a world-wide responsibilityThe main tasks of the Department of Finno-Ugrian Studies are twofold:1) to maintain and develop the best traditions of Finno-Ugrian studies, including not only historical and comparative investigations but also study and support of small, less known, and endangered Finno-Ugrian languages; 2) to respond to the demand for more modern and culture-oriented (philological) instruction and research especially in the field of Sámi, Estonian and Hungarian culture, language and literature. Although small in number (as measured by student statistics), our Department is responsible for a vast area, both geographically (from Siberia to Central Europe) and methodologically - the instruction of Estonian or Hungarian language and culture together with Finno-Ugristics could be compared with the demands made upon a hypothetical Department in charge of both comparative Indo-European studies and French philology. Traditions - linguistic and culturalThe Chair of Finnic languages was founded in 1929, and, except for a similar post in Estonia, it is the only one in the world. Finno-Ugrian language studies has had a Chair of its >own since 1892, when the Chair of Finnish (previously also held by distinguished Finno-Ugrists like M. A. Castrén) was split into two.During the 1980's and 1990's, the Department acquired two visiting professorships, one in Estonian language and culture and the other in Hungarian language and culture , and the corresponding "modern philologies" came into being as independent units. These practical and philological approaches also have traditions dating back to the 19th century. The first regular Lecturer' s posts of Estonian and Hungarian at the University of Helsinki were created in 1923 (Estonian) and >1925 (Hungarian, temporarily already 1881-1909). Helsinki, with its traditions, libraries, archives and societies (most notably, the Finno-Ugrian Society), is one of the most important centres of Finno-Ugrian studies worldwide. Besides maintaining its venerable traditions, our Department inevitably plays a significant role as a provider of support and expertise for less known and endangered Finno-Ugrian languages that are mainly spoken in Russia. These are often neglected, as "Finno-Ugristics" abroad often practically concentrates on Finnish, Estonian and/or Hungarian, while in Russia the present economical situation has severely endangered even the relatively scanty resources previously allocated for the study of minority peoples and languages. Staff - finnish and internationalIn addition to the two Professor's posts and the two Visiting Professors, the Department has two lecturers of Estonian and Hungarian and a lecturer of Northern Sámi. Despite the wide spectrum of subjects, the Department has only one postgraduate (junior assistant's) positions. Students and instructionNew students are officially admitted every year (this year's quota is 16 new students for the whole Department). Besides, all students already entitled to study in the Faculty of Arts are accepted. Due to these liberal policies, the number of our active students is difficult to estimate, as many of them are "visitors" of some kind: students of other departments (e.g. Finnish or General Linguistics) or other universities. Among our foreign students, a special group consists of Finno-Ugrian post-graduate students from Russia.The recruitment of new students has been a slight problem, since our Department has no clear professional or career perspectives to offer (outside the few existing posts for linguistic research) and also because modern Finland has increasingly focused its attention on the West. Simultaneously the importance of national subjects in education, including humanities like Finno-Ugrian studies, has yielded to more technological and commercial ways of thinking. The new demands for more reasonable study requirements for students and shorter graduation times are hard to reconcile with the fact that studying in our Department inevitably takes a lot of work, as the languages and cultures in question are more or less unknown to an average first-year student (not to speak of the basics of linguistics or the knowledge of German and Russian, more or less obligatory for most Finno-Ugrists). A great part of our instruction - especially that given by our lecturers - consists of language courses. Practical knowledge of Estonian, Hungarian and/or Northern Sámi is essential for and these courses also attract students from other departments. These languages are taught every year: in addition to elementary and advanced courses proper, courses or lectures in e.g. special questions of grammar, spoken use, language history or translation can also be offered. Other courses in smaller Uralic languages are given by the staff whenever possible; these courses are usually based on a more theoretical, (comparative) linguistic approach. In recent years, visiting native speakers - students or university teachers have also given practical courses. The studies of Finno-Ugrian or Finnic languages (general) also include introductory and general courses on some central aspects (e.g. comparative and historical phonology and morphology). The Estonian and Hungarian "philologies" include >specialization in some area of Estonian or Hungarian culture. In practice, this means usually literature or cultural history, as these areas can to some extent be covered by the Department's own instruction - traditionally, one of our two Estonian or Hungarian lecturers concentrates on linguistics and language teaching, the other is a specialist of literature or (cultural) >history. However, other approaches are also possible, in cooperation with other departments (e.g. a student can specialize in Hungarian music by studying musicology, too). Research and publicationsResearch in Finno-Ugristics has traditionally involved solitary work, already because of our limited numbers. A great part of our research is done in individual projects conceived as part of our professional duties. The larger projects include:The Databank for Endangered Finno-Ugrian Languages; Suomen sanojen alkuperä (the new Finnish etymological dictionary, written at the Research Centre for the Languages of Finland, with Prof. Kulonen as Editor-in-chief); Finno-Ugrian substrate toponyms in Central Russia; The Finnic Language Atlas; Studies in Nenets grammar; Building with Things Native and Borrowed: History and methodology of divergence and contacts of the Finnic languages. In addition to independent research published in book form and in various journals, our staff also write handbooks and textbooks and participate in various activities of learned societies and other organizations. The Department has a publication series, Castrenianumin toimitteita (with its subseries Folia Hungarica ), published jointly with the Finno-Ugrian Society. Location and premisesThe Department of Finno-Ugrian Studies is now temporarily situated in Franzenia (Franzeninkatu 13). The premises are otherwise quite sufficient, but the location has some drawbacks, most notably the long distance between us and other, especially linguistic, departments of the Faculty of Arts. However, we are now relatively close to the Research Centre for the Languages of Finland (Kotus) ; we hope that in future arrangements for the Centre Campus we can be located in the vicinity of both Kotus and other linguistic departments, especially the Department of Finnish.
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