Karl August Engelbrekt Ahlqvist, who wrote as A. Oksanen (7 August 1826 – 20 November 1889), was a Finnish professor, poet, scholar of the

Finno-Ugric languages Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...

, author, and literary critic. Today, he is best remembered as the sharpest critic of writer

Aleksis Kivi Aleksis Kivi (; born Alexis Stenvall; 10 October 1834 – 31 December 1872) was a Finnish author who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, '' Seitsemän veljestä'' ("Seven Brothers") in 1870. He is also known for his 1864 ...

, who later rose to the position of the national author of Finland.

Biography

He was born in

Kuopio Kuopio (, ) is a Finnish city and municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia. It has a population of , which makes it the most populous municipality in Finland. Along with Joensuu, Kuopio is one of the major urban, economic, and c ...

, Finland. He was the illegitimate child of Baron Johan Mauritz Nordenstam (1802-1882); his mother Maria Augusta Ahlqvist (1806-1886) was a servant. He became a student at the

Imperial Alexander University The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

(now University of Helsinki) in 1844. He was a Philosophy candidate 1853, Licentiate of Law 1854 and took a Doctor of Philosophy in 1859. In 1863, he became a professor of Finnish language and literature at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

. He became Dean of the History-Linguistic Section 1882–1884. He served as the university's Rector from 1884 to 1887. He resigned as emeritus in 1888. He died in 1889 at Helsinki, Finland. In 1846 and 1847, he traveled through the eastern part of Ostrobothnia, as well as Finnish and Russian

Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance fo ...

, partly gathering local folk tales and partly to investigate minorities languages. In 1854–55, he spent on research trips among the Finnish tribes in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

provinces, the province of

Olonets Olonets (russian: Оло́нец; krl, Anus, olo, Anuksenlinnu; fi, Aunus, Aunuksenkaupunki or Aunuksenlinna) is a town and the administrative center of Olonetsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located on the Olonka River to ...

and eastern Russia and

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

. Between 1856 and 1859, he studied Finno-Ugric languages in the areas of

Volga River The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchm ...

and the

Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

. In 1861 and 1862, he was in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

returning with the results of his ethnographic and linguistic observations. As a scholar Ahlqvist contributed to reformation of the

Finnish language Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedis ...

, and was highly esteemed for his work in the Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian and related languages. He founded the Finnish language magazine ''Suometar'' in 1847 which was published until 1866 and later also founded the Finnish linguistic journal ''Kieletär'' which was published between 1871 and 1875. Ahlqvist was also the first to translate the works of

Johan Ludvig Runeberg Johan Ludvig Runeberg (; 5 February 1804 – 6 May 1877) was a Finnish priest, lyric and epic poet. He wrote exclusively in Swedish. He is considered a national poet of Finland. He is the author of the lyrics to (''Our Land'', ''Maamme'' in Fi ...

(1804–1877) into Finnish. As a literary critic Ahlqvist was uncompromising. His pungent criticism of ''Seitsemän veljestä'' by

(1834–1872) caused the publishers to postpone its issue.

Works

* ''Satu'', 1847 * ''Bidrag till finska. Finska språkforskningens historia'', 1854 * ''Viron nykyisemmästä kirjallisuudesta'', 1855 * ''Wotisk grammatik jemte språkprof och ordförteckning'', 1855 * ''Anteckningar i Nordtschudiskan'', 1859 * ''Muistelmia matkoilta Venäjällä vuosina 1845–58'', 1859 * ''Läran on verben i mordwinska'', 1859 * ''Laulu kellosta'' (

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

), 1859 (translator) * ''Väkinäinen naiminen'' (

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

) (translator) * ''Kavaluus ja rakkaus'' (Schiller), 1863 (translator) * ''Säkeniä I-II'', 1860, 1868 * ''Versuch einer mokscha-mordwinischen gramatik nebst texten und wörterverzeichniss'', 1861 * ''Suomalainen runousoppi kielelliseltä kannalta'', 1863 * ''Auszüge aus einer neuen grammatik der finnischen sprache'', 1868 * ''Suomalainen murteiskirja'', 1869 * ''Det vestfinska språkets kulturord'', 1871 * ''Uusi suomalainen lukemisto suomalais-ruotsalaisen sanakirjan kanssa'', 1873 * ''Suomen kielen rakennus'', 1877 * ''Täydellinen Kalevalan sanasto'', 1878 * ''Unter wogulen und ostjaken'', 1883 * ''Elias Lönnrot'', 1884 * ''Tutkimuksia Kalevalan tekstissä ja tämän tarkastusta,'' 1886 * ''Kalevalan karjalaisuus,'' 1887 * ''Suomalaisia puhekokeita,'' 1889 * ''Wogulischer Wörterverzeichniss,'' 1891 * ''Wogulische sprachtexte nebst entwurf einer wogulischen grammatik aus dem nacthklasse des verfassers.'' Hrsg. Von Yrjö Wichman, 1894 * ''Oksasen runoja'', 1898 * ''Kirjeet'', 1982

References

External links

* *
August Ahlqvist in 375 humanists 31.1.2015, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahlqvist, August 1826 births 1889 deaths People from Kuopio Writers from North Savo Academic staff of the University of Helsinki University of Helsinki alumni Finnish male poets Finnish Finno-Ugrists Finnish literary critics 19th-century Finnish poets 19th-century male writers Rectors of the University of Helsinki