Gustaf John Ramstedt (October 22, 1873 – November 25, 1950) was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

diplomat, orientalist and

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. He was also an early Finnish

Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...

, and chairman of the Esperanto-Association of Finland.

Biography

Ramstedt was born in Ekenäs in Southern Finland. As an undergraduate, he attended 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 ...

, where he studied

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 ...

under Eemil Nestor Setälä. He was later attracted to the study of

Altaic languages Altaic (; also called Transeurasian) is a controversial proposed language family that would include the Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic language families and possibly also the Japonic and Koreanic languages. Speakers of these languages are ...

and went to

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

to study the

Mongolian language Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia and both the most widely spoken and best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residen ...

at the suggestion of

Otto Donner Otto Donner (15 December 1835, Kokkola – 17 September 1909, Helsinki) was a Finnish linguist and politician. Biography He was professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Indo-European linguistics at the University of Helsinki, but also studied ...

. He later became professor extraordinarius in

at the same university. During his expeditions in Mongolia, Ramstedt become a personal friend to highly educated Buryat Mongol

Agvan Dorzhiev Agvan Lobsan Dorzhiev, also Agvan Dorjiev or Dorjieff and Agvaandorj (russian: link=no, Агван Лобсан Доржиев, bua, Доржиин Агбан, bo, ངག་དབང་བློ་བཟང་; 1853, Khara-Shibir ulus, — Ja ...

who acted as full representative of 13th

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current D ...

, Thubten Gyatso and was a full member in Tibetan Government,

Kashag The Kashag (; ), was the governing council of Tibet during the rule of the Qing dynasty and post-Qing period until the 1950s. It was created in 1721, and set by Qianlong Emperor in 1751 for the Ganden Phodrang in the 13-Article Ordinance for ...

as Minister of Treasures (Finances). Ramstedt was one of the few foreigners who was invited to visit Lhasa, but unfortunately the coming events prevented his visit to Tibet. In 1911 the Mongolian delegation in St.Petersburg asked Ramstedt to act as mediator with

Imperial Russian government The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

to support the Mongolian Independence from Chinese Empire. He managed to confirm the Russians of the good will of Mongolian representatives and they supplied 15.000 modern rifles to the Mongolians to start the uprising against the Chinese rule in Mongolia. In 1912, when Ramstedt was in Urga,

, the Mongol leaders; Da Lama, Chin Van Khanddorj, and Haisan-Gung asked him to help with the negotiations with the Russian representatives which did not accept the Mongol idea to unify Urjanhai,

(including also

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

) and Buryat Mongolia to one modern

Mongol State The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member of ...

. Ramstedt advised the Mongol leaders to seek also international recognition for their state from other states, particularly Japan, Britain, Germany, France and United States. Ramstedt did not know anything of the secret agreement between

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and Japan where

was promised by both States to be kept as a part of China. Following the independence of Finland in 1917, he became

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

's first envoy to Japan, as a '' Chargé d'affaires'', from 1920 to 1929, during which he was a frequent guest lecturer at

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

, where he influenced

Kunio Yanagita Kunio Yanagita (柳田國男, Yanagita Kunio, July 31, 1875 – August 8, 1962) was a Japanese author, scholar, and folklorist. He began his career as a bureaucrat, but developed an interest in rural Japan and its folk traditions. This led to a ...

, Izuru Shimura,

Kyōsuke Kindaichi was a Japanese linguist, chiefly known for his dictations of yukar, or sagas of the Ainu people, as well as his study of the Matagi dialect. He is the author of the dictionary '' Meikai Kokugo Jiten''. Biography Kindaichi was born in Morioka, ...

, and Shimpei Ogura. He acquired command of the Japanese language remarkably quickly. Ramstedt's actions in Japan played a part in resolving the

Åland Islands dispute The Åland Islands dispute was one of the first issues put up for arbitration by the League of Nations on its formation. Åland's population's demand for self-determination was not met and sovereignty over the islands was retained by Finland, b ...

. While stationed in Tokyo he provided a detailed memo about the Finnish view of the situation for use of the Japanese delegation in the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. Japan sided with Finland on the matter and consequently provided important support. Ramstedt is one of the earliest

esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperant ...

s in Finland, learning the language in 1895. He became chairman of the Esperanto Association of Finland in 1936, remaining in that position either to 1939

Jouko Lindstedt Jouko Lindstedt (born in 1955) is a Finnish linguist and a professor at the University of Helsinki. Lindstedt is a member of the Academy of Esperanto and was nominated as the Esperantist of the Year in 2000 (with Hans Bakker and Mauro La Torre ) by ...

Lingva Tereno: Scientisto, diplomato, esperantisto
(part 2) or 1941. During his stay in Japan, he both helped and got helped by the

Esperanto movement The Esperanto movement, less commonly referred to as Esperantism ( eo, Esperantismo), is a movement to disseminate the use of the planned international language Esperanto.See the definition in theDeklaracio pri la Esenco de la Esperantismo (" ...

there. He also made young poet

Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese novelist and poet of children's literature from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, a vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social act ...

interested in Esperanto. Ramstedt was a pioneer in the study of numeral etymologies of a number of Asian language families (Turkic, Mongolian, Tungusic, as well as the possible isolate Korean).Krippes, Karl, 1992, "The Phonetic History of Korean Numerals," ''Korean Linguistics'' 7:1–9 He also did extensive work on the general etymological history of Korean. Ramstedt died in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

Publications

*''Bergtscheremissische Sprachstudien'', Helsinki, 1902 (Hill) *"Über die Zahlwörter der altaischen Sprachen," ''JSFOu'' 24: 1–24, 1905 * ''Kalmückisches Wörterbuch'', Helsinki, 1935 *"Studies in Korean Etymology," ''MSFOu'' 95, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1949 * ''A Korean Grammar.'' Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen Seura, 1939. * ''Einführung in die altaische Sprachwissenschaft'', 'Introduction to Altaic Linguistics', 2 volumes. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1952–1957.

References

*Poppe, Nicholas. "Obituary: Gustav John Ramstedt 1873–1950." '' Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' 14, no. 1/2 (1951): 315–22. * Halen, Harry. ''Biliktu Baksi. The Knowledgeable Teacher. G.J. Ramstedt's Career as a Scholar. Mémoires de la Société de la Finno-Ougrienne'', vol. 229, Vammala: Finno-Ugrian Society 1998.

Notes

External links

"First envoy G.J. Ramstedt" by Kauko Laitinen, the Embassy of Finland in Tokyo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramstedt, Gustaf John 1873 births 1950 deaths People from Raseborg People from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Linguists from Finland Swedish-speaking Finns Mongolists Finnish Esperantists Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Paleolinguists Linguists of Altaic languages