Arvo Martti Oktavianus Räsänen (June 25, 1893 – September 7, 1976) 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 ...

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 ...

and

turkologist Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative con ...

. He operated as a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

of turkology at

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 ...

from 1926 forwards, and as an additional professor of Turkic

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

from 1944 to 1961. Räsänen studied in Finland and also in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

from 1915 to 1917 and in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

during 1924 to 1925. Räsänen did many exploration trips to

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. During his time in Turkey, he collected local poetry, songs, fairy tales and stories. He later released the material in a 600 page, four-part publication named ''Türkische Sprachproben aus Mittel-Anatolien''. Räsänen’s field of research was history of words, the relation between Turkic and

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 ...

and some other similar subjects. He showed interest towards the local Tatar community. Räsänen was a supporter of the Ural-Altaic language hypothesis. His parents were

Volksschule The German term ''Volksschule'' generally refers to compulsory education, denoting an educational institution every person (i.e. the people, ''Volk'') is required to attend. In Germany and Switzerland it is equivalent to a combined primary (' ...

teachers Antti Räsänen and Kaisa Sofia Vuolevi. His brother was a lichen researcher and biologist Veli Räsänen. Martti Räsänen was married to a German woman named Auguste Brunhilde Ludwig. Räsänen was originally from Simo. He died in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Works by Räsänen

* ''Die tschuwassischen Lehnwörter im Tscheremissischen''. (Ph.D. thesis.) Suomalais-ugrilaisen seuran toimituksia 48. (Helsinki 1920) * ''Die tatarischen Lehnwörter im Tscheremissischen''. Suomalais-ugrilaisen seuran toimituksia 50. (Helsinki 1923) * ''Eine sammlung von māni-liedern aus Anatolien''. Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, Helsinki (1926) * ''Chansons populaires turques du nord-est de l'Anatolie Recueillies ...''. Studia Orientalia 4, 2. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1931) * ''Türkische Sprachproben aus Mittel-Anatolien 1: Sivas vil''. Studia Orientalia 5, 2. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1933) * ''Türkische Sprachproben aus Mittel-Anatolien 2: Jozgat vil''. Studia Orientalia 6, 2. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1935) * ''Türkische Sprachproben aus Mittel-Anatolien 3: Ankara, Kaiseri, Kiršehir, Cǎnkiri, Afion Vil''. Studia Orientalia 8, 2. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1936) * ''Puolikuun nousu: Havaintoja uudesta Turkista ja sen kansasta''. Suomen itämaisen seuran kansantajuisia julkaisuja n:o 8. Gummerus (1937) * ''Venäläis-suomalainen sotilassanakirja''. Otava (1940) * ''Türkische Sprachproben aus Mittel-Anatolien. 4, Konja Vil''. Studia Orientalia 10. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1942) * ''Venäläinen sotilaslyhennyssanasto''. Päämajan tiedusteluosaston julkaisu. (1943) * ''Ein Ueberblick über die ältesten Denkmäler der türkischen Sprachen''. Studia Orientalia 13, 1. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1946) * ''Materialien zur Lautgeschichte der türkischen Sprachen''. Studia Orientalia 15. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1949) * ''Materialien zur Morphologie der türkischen Sprachen''. Studia Orientalia 21. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1955) * ''Uralaltaische Wortforschungen''. Studia Orientalia 18, 3. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1955) * ''Türkische Miszellen''. Studia Orientalia 25, 1. Societas Orientalis Fennica, Helsinki (1960) * ''Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachen''. Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae 17, 1. Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, Helsinki (1969) * ''Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachen 2: Wortregister''. Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae 17, 2. Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, Helsinki (1971)

Sources

1893 births 1976 deaths Turkologists {{Finland-linguist-stub