Mihkel Veske ( – ) was an Estonian poet 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 ...

.Henno Jänes, ''Geschichte der estnischen Literatur'', p48.

Life

Mihkel Veske was born in Veske farm, Holstre Parish (now in Metsla village,

Viljandi Parish Viljandi Parish ( et, Viljandi vald) is a rural municipality of Viljandi County, Estonia. It is located around the town of Viljandi, but does not include it. Viljandi Parish was established by merging four municipalities: Paistu, Pärsti, Saa ...

Viljandi County Viljandi County ( et, Viljandi maakond or ''Viljandimaa''; german: Kreis Fellin) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is located in southern Estonia bordering Pärnu, Järva, Jõgeva, Tartu and Valga counties. History Viljandimaa, under the ...

in northern

Livonia Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...

. He attended the village school in Pullerits, the parish school in Paistu and secondary school in Tartu. Between 1866 and 1867 he attended the mission school in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. In 1872 he graduated from the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

with a doctoral degree. He published his doctorate in 1873 on comparative grammar of languages. Veske then returned to Estonia and worked as a journalist for the newspaper '' Eesti Põllumees''. From 1874 to 1887 Veske was a lecturer in Estonian language at the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

. From 1886 until his untimely death in 1890 Veske was a lecturer in

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 ...

at the

University of Kazan Kazan (Volga region) Federal University (russian: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет, tt-Cyrl, Казан (Идел буе) федераль университеты) is a public research uni ...

. During the 1880s, Veske was one of the leading representatives of the

Estonian national awakening The Estonian Age of Awakening ( et, Ärkamisaeg) is a period in history where Estonians came to acknowledge themselves as a nation deserving the right to govern themselves. This period is considered to begin in the 1850s with greater rights bein ...

. He belonged to the strongly patriotic groups around the Estonian intellectuals and journalists

Carl Robert Jakobson Carl Robert Jakobson ( – ) was an Estonian writer, politician and teacher active in the Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire. He was one of the most important persons of the Estonian national awakening in the second half of the 19th centur ...

. From 1882 to 1886 Veske was the President of the

Society of Estonian Literati The Society of Estonian Literati ( et, Eesti Kirjameeste Selts - EKmS) was an influential association of Estonian intellectuals based in Tartu between the years 1871 and 1893.Toivo U. Raun, ''Estonia and the Estonians'', Hoover Press, 2001, , p75 ...

. 1884 Veske edited the magazine ''Oma Maa'' (My Land). Veske was one of the first Estonian linguists to use the comparative method of historical linguistics. Between 1875 and 1884, he spent the summers traveling, comparing the dialects in different regions. In 1880 he visited

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 ...

, and in 1885/86

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

. He advocated an Estonian standard language on the basis of the North Estonian dialect and phonetic spelling. During his time in Kazan, he studied the languages of the Mari and

Mordvin The Mordvins (also Unified Mordvin people, Mordvinians, Mordovians; russian: мордва, Mordva, Mordvins (no equivalents in Moksha and Erzya)) is an obsolete but official term used in the Russian Federation to refer both to Erzyas and Moks ...

, and dealt with the cultural relations between the Finnic and Slavic peoples. In 1881-83 he created a two volume textbook 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 ...

. After his death 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 an ...

, Veske's body was returned to Estonia. He is buried at the Uus-Jaani cemetery in Tartu (Dorpat). The bronze bust on his tomb was created by the Estonian sculptor

August Weizenberg August Ludwig Weizenberg (6 April 1837 – 22 November 1921) was an Estonian sculptor. Weizenberg was born in the inn of Ritsike, near Kanepi, southeast Estonia. Weizenberg's father was a shoemaker and he learnt how to carve wood in Erastv ...

(now lost).

Poetry

Veske's poetry is inspired by the simplicity of the popular Estonian folk song. Veske also collected folk poetry. He translated numerous

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

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 ...

and Hungarian folk songs into Estonian.

Poetry collection

*''Viisidega laulud'' (1874) *''Dr. Veske laulud'' (1899) *''Mihkel Veske laulud'' (1931)

References

1843 births 1890 deaths People from Viljandi Parish People from the Governorate of Livonia Estonian male poets 19th-century Estonian poets Academic staff of the University of Tartu Estonian translators Translators to Estonian 19th-century translators 19th-century poets 19th-century male writers Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Kazan Federal University Burials at Raadi cemetery {{Estonia-translator-stub