Oiva Johannes Tuulio (17 January 1878,

Pyhäjärvi Pyhäjärvi (1993–1995 ''Pyhäsalmi'') is a town and municipality in the south of Northern Ostrobothnia region, Finland. Pyhäjärvi also borders the Northern Savonia and Central Finland regions. The town belongs to the subregion of Nivala–Ha ...

– 21 June 1941,

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 ...

) was a Finnish linguist specializing in the

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

. He bore the surname ''Tallgren'' until 1933. Tuulio was son to provost Ivar Markus Tallgren and Jenny Maria Montin. He earned his PhD in 1907, was awarded the title of

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 ...

in 1910 and served as extraordinary professor of the

Southern Romance languages The Southern Romance languages are a primary branch of the Romance languages. According to the classification of linguists such as Leonard (1980) and Agard (1984), the Southern Romance family is composed of Sardinian, Corsican, and the southern ...

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 ...

from 1928 to 1941. Before accepting the professorship, he had refused offers from the universities of

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

and

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. He made study trips to Paris 1901–1902 and to Southern Europe 1903–1904, 1907–1908, 1926 and 1931. Tuulio pioneered the field of Spanish research in Finland; his PhD thesis, ''Estudios sobre la Gaya de Segovia'' (1907), was the first study about Spanish written in that language at the University of Helsinki. Tuulio had to obtain permission to write it in Spanish and the defense was held in French. He also studied the Arabic influence on Spanish as well the status of Sicilian within the Romance family. His other interests included

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

. Together with his brother, archaeologist Aarne Michaël Tallgren, he published ''Idrisi, la Finlande et les autres pays baltiques orientaux'' (1930), in which he attempted to show similarities between place names on the maps by

Muhammad al-Idrisi Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي; la, Dreses; 1100 – 1165), was a Muslim geographer, cartograp ...

and place names in Finland and the Baltics. He returned to this topic in his ''Du nouveau sur Idrisi'' (1936). Tuulio made an impact as a popularizer of the Spanish language and culture in Finland, as he organized cultural events and produced works aimed at a general audience, such as

travel writing Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel can ...

about Spain. He was appointed auxiliary member of the

Finnish Academy of Science and Letters The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (Finnish ''Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia''; Latin ''Academia Scientiarum Fennica'') is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the Fi ...

in 1910 and full member in 1925. Oiva Tuulio was married to writer Tyyni Tuulio since 1917. They had three sons; the eldest son was killed in the beginning of the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...

. Tuulio succumbed to

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

in 1941. He is buried in the

Hietaniemi Cemetery The Hietaniemi cemetery ( fi, Hietaniemen hautausmaa, sv, Sandudds begravningsplats) is located mainly in the Lapinlahti quarter and partly in the Etu-Töölö district of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is the location for Finnish state ...

in Helsinki.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tuulio, Oiva 1878 births 1941 deaths Hispanists People from Pyhäjärvi Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Members of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters