Gustaf Renvall (23 September 1781 – 22 January 1841) 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 ...

clergyman, educator and

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

. Gustaf Renvall was born in

Halikko Halikko () is a former municipality of Finland that existed until December 31, 2008. On January 1, 2009, the municipality was merged with the larger neighboring Salo. Before the merge Halikko had become a rapidly urbanizing rural area. It was l ...

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 ...

. He became a student at the

Royal Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo ( sv, Kungliga Akademin i Åbo or ; la, Regia Academia Aboensis; fi, Turun akatemia) was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country ...

(now University of Helsinki) in 1801 and received his Master of Arts in 1810. He was ordained as a Lutheran priest in 1806. Renvall started 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 con ...

at the Academy of Turku and later was named assistant professor of education. In 1819, he became a clergyman in Uskela and vicar in 1829. He received the title of professor in 1827 and in 1830 received an honorary doctorate in theology. Among Renvall's most important works was a dictionary which for more than three decades was the main source of scholarly knowledge 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 ...

. He died in January 1841 shortly after the completion of his grammar which would establish the western dialects as the principal Finnish literary language. He was buried at St. Olaf's Church, Ulvila.

Noted works

* ''De orthoëpia et orthographia linguae fenniae'' (1810) - Finnish Dictionary * ''Suomalainen Sana-Kirja'' (1826) - Finnish Lexicon *''Finsk språklära'' (1840) - Finnish Grammar

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renvall, Gustaf 1781 births 1841 deaths People from Salo, Finland University of Helsinki alumni 19th-century Finnish Lutheran clergy Finnish lexicographers Finnish philologists Finnish educators 19th-century lexicographers