Hans Christer Laurén (3 July 1942 – 19 September 2022) was a Finnish philologist. He was born in

Helsingfors Helsinki () is the capital and most populous city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipality, with million in the capital region and ...

. After finishing his secondary education in Gamlakarleby in 1961, he graduated from

Åbo Akademi Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while the metropolitan area ...

with the fil.mag. degree in 1965 and the fil.lic. degree in 1969. He was employed at Vaasa Business School (later Vaasa University) in 1970, and took his doctorate in 1972. His doctoral thesis ''Predikanten som översättare'' was about Jons Budde. From 1975 to his retirement in 2009 he was a professor of

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the G ...

. He also served as

prorector Academic rank (also scientific rank) is the rank of a scientist or teacher in a college, high school, university or research establishment. The academic ranks indicate relative importance and power of individuals in academia. The academic ran ...

from 1990 to 1994. Later books include ''Normer för finlandssvenskan'' (1985), ''Från kunskapens frukt till Babels torn. En bok om fackspråk'' (with Marianne Nordman, 1987) and ''Språkbad. Forskning och praktik'' (1999). Laurén served as a member of the Swedish Language Council of Finland from 1976 to 1994, chairing the council for the last nine years, and as a member of the Language Council of Sweden from 1986 to 1994. He was a fellow of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

from 2004. In 2014 he became a corresponding

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

Institut d'Estudis Catalans The Institute for Catalan Studies ( ), also known by the acronym and initialism, acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". It is based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spai ...

. He died in September 2022.

References

1942 births 2022 deaths Swedish-speaking Finns Finnish philologists Åbo Akademi University alumni Academic staff of the University of Vaasa Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters People from Helsinki {{Finland-academic-bio-stub