Arvo Martti Oktavianus Räsänen (June 25, 1893 – September 7, 1976) was a Finnish

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

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 the Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative c ...

. He operated as a

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

of turkology at

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

from 1926 forwards, and as an additional professor of Turkic

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

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

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

from 1915 to 1917 and in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

during 1924 to 1925. Räsänen did many exploration trips to

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. 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 () is a traditional linguistic grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except for the Samoyedic languages. Its once commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is based on criteria formulated in the 19th centur ...

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 primar ...

teachers Antti Räsänen and Kaisa Sofia Vuolevi. His brother was a lichen researcher and biologist

Veli Räsänen Veli Johannes Paavo Bartholomeus Räsänen (24 August 1888 – 16 July 1953) was a Finnish lichenologist who made contributions to the study and documentation of Nordic and Baltic lichen funga. As a lecturer at various agricultural institution ...

. Martti Räsänen was married to a German woman named Auguste Brunhilde Ludwig. Räsänen was originally from Simo. He died in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, 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 municipali ...

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