Matthias Alexander Castrén (2 December 1813 – 7 May 1852) was a Finnish Swedish

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

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 strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

who was a pioneer in the study of the

Uralic languages The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

. He was an educator, author and linguist at the

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 ...

. Castrén is known for his research in the linguistics and ethnography of the Northern Eurasian peoples.

Early life

Castrén was born at Tervola, in northern

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. His father, Christian Castrén, the parish priest and vicar in

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland (Finland), Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately , while the Rovaniemi su ...

, died in 1825. Castrén passed under the protection of his uncle, Matthias Castrén. At the age of twelve, he was sent to school at

Oulu Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Oulujoki, River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the Oulu sub-regio ...

. On entering the Alexander University 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 ...

(now the University of Helsinki) in 1828, he first devoted himself to

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

with the intention of entering the church, but his interest was soon excited by the

Finnish language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Finnic languages, Finnic language of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official langu ...

, and even before his course was completed, he began to lay the foundations of a work on

Finnish mythology Finnish mythology commonly refers of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a Finnish Neopaganism, modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many shared features with Estonian mythology, Estonian and othe ...

. He received his bachelor's degree in 1836 and graduate degree in 1839.

Linguistic adventures

The necessity of personal explorations among the still-unwritten languages of

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

tribes soon made itself evident. In 1838. he joined a medical fellow student, Dr. Ehrström, in a journey through Lapland. That was the first of the voyages Castrén undertook to investigate the kinship between Finnish and several other languages. He was later appointed in 1840 to associate professor in Finnish and the Norse languages at the University of Helsinki. The next year, he traveled in

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

at the expense of the Literary Society of Finland. In 1841, he undertook with the Finnish philologist

Elias Lönnrot Elias Lönnrot (; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish language, Finnish Oral literature, oral poetry. He is best k ...

a third journey, which ultimately extended beyond the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

as far as Obdorsk and lasted three years. Before starting on the expedition, he had published a translation into Swedish of the Finnish epic of Kalevala. Upon his return, he gave to the world his (1844) and (1845). No sooner had he recovered from the illness, which his last journey had occasioned, than he set out, under the auspices of the Academy of St Petersburg and the Alexander University, on an exploration among the

indigenous peoples of Siberia Siberia is a vast region spanning the North Asia, northern part of the Asian continent and forming the Asiatic portion of Russia. As a result of the Russian conquest of Siberia (16th to 19th centuries) and of the subsequent Special settlements in ...

, which resulted in a vast addition to previous knowledge but seriously affected the health of the adventurous investigator. The first fruits of his collections were published in St. Petersburg in 1849 in the form of (1858). In 1850, he published the treatise and was appointed professor of the new chair of Finnish language and literature at the University of Helsinki. The following year saw him raised to the rank of chancellor of the university. He was busily engaged in what he regarded as his principal work, a grammar of the

Samoyedic languages The Samoyedic () or Samoyed languages () are spoken around the Ural Mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by approximately 25,000 people altogether, accordingly called the Samoyedic peoples. They derive from a common ancestral language called Pr ...

, when he died in 1852, at 38 years of age.

Personal life

In 1850, he married Lovisa Natalia Tengström (1830–1881), whose father, Johan Jakob Tengström (1787–1858), was a professor of theoretical and practical philosophy at Alexander University. They were the parents of the newspaper publisher and elected official (1851–1883).

Posthumous publications

Five volumes of his collected works appeared from 1852 to 1858, containing respectively (1) ''Reseminnen från åren 1838-1844''; (2) ''Reseberättelser och bref åren 1845-1849''; (3) ''Föreläsningar i finsk mytologi''; (4) ''Ethnologiska föreläsningar öfver altaiska folken''; and (5) ''Smärre afhandlingar och akademiska dissertationer''. A German translation was published by Anton Schiefner, who was also entrusted by the St. Petersburg Academy with the editing of his manuscripts, which had been left to the University of Helsinki and were subsequently published.

M. A. Castrén Society

The M. A. Castrén Society was founded in Helsinki on 22 January 1990. It creates contacts and fosters dialogue between

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

and other Uralic peoples and provides assistance for the publication of literature in the

References

Primary Source

Matthias Castrén in 375 humanists 01.03.2015, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki

Attribution

External links

M. A. Castrén Society website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castren, Matthias Alexander 1813 births 1852 deaths People from Tervola People from Oulu Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) 19th-century Finnish people Finnish philologists Linguists from Finland Finnish ethnologists Finnish Finno-Ugrists Finnish translators Translators from Finnish Translators to Swedish Historical linguists 19th-century translators Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Linguists of Samoyedic languages Linguists of Sámi Sámi studies