Michael Rießler, also transcribed Michael Riessler, (born 16 February 1971) is a German

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 ...

. In August 2020, Rießler was appointed

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the

University of Eastern Finland The University of Eastern Finland () is a university in Finland, which was founded in 2010 and has campuses in Joensuu and Kuopio. History The Finnish Parliament passed the Universities Act on June 16, 2009, which, among other things, extende ...

Biography

Rießler was born in

Bad Belzig Bad Belzig (), until 2010 Belzig, is a historic town in Brandenburg, Germany located about southwest of Berlin. It is the capital of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district. Geography Bad Belzig is located within the Fläming hill range and in the cen ...

. He grew up in the village of Borne, today a district of

, in the former

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

, where his parents worked at a

collective farm Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member-o ...

. He went to school in Belzig, studied agriculture and in 1990 completed his high school education with passing the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

at the Betriebsberufsschule des Volkseigenes Gutes Kaltenhausen in

Jüterbog Jüterbog () is a historic town in north-eastern Germany, in the Teltow-Fläming district of Brandenburg. It is on the Nuthe river at the northern slope of the Fläming hill range, about southwest of Berlin. History The Polabian Slavs, Slavic se ...

. From 1990 to 1991 he did his civil service service in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

and then studied

Nordic languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

, European ethnology and Bulgarian at the

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. In 2002 he completed a

Master of Philosophy A Master of Philosophy (MPhil or PhM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. The name of the degree is most often abbreviated MPhil (or, at times, as PhM in other countries). MPhil are awarded to postgraduate students after completing at leas ...

with a thesis on the influence of

Sámi languages The Sámi languages ( ), also rendered in English language, English as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Indigenous Sámi peoples in Northern Europe (in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and extreme northwest ...

on Norwegian and

Swedish dialects Swedish dialects are the various forms of the Swedish language, particularly those that differ considerably from Standard Swedish. Traditional dialects The linguistic definition of a Swedish traditional dialect, in the literature merely called ...

. His thesis, entitled , was supervised by German scholar . Rießler and Kusmenko had already published a joint paper on

Southern Sámi Southern or South Sámi (; ; ) is the southwesternmost of the Sámi languages, and is spoken in Norway and Sweden. It is an endangered language. The designated main village of the language in Norway is Snåasen Municipality (Snåsa) where the c ...

in 2000. In 2011 Rießler defended his

doctoral thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

linguistics 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 ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

under the supervision of language typologist

Balthasar Bickel Balthasar Bickel (born December 19, 1965) is a Swiss linguist. He combines fieldwork, typology, and evolutionary modelling and uses both experimental and observational methods. He is currently a professor at the Department of Comparative Language ...

Research

Rießler has published

scientific articles Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

North Germanic The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...

and

and Komi, among other things in the fields of

language typology Linguistic typology (or language typology) is a field of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features to allow their comparison. Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity and the co ...

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies unde ...

language documentation Language documentation (also: documentary linguistics) is a subfield of linguistics which aims to describe the grammar and use of human languages. It aims to provide a comprehensive record of the linguistic practices characteristic of a given speec ...

and

language technology Language technology, often called human language technology (HLT), studies methods of how computer programs or electronic devices can analyze, produce, modify or respond to human texts and speech. Working with language technology often requires broa ...

. Rießler's research interests also include

Sámi literature Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

. From 2008 to 2014 he was editor of the book series '' Kleine saamische Schriften'' (together with Elisabeth Scheller). Since 2014 he publishes (together with Thomas Mohnike and ) the journal '' Samica''. After graduation, Rießler worked at several universities, including in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and

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, ...

, and conducted extensive

field research Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fi ...

, especially on the

Kola Peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...

and in other areas of northwest

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. He has also worked for the . AAntonovaMRiessler

2014 and 2017–2018 Rießler had Fellowships at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies. In autumn 2016 he was

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...

at the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

For three semesters between 2017 and 2019 he was a representative of the Chair of General Linguistics at

Bielefeld University Bielefeld University () is a public university in Bielefeld, Germany. Founded in 1969, it is one of the country's newer universities, and considers itself a "reform" university, following a different style of organization and teaching than the e ...

. In 2015 he was appointed as

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

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 ...

( ''venia docendi'' in Finno-Ugric languages) and in 2018 at the

University of Turku The University of Turku (, shortened ''UTU'') is a multidisciplinary public university with eight faculties located in the city of Turku in southwestern Finland. The university also has campuses in Rauma and Pori and research stations in Kevo ...

(''venia docendi'' in general and Finno-Ugric linguistics). In August 2020 Rießler was appointed

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

general linguistics Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics that, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to the theory of language, or the branch of linguistics that inquires into the ...

at the

Publications (selected)

Monography

* 2016
Adjective attribution
'. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Article

* 2020 " Partial fusion in long-term bilingualism: The case of vernacular Kildin Saami, in: ''International Journal of Bilingualism'' (with Nikolaj Hakimov) * 2017
Documenting endangered oral histories of the Arctic : a proposed symbiosis for endangered language documentation and oral history research, illustrated by Saami and Komi examples
, in: ''Oral History meets Linguistics''. Fürstenberg: Kulturstiftung Sibirien, p. 31–64 (with ) * 2016 " Utilizing language technology in the documentation of endangered Uralic languages", in: ''Northern European Journal of Language Technology'' 4, p. 29–47 (with Ciprian Gerstenberger, Niko Partanen, Joshua Wilbur) * 2011
Komi-Saami-Russian contacts on the Kola peninsula
', in: ''Language contact in times of globalization''. Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 5–26 (with Rogier Blokland) * 2004 ''On the origin of preaspiration in North Germanic'', in: ''Journal of Indo-European Monograph Series'' 49, p. 168–185 * 2002
Der partitive Artikel in nordskandinavischen Dialekten
', in: ''TijdSchrift voor Skandinavistiek'' 23:1, p. 43–62 * 2000
Traces of Sámi-Scandinavian contact in Scandinavian dialects
', in: ''Languages in Contact''. Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 209–224 (with )

Edition

* 2019 ''Worte verschwinden fliegen zum blauen Licht : Samische Lyrik von Joik bis Rap''. Freiburg: Skandinavisches Seminar der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität (with Johanna Domokos, Christine Schlosser). * 2015 ''Cultural and linguistic minorities in the Russian Federation and the European Union : Comparative studies on equality and diversity''. Cham: Springer (with Heiko F. Marten, Janne Saarikivi, Reetta Toivanen). * 2015 ''New trends in Nordic and General Linguistics''. Berlin: De Gruyter (with Martin Hilpert, Jan-Ola Östman, Christine Mertzlufft, Janet Duke).

References

External links

Michael Rießler
in

Libris LIBRIS (Library Information System) is a Swedish national union catalogue maintained by the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populo ...

Michael Rießler on the website of the University of Eastern Finland
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riessler, Michael 1971 births Living people 20th-century German linguists 21st-century linguists Linguists from Germany Linguists of Sámi Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Leipzig University alumni German emigrants to Finland