Yrjö Jooseppi Wichmann (8 September 1868 – 3 May 1932) 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 ...

. He was a professor of

Finno-Ugric language 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 century ...

studies 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 ...

in 1920–1932. Wichmann's parents were

Vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

Emil August Wichmann (1831–1886) and Charlotta Wilhelmina Schroderus (1841–1927). He graduated from the Oulun Lyseo Upper Secondary School in 1887 and then graduated with a bachelor's and master's degree in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

in 1891 and a licentiate and doctorate in 1897. Wichmann became 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 Finno-Ugric language studies in the same year. He worked as a Finnish language teacher at the Helsinki School of Commerce in the years 1893–1897 and at the Swedish Graduate School in Helsinki 1897–1901, 1902–1905 and 1908–1922. Wichmann was also awarded an honorary doctorate at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

in 1927. In 1891–1892 and 1894, Wichmann studied the

Udmurt language Udmurt (; Cyrillic: Удмурт) is a Permic languages, Permic language spoken by the Udmurt people who are native to Udmurtia. As a Uralic languages, Uralic language, it is distantly related to languages such as Finnish language, Finnish, Estonia ...

as a scholarship holder of the

Finno-Ugrian Society Finno-Ugrian Society (, ) is a Finnish learned society, dedicated to the study of Uralic and Altaic languages. It was founded in Helsinki in 1883 by the proposal of professor Otto Donner. The society publishes several academic journal An ...

. The topic of his thesis from 1897 was the vowel list of the first syllable of Udmurt compared to the representation of Komi. In his later travels, Wichmann also studied Komi, Mari and the language of the Csángó Hungarians living in

Western Moldavia Western Moldavia (, ''Moldova de Apus'', or , also known as Moldavia, is the core historic and geographical part of the former Principality of Moldavia situated in eastern and north-eastern Romania. Until its union with Wallachia in 1878, the P ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. Wichmann's dictionary of the Csángó dialect was published by and in 1936. Wichmann was married to Julia Maria Herrmann (1881–1974) since 1905. Their son was (1907–1958), professor of

commercial law Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...

Helsinki School of Economics The Aalto University School of Business (; ), is the largest business school in Finland. Founded in 1911, it is the second oldest business school in Finland and one of the oldest business schools in the Nordic countries. The school became part of ...

References

External links

* 1868 births 1932 deaths Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Finnish Finno-Ugrists Linguists from Finland People from Liminka {{Authority control