Contact
Areas of expertise
Biography
Doctor of Philosophy in Finno-Ugric Languages, University of Turku 1991. Since 1998, I have worked as a professor of Finno-Ugric Languages at the University of Turku. 1981 to 1997, I was a senior researcher (lexicographer) at the Research Centre for the Languages of Finland (now: Institute for the Languages of Finland). 1992 to 1998, I acted as Docent in Finno-Ugric Languages and Cultures at the University of Turku.
Teaching
Structure of Finno-Ugric languages; Mari, Mordvin, Komi, Udmurt, Northern Saami; lexicology; folklore of the Finno-Ugric peoples
Research
I have studied vocabulary in the languages of the Volga region and compiled (together with native scholars) the Udmurt-Finnish (2008) and Finnish-Udmurt (2013) dictionaries. I have edited and published old Mari manuscripts (Timofej Jevsevjevs Folklore-Sammlungen aus dem Tscheremissischen I–IV, 1983, 1989, 1992, 1994) and (together with Arto Moisio) a dialect dictionary of Mari (Tscheremissisches Wörterbuch, 2008). I have worked as editor-in-chief of the journals Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen (2001–2018) and Sananjalka (1998–2015). My articles deal with, inter alia, history of Finno-Ugristics, situation of Finno-Ugric minority languages, language of folklore, morphosyntax of the FU languages in the Volga region.
I am head of the Research Unit for Volgaic Languages.