Gustaf Renvall (23 September 1781 – 22 January 1841) was a Finnish clergyman, educator and philologist. Gustaf Renvall was born in Halikko, Finland. He became a student at the Royal Academy of Turku (now University of Helsinki) in 1801 and received his Master of Arts in 1810. He was ordained as a Lutheran priest in 1806. Renvall started as a docent of Finnish at the

Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo ( sv, Kungliga Akademin i Åbo or ; la, Regia Academia Aboensis; fi, Turun akatemia) was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country ...

and later was named assistant professor of education. In 1819, he became a clergyman in

Uskela Uskela is a former municipality of Finland. It was merged into Salo in 1967. Many municipalities surrounding Uskela were split from it. In 1967 Uskela and part of Halikko were merged to the rapidly growing Salo which needed more area. It borde ...

and vicar in 1829. He received the title of professor in 1827 and in 1830 received an honorary doctorate in theology. Among Renvall's most important works was a dictionary which for more than three decades was the main source of scholarly knowledge of the

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

. He died in January 1841 shortly after the completion of his grammar which would establish the western dialects as the principal Finnish literary language. He was buried at

St. Olaf's Church, Ulvila St. Olaf's Church ( fi, Pyhän Olavin kirkko, ), also known as Ulvila Church (, ), is a church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in Ulvila, Finland. The church is considered one of the best-preserved medieval fieldstone churches in ...

Noted works

* ''De orthoëpia et orthographia linguae fenniae'' (1810) - Finnish Dictionary * ''Suomalainen Sana-Kirja'' (1826) - Finnish Lexicon *''Finsk språklära'' (1840) - Finnish Grammar

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Renvall, Gustaf 1781 births 1841 deaths People from Salo, Finland University of Helsinki alumni 19th-century Finnish Lutheran clergy Finnish lexicographers Finnish philologists Finnish educators 19th-century lexicographers

Noted works

See also

References