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

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropolog ...

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 especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

who was a pioneer in the study of the

Uralic languages The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian ...

. He was an educator, author and linguist at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the R ...

. Castrén is best known for his research in the linguistics and ethnography of the Finnic, Ugric and

Samoyedic peoples The Samoyedic people (also Samodeic people)''Some ethnologists use the term 'Samodeic people' instead 'Samoyedic', see are a group of closely related peoples who speak Samoyedic languages, which are part of the Uralic family. They are a linguis ...

Early life

Castrén was born at Tervola, in Northern Finland. His father, Christian Castrén, parish priest and vicar at

Rovaniemi Rovaniemi ( , ; sme, Roavvenjárga ; smn, Ruávinjargâ; sms, Ruäʹvnjargg) is a city and municipality of Finland. It is the administrative capital and commercial centre of Finland's northernmost province, Lapland, and its southern part Pe ...

, 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 ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after ...

. On entering the Alexander University at

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

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

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

with the intention of entering the church; but his interest was soon excited by 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 Swedi ...

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

Finnish mythology Finnish mythology is a commonly applied description of the folklore of Finnish paganism, of which a modern revival is practiced by a small percentage of the Finnish people. It has many features shared with Estonian and other Finnic mythologies ...

. 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 in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical ef ...

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

Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance fo ...

at the expense of the Literary Society of Finland. In 1841 he undertook, in company with Finnish philologist Elias Lönnrot, a third journey, which ultimately extended beyond the Ural as far as Obdorsk, and occupied a period of three years. Before starting on this last expedition he had published a translation into Swedish of the Finnish epic of

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and ...

. Upon his return he gave to the world his ''Elementa grammatices Syrjaenae'' and ''Elementa grammatices Tscheremissae'', 1844. 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, including the Russian Far East, is a vast region spanning the northern part of the Asian continent, and forming the Asiatic portion of Russia. As a result of the Russian conquest of Siberia (17th to 19th centuries) and of the subsequ ...

, 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 at St. Petersburg in 1849 in the form of a ''Versuch einer ostjakischen Sprachlehre''. In 1850 he published a treatise ''De affixis personalibus linguarum Altaicarum'', 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. They derive from a common ancestral language called Proto-Samoyedic, and form a branch of the Urali ...

, 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 newspaper publisher and elected official :sv:Robert Castrén (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 which were subsequently published.

M. A. Castrén Society

The M. A. Castrén Society was founded in

on 22 January 1990. The Society creates contacts and fosters dialogue between

Finns Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a 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 ...

and other Uralic- (generally Finnic-) speaking peoples and provides assistance for the publication of literature in the Uralic languages.

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 Paleolinguists 19th-century translators Academic personnel of the University of Helsinki Linguists of Samoyedic languages Linguists of Sámi Sámi studies