Helle Metslang (born 29 July 1950 in

Paide Paide is a town in Estonia and the capital of Järva County, one of the 15 counties of Estonia. Etymology Paide's German name (originally or in Low German) means 'white stone'. This name was derived from the limestone used for the constru ...

) is an

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

linguist.

Biography

Metslang studied Estonian philology at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

, graduating in 1974. She subsequently worked at the

Institute of the Estonian Language The Institute of the Estonian Language () is the official language-regulatory authority of the Estonian language. It is located in the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn. Its stated formal goal is to contribute to the long-term survival of the Est ...

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

. In 1978 she defended her

candidate A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group (sociology), group or election to an offic ...

thesis on syntactic aspects of Estonian folk poetry. She received her doctoral degree at the

University of Oulu The University of Oulu () is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 14,200 students and 3,800 staff. 21 International Master's Programmes are offer ...

in 1994 for a comparative study of Estonian and Finnish. In 2000, Metslang became Professor of Estonian at

Tallinn University Tallinn University (TLU; , ''TLÜ'') is a public research university in Estonia. Located in the centre of Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn University is one of the three largest institutions of higher education in the country. Both QS ...

, and she held the Chair of Contemporary Estonian at the University of Tartu from 2007 until her retirement in 2020. She has also worked as visiting professors 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 ...

and the University of Oulu. Since 2006, she has been the chairperson of the

Mother Tongue Society Mother Tongue Society () is an Estonian organization that focuses on topics related to the Estonian language. The organization was established on 23 March 1920 at Tartu University. Today, the organization is located in Tallinn. The organization i ...

(''Emakeele Selts''). Metslang has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards, including the

Wiedemann Language Award Wiedemann Language Award (, full name The State F. J. Wiedemann Language Award) is an Estonian state award which is granted each year to one natural person for outstanding merits upon study, organisation, teaching, promotion or use of the Estonia ...

(2020), an honorary doctorate from the University of Tartu (2020), and the Grand Medal of the University of Tartu (2020). In 2016 she was elected as a member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

Research

Metslang's research focuses on Estonian

syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...

, especially the syntax of the verb. She also works on

typology A typology is a system of classification used to organize things according to similar or dissimilar characteristics. Groups of things within a typology are known as "types". Typologies are distinct from taxonomies in that they primarily address t ...

and

contrastive linguistics Contrastive linguistics is a practice-oriented linguistic approach that seeks to describe the differences and similarities between a pair of languages (hence it is occasionally called "''differential'' linguistics"). History While traditional ...

, often with a focus on Estonian and Finnish. Along with Mati Erelt and

Reet Kasik Reet Kasik (born 5 May 1946) is an Estonian linguist. She was born in Tallinn. In 1969, she graduated from Tartu State University with a degree in Estonian philology. Since 1969, she has taught at the University of Tartu. She has also taught Eston ...

she is one of the lead authors of ''Eesti keele grammatika'', the main current descriptive grammar of the Estonian language.

Selected publications

* Erelt, Mati, Reet Kasik, Helle Metslang, et al. 1995. ''Eesti keele grammatika'' (Grammar of the Estonian language). Tallinn: Eesti Keele Instituut (

). * Erelt, Mati, and Helle Metslang. 2006. Estonian clause patterns -- from Finno-Ugric to standard average European. ''Linguistica Uralica'' 42 (4), 254-266. * Metslang, Helle. 1981. ''Küsilause eesti keeles'' (The interrogative sentence in Estonian). Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia. * Metslang, Helle. 1994. ''Temporal relations in the predicate and the grammatical system of Estonian and Finnish''. Oulu: Oulun Yliopisto. . * Metslang, Helle. 1996. The development of the futures in the Finno-Ugric languages. In Mati Erelt (ed.), ''Estonian: Typological studies I'', 123-144. * Metslang, Helle. 2001. On the developments of the Estonian aspect: The verbal particle ''ära''. In

Östen Dahl Östen Dahl (; born 4 November 1945 in Stockholm) is a Swedish linguist and professor best known for pioneering a marker-based approach to tense and aspect in linguistic typology. Dahl finished his PhD at the University of Gothenburg and subsequ ...

and

Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm (born 1957) is a Russian-born linguist and typologist who is Professor of General Linguistics at Stockholm University. Biography Originally from Moscow, Koptjevskaja-Tamm's interest in linguistics was stimulated when as a ...

(eds.), ''Circum-Baltic Languages: Volume 2: Grammar and Typology'', 443-479. * Metslang, Helle. 2009. Estonian grammar between Finnic and SAE: some comparisons. ''Language Typology and Universals'' 62 (1-2), 49-71.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metslang, Helle 1950 births Living people Women linguists Estonian philologists Linguists from Estonia Academic staff of Tallinn University University of Tartu alumni Academic staff of the University of Tartu Estonian Finno-Ugrists People from Paide