The Myth of a Finno-Ugrian Community in Practice

Bibliographic Data

ID11045680
AuthorsSirkka Saarinen (0000-0002-0747-6517, University of Turku, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume29
Issue1
Pages41-52
Publication date2001-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/00905990120036376
OpenAlexW2078518727
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited2

Scholars had already suggested the relationship of some Finno-Ugrian languages in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but the linguistic affinity of the Finno-Ugrian languages was proven only at the end of the eighteenth century by two Hungarian pioneers of comparative linguistics, János Sajnovics and Sámuel Gyarmathi. Henrik Gabriel Porthan (1739-1804), professor of rhetoric and a great humanist, brought their ideas to Finland. He was strongly influenced by August Ludwig Schlözer, author of a comprehensive and critical survey of the history of the Finno-Ugrian peoples. Having studied Sajnovics' work in Göttingen, Porthan published an extensive account of it in a Finnish newspaper in 1779, demolishing previous ideas about the kinship between Finnish and Hebrew. Porthan urged Finnish scholars to investigate the Finno-Ugrian languages of Russia, of which very little was then known (some lists of words and short grammars were all that was available)

Art · Hebrew · Humanism · Kinship · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Mythology · Newspaper · Political science · Rhetoric · Sociology · Anthropology · Classics · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Law · Linguistic research and analysis · Philosophy · Translation Studies and Practices

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