Paul Ariste

Paul Ariste (until 1927: Paul Berg , Russian Пауль Александрович Аристэ ; born February 3, 1905 in Võtikvere, rural municipality Torma , Jõgeva district ; † February 2, 1990 in Tartu ) was an Estonian linguist .

Live and act

From 1925 to 1929 he studied at the University of Tartu . In 1931 he defended his master's thesis entitled “Estonian-Swedish loan words in the Estonian language” at the University of Tartu. In 1939 he defended his doctoral thesis under the title "Hiiu murrete häälikud" (sounds of the Hiiu dialect) at the University of Tartu.

From 1933 he was a teacher at the University of Tartu (later Tartu State University). From 1944 to 1946 he held the chair for Estonian and Finno-Ugric languages ; from 1946 to 1977 he was head of the chair for Finno-Ugric languages.

In the 1940s, Ariste was temporarily incarcerated in Soviet penal institutions. This experience intimidated him and made him at least outwardly loyal to the rulers.

The preferred subject of research by Paul Ariste was the Wotic language as well as Wotic folklore and ethnography . Nevertheless, his field of work was very broad. Ariste published around 1,300 scientific papers, including around 50 books.

Ariste taught Finno-Ugric languages, general linguistics , Finnish , Swedish , Latvian , Low German and Esperanto .

Paul Ariste founded the Estonian School of Finno-Ugric Studies and trained many linguists from among the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Soviet Union . He was the supervisor of 60 dissertations .

Ariste was known as a polyglot . He always began learning a language by first acquainting himself thoroughly with its phonetics .

After Ariste discovered that the Estonian word "manguma" (English to beg) came from Romani , he began to learn this language and use it at every opportunity. It is said that he was called a "white gypsy" by gypsies.

Awards

• 1954 Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Estonian SSR
• Honorary doctorate from several international universities, including the University of Helsinki
• Honorary member of numerous international scientific societies

Personal

Paul Ariste was married to a Latvian woman. Nevertheless, for fear of making a mistake in the pronunciation, he dared not speak Latvian.

Ariste had a very high voice.

It was Aristes' wish to achieve the most publications among the teaching staff of the University of Tartu each year, which he succeeded.

Ariste showed a great interest in his students and in general in his fellow human beings. Allegedly he should have known 100,000 Estonians.

Ariste preferred male students as he thought they were more capable. According to old custom, he invited Finnish-Ugrian students to a café.

Ariste was baptized Orthodox and also buried according to Orthodox traditions.

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Ariste in the catalog of the German National Library
• Photo by Ariste