Mathias Alexander Castren Finnish and Russian linguist Date of Birth: 02.12.1813 Country: Finland

Biography of Matthias Alexander Castrén

Matthias Alexander Castrén was a Finnish and Russian linguist, known for his outstanding field research on Uralic languages and peoples, as well as his contributions to the study of the Samoyedic language. He was born on December 2, 1813, in the village of Tervola, Finland, into a pastor's family.

Castrén received a comprehensive philological education at the University of Helsinki, where he became acquainted with the works of R.Rask, one of the founders of comparative-historical linguistics. During his time at the university, Finland experienced a resurgence of national consciousness following its liberation from Swedish rule. This influenced Castrén's decision to dedicate his life to the study of the language and ethnography of the Finnish and related peoples.

By the mid-19th century, there were not enough published sources for serious scientific work. In order to demonstrate the relationship between the Samoyedic languages and Finnish, Castrén, with the initiative of Andreas Sjögren and the financial support of the Finnish Treasury and later the Academy of Sciences, embarked on a series of expeditions to Northern Europe, the Ural Mountains, Siberia, and the Far East (1838, 1841-1844, 1845-1848). He collected rich material on various Uralic and Altaic languages.

The inclusion of both the North and South of Siberia in his expeditions was motivated by his interest in the issue of the homeland of the Uralic and Altaic languages, which he believed to be the mountainous territories of Altai and Sayan. Based on the materials collected during these expeditions, Castrén defended his dissertation and became the first professor of Finnish language and literature at the University of Helsinki. Unfortunately, his health was severely affected by his travels, and he fell seriously ill after the second expedition.

Castrén passed away on May 7, 1852, in Helsinki. He was a remarkable field researcher of Uralic languages and peoples, and the founder of Samoyedic linguistics. He introduced the scientific community to the languages of the nearly extinct Yeniseian language family, such as Kott, and the still surviving Ket language. During his lifetime, Castrén published grammars of the Khanty, Mari, and Komi languages, as well as several smaller studies.

His legacy, prepared for publication by Anton Schiefner, was published in 12 volumes under the title "Northern Travels and Research by Dr. M.A. Castrén" (Nordische Reisen und Forschungen von Dr. M.A.Castrn, 1853-1862). This compilation included reports, diaries, letters, ethnolinguistic research, dictionaries, and grammars of all five Samoyedic languages (at the time, the Kamas language, now extinct, was prevalent in southern Siberia), as well as dictionaries and grammars of non-Uralic languages (such as Ket, Buryat, Koybal, Karagas, Evenki, etc.).