Language history

Our work in the field of language history primarily consists of research into Old Literary Finnish, 19th century written Finnish and Saami etymology.

Our research on Old Literary Finnish is based on printed Finnish publications and intact Finnish manuscripts dating from Mikael Agricola (16th century) up to about 1810. Most of this material consists of religious literature and legal documents, with additional insights offered by a variety of calendar texts, newspaper articles and occasional poetry. We are in the process of compiling a comprehensive dictionary of Old Literary Finnish (Vanhan kirjasuomen sanakirja) based on this material.

We have compiled an extensive corpus of texts dating from the intervening period between Old Literary Finnish and Modern Finnish. This 19th century corpus comprises a wide variety of Finnish texts ranging from back volumes of old Finnish periodicals and newspapers, various articles, as well as major dictionaries and lexicons dating chiefly from between 1810 and the 1880s. Our research focuses particularly on the functions of written Finnish in the 19th century and the period when the conventions of contemporary written Finnish became established.
 
The Álgu database was established recently as an aid for studying the origins of Saami words. We are in the process of compiling an etymological dictionary of North Saami based on material in the database