History of the Collections

The Research Institute’s collections and extensive dictionary programme date back over a hundred years. Emil Nestor Setälä presented his dictionary programme at a meeting of the Finnish Literature Society in 1896, proposing the compilation of three extensive dictionaries of the Finnish language: contemporary standard language, Old Finnish, and a dictionary of the Finnish vernacular.

The project began with the collection of linguistic material. In the 1910s, Setälä also began collecting samples illustrating the origins of Finnish words for the purpose of an etymological dictionary. He also made some recordings in the early 20th century. This material, together with the toponym collection launched by the Association of Antiquities in 1878, forms the basis of our current linguistic collections.