Research in Finno-Ugric languages
Research on Finno-Ugric languages is carried out in both linguistics and literature. Our research languages are Estonian, Finnish, Saami languages, Hungarian and minor Finno-Ugric languages in the Nordic countries, Latvia and Russia.
Research in Finno-Ugric languages
Staff at the Finno-Ugric section of the Department of Modern Languages have wide interests covering the whole Finno-Ugric language family, ranging from Scandinavia to Siberia. The staff publishes regularly on many aspects of the major languages Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian, though in Uppsala there is also a strong tradition of research on Saami (at present especially on North Saami, South Saami, and Lule Saami).
In addition, the staff is active in a number of other areas, with a focus on description and grammaticography of the smaller Finno-Ugric languages; at the moment these include the Permic language Zyrian Komi and the minor Finnic languages Livonian, Meänkieli and Sweden Finnish. Research on Finnish literature, Hungarian literature, and the literature of the Finno-Ugric minorities of Sweden is also strongly represented, as are language pedagogy and cultural studies.
Finno-Ugric Linguistics
Some of our linguistic profile areas are:
- Estonian – grammar, lexicology, language technology, the history of Estonian, Estonian as a minority language, Estonian language development in Sweden
- Finnish – Sweden Finnish, language and identity, bilingualism, language pedagogy, grammar
- Morphosyntax of minor Finnic languages
- Saami languages – especially North Saami, Lule Saami and South Saami, general Saami linguistics and grammatical Saami description
- Hungarian – language didactics, language pedagogy, dialectology, translation studies
- Language documentation – Komi, Meänkieli and Sami languages, especially Northern Sami and Lule Sami
- Endangered Finno-Ugric languages – especially minor Finnic and Saami languages, Finno-Ugric languages as minority languages in Sweden, and Permic languages in Russia
- Language contact – between Värmland Finnish and Swedish, Saami and Swedish, Uralic languages and Russian, and between Finnish and Somali
- Comparative Uralic linguistics
Finno-Ugric literature
In literature our profile areas include:
- Finno-Ugric minority literature in Sweden and the Nordic countries, especially in Finnish, Meänkieli and Saami
- Hungarian literature in Sweden
- Migrant literature in Hungarian
- Finnish and Estonian song lyrics
Current projects
- The department is involved in the project “Remodus - the (re-) making of a discipline. Digital transformation and internationalization in and beyond uralic studies” which brings together ten universities which conduct research and education in Finno-Ugric languages.
- Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi (UU), Rogier Blokland (UU) & Elina Kangas (ISOF): "En grammatisk beskrivning av meänkieli"
PhD students
- Mervi De Heer's doctoral project is about researching the language contact information in the context of quantitative historic linguistics to highlight the cronology of the uralic language family.
- Torgny Hedström's doctoral project is about making a new, fundamental mapping of the Lule Sámi dialects, also taking into account dialects that have been overlooked so far. His dissertation will preliminary be presented at the end of 2024.
- Olle Kejonen's doctoral project is about documenting and describing the Jukkasjärvi dialect of the North Saami language in Sweden and Norway. His dissertation will preliminary be presented in 2022 or 2023.
- Laura Talvineva aims to explore the language policies of multilingual families (especially of younger members) with a focus on Estonian as spoken in Sweden. Her dissertation will preliminarily be presented in 2025 or 2026.