Department of Finno-Ugric Studies

The Finno-Ugric Department aims to teach and research the various languages related to Estonian. Finnish, Hungarian, and Komi are taught via Estonian. Courses, the aim of which is to investigate language structure, are taught by specialists with long-term experience as researchers in their respective languages. Our profile is enriched by the cooperation with the Finno-Ugric Departments in other universities, as represented by exchange programmes, summer schools, and language courses (more information on https://copius.eu/). A number of courses on Finno-Ugric languages, language contact, language history and culture are also available to all students as optional courses. Students can also broaden their subjects by taking the modules of Finnish language and culture, Finno-Ugric languages or Hungarian.

Our research profile includes Finnic languages (Izhorian, Votic, Livonian, Veps, Ludic), Sámi languages (especially Pite and Inari Sami), more distant languages spoken in modern-day Russia, such as Komi, Udmurt, and Mordva, as well as Samoyedic languages, such as Selkup and Kamassian. More than 20 lecturers and researchers work at the department, including a number of doctoral students. Languages are documented in frequent fieldwork trips, which often include students as well. Materials are later made publicly available in corpora. We also constantly work on publishing the materials in our archives. Work in the department has long been supported by the Estonian Research Council and Hõimurahvaste Programm, enabling us to research the phonology, morphosyntax, lexicology, and pragmatics of Finno-Ugric languages.