Finnic languages
Research at the institute focuses on the closest relatives of the Estonian language, among which Votic and Livonian hold a special place, as they were once also spoken in the area of present-day Estonia. Both Livonian and Votic are studied taking into account the needs of the development and teaching of these languages. This is done by reviewing the pronunciation, form and vocabulary of the languages and preparing educational material based on the research. In addition to Livonian and Votic, other Finnic languages with a relatively smaller number of speakers, such as Ingrian, Veps and Karelian languages, are studied. Finnish is also an important area of research, especially the links between Finnish and Estonian, taking into account historical language and dialect contacts as well as typological comparisons of the languages.
Researchers related to the field
Karl Pajusalu
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Estonian
Academician, Professor of History and Dialects of Estonian Language
Jakobi 2-425
+372 526 7733 (6124)
Karl Pajusalu is a Professor of Estonian language history and dialects, a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. He studies the pronunciation and grammar of Estonian and its related languages as well as their changes, and has also dealt with historical sociolinguistics. His research has focused most of all on Southern Finnic languages, especially their word prosody. He is one of the founders of the University of Tartu Collegium for Transdisciplinary Studies in Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics. He is currently involved in compiling the Typological Database of Uralic Languages and taking part in the Estonian ethnic history project and research projects on Inari Sámi prosody and Livonian heritage; he is also participating in the compilation of Seto, Mulgi, and Häädemeeste dictionaries.
Karl Pajusalu
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Estonian
Academician, Professor of History and Dialects of Estonian Language
Jakobi 2-425
+372 526 7733 (6124)
Miina Norvik
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Associate Professor of Finnic Languages and Language Typology
Jakobi 2-445
Miina Norvik is a researcher of the Finnic languages at the Department of Finno-Ugric Studies. In her research she has mainly focused on the study of grammatical features in Livonian and other Finnic languages (e.g. Karelian, Veps). First and foremost, she is interested in morphological and syntactic features (e.g. the expression of tense, change-of-state, degrees of comparison), which she has mainly studied from the functional-typological perspective.
Since 2018 she has been working more generally with the Uralic languages by developing the typological database of the Uralic languages (UraTyp). This has given her the possibility to participate in international and interdisciplinary research groups (AGL and BEDLAN).
Until March 2023 she is also affiliated with the Uppsala University, where she is carrying out her post-doc project Continuity and change in Finnic language structure in the light of language contact.
Since 2011 she has been involved in organising the linguistic olympiads to introduce linguistic diversity among school children.
Miina Norvik
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Associate Professor of Finnic Languages and Language Typology
Jakobi 2-445
Eva Saar
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Research Fellow in Finnic Languages
Jakobi 2-413
Department of Estonian
Centre for South Estonian Language and Culture Studies
Coordinator (employment contract suspended) 0.3 p
+372 737 5422
Eva Saar is a research fellow in Finnic languages at the Department of Finno-Ugric Studies and the coordinator of the Centre for South-Estonian Language and Cultural Studies. His research focuses mainly on the minor Finnic languages spoken in Russia, but also on South Estonian. Her research interests include language history, phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax of the Finnic languages, as well as personal names and onomastics in general. Since 1997, she has carried out fieldwork in Votic, Ingriani, Lydic, Veps and Karelian language areas in Russia, as well as in the Mulgi, Seto and Võro language areas in Estonia.
Since 2018, she is involved in compiling the typological database of Uralic languages (UraTyp). She is currently leading the project "Vepsian way of life and worldview in the 21st century", and manages the compilation of a Seto (South Estonian) dictionary.
Eva Saar
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Research Fellow in Finnic Languages
Jakobi 2-413
Department of Estonian
Centre for South Estonian Language and Culture Studies
Coordinator (employment contract suspended) 0.3 p
+372 737 5422
Madis Arukask
Institute of Cultural Research
Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore
Associate Professor of Estonian and Comparative Folklore
Ülikooli 17-324
Madis Arukask is an Associate Professor of Estonian Language and Culture for Non-Estonians (0.25 p). His research field is Estonian cultural history, folklore and (folk) religion. For a long time he has studied the indigenous worldview and folk belief of the Finnic peoples of Russia – above all the Veps, Votians, Ludians. For over 20 years has he regularly conducted fieldwork in different parts of the northwestern Russia. Madis Arukask has been the principal investigator or research staff of several research projects.
Madis Arukask
Institute of Cultural Research
Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore
Associate Professor of Estonian and Comparative Folklore
Ülikooli 17-324
Elena Markus
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Associate Professor of Finnic Languages
Jakobi 2-405
Elena Markus is Associate Professor of Finnic Languages at the Department of Finno-Ugric Languages. Her research is mostly concerned with documentation and description of the Votic and Ingrian languages and covers a variety of topics including phonetics, morphophonology, morphology, language contact and convergence. She has done extensive fieldwork in both languages and compiled a large collection of sound and video materials on Votic and Ingrian that are deposited in several language archives. In 2020-2025, she is involved in the project “The grammar of discourse particles in Uralic” led by prof. Gerson Klumpp, where she investigates discourse particles in Ingrian and Votic.
Elena Markus
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Associate Professor of Finnic Languages
Jakobi 2-405
Tuuli Tuisk
Department of Estonian
Phonetics Lab
Research Fellow in Phonetics of Finnic Languages
Jakobi 2-409
Tuuli Tuisk is a research fellow of phonetics of Finnic languages. She defended her PhD thesis in the Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics at the University of Tartu in 2015. Her scientific research interests are primarily related to the pronunciation of the Livonian language, as well as to the pronunciation of other related languages (Estonian, Veps). In her research, she has used an experimental phonetic approach. Since 2006, she has been involved in the Phonetic Corpus of Spontaneous Estonian Speech.
Tuuli Tuisk
Department of Estonian
Phonetics Lab
Research Fellow in Phonetics of Finnic Languages
Jakobi 2-409
Juha-Matti Aronen
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Visiting Lecturer
Jakobi 2-418
Juha-Matti Aronen is a visiting lecturer of Finnish language and culture. His research interests include folklore studies, Finnish as a second language and the Finnic languages.
Juha-Matti Aronen
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Visiting Lecturer
Jakobi 2-418
Sulev Iva
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Estonian
Lecturer in South Estonian Language and Culture 0.5 p
Jakobi 2-413
+372 737 5422
Sulev Iva (also known in Võro as Jüvä Sullõv) is a lecturer in South Estonian language and culture. He teaches Võro language from beginner to advanced and conversational courses, and more broadly on South Estonian languages and their history. He has studied in particular the morphology, phonology and phonetics of the Võro language. His dissertation dealt with the inflectional morphology in the Võro literary language. In addition, he is involved in various projects in the development of Võro dictionaries, teaching materials and language technology, and more broadly in the revitalisation and development of the Võro language and in international cooperation in this field.
Sulev Iva
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Estonian
Lecturer in South Estonian Language and Culture 0.5 p
Jakobi 2-413
+372 737 5422
Marili Tomingas
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Research Fellow in Livonian
Jakobi 2-418
Marili Tomingas is a doctoral student in Finnic Languages and a Junior Research Fellow in Livonian language. Her PhD project is about the use of Livonian personal pronouns and demonstratives in spoken language. In addition, she is participating at the project „The grammar of discourse particles in Uralic“, where she is investigating Livonian discourse particles. Her research interests are Finno-Ugric languages, syntax, morphology, semantics and spoken language. She has also taught Finnish for beginners at the University of Tartu.
Marili Tomingas
Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics
Department of Finno-Ugric Studies
Research Fellow in Livonian
Jakobi 2-418
Patrick O'Rourke
doctoral student
Patrick O'Rourke is a doctoral student, whose research is on the Livonian substrate in contemporary languages spoken around the Gulf of Riga. This research includes a comparison of phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon, in order to study the historical development of Livonian and its influence on Estonian, South Estonian, Latvian and/or Latgallian dialects that are spoken in previously Livonian-speaking areas. His research interests are Finno-Ugric languages, etymology, historical linguistics, the historical-comparative method and language contacts.