Eduard Ahrensin kielioppi ja suomalaiset
Grammar of Eduard Ahrens and the Finns

Summary/Abstract: Already at the turn of the 19th century, H. G. Porthan, professor at the Academy of Turku, took an active interest in Finnish and related languages and promoted their study in various ways. In his view, grammars were essential for a deeper knowledge of languages, and he missed a proper grammar of Estonian. The grammars of those times followed the model of Latin grammar-writing and failed to give an adequate description of, for instance, the inflection of nouns and verbs. In 1843, finally, Eduard Ahrens, pastor at Kuusalu, published his German language Grammatik der Ehstnischen Sprache Revalschen Dialektes, the first Estonian grammar to detach itself from Latin and German models and to rely on Finnish grammars, which were better suited to describe Estonian. In Ahrens’s view, Estonian was a daughter of Finnish, a language which had evolved from Finnish by way of erosion. He also actively propagated a reform of the Estonian orthography following the model of Finnish. Elias Lönnrot, the compiler of the national epic Kalevala, spent six months in Estonia in 1844. He met Ahrens and discussed various issues of grammar and orthography with him. Most of the time Lönnrot stayed in Tartu, where F. R. Faehlmann became his Estonian teacher and close friend. Lönnrot attempted to convince the members of the Estonian Learned Society (ÕES) of the necessity of an orthography reform. He was planning to use Ahrens’s grammar and his newly-acquired fluent command of Estonian in writing a new comparative grammar of Finnish, Estonian, Veps and Saami; regrettably, this plan was never realized. Lönnrot made numerous observations on the relationship between Finnish and Estonian and reported them in his letters to Finland. In the autumn of 1854, August Ahlqvist stayed in Estonia for a few months. He had repeatedly emphasized the importance of grammars, but his opinion on Ahrens’s grammar was rather negative: in his view, it was chaotic and unsuitable for didactic use. The only positive aspect he saw was Ahrens’s aspiration to reform the Estonian orthography. Soon after his visit to Estonia, Ahlqvist published Wiron nykyisemmästä kirjallisuudesta (‘On contemporary Estonian literature’), which was one of the first scholarly works to appear in Finnish and the first important survey of Estonian literary culture. As the professor of Finnish at the University of Helsinki, Ahlqvist essentially promoted the teaching and study of the Estonian language in Finland. He sharpened the learning requirements for students of Finnish and increased the role of the Estonian language. Thanks to him, some sorely needed coursebooks were produced.

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