{{Short description|Finnish Swedish ethnologist, educator and philologist}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Matthias Castrén.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = | name = Matthias Castrén | birth_name = Matthias Alexander Castrén | birth_date = {{Birth date |df=yes|1813|12|2}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1852|5|7|1813|12|2}} | birth_place = Tervola, Grand Duchy of Finland | death_place = Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire | resting_place = | workplaces = Professor at Imperial Alexander University | alma_mater = Imperial Alexander University | known_for = researcher of Uralic languages | spouse = | awards = }} '''Matthias Alexander Castrén''' (2 December 1813 – 7 May 1852) was a Finnish Swedish ethnologist and philologist who was a pioneer in the study of the Uralic languages.<ref>{{Writers in Finland 1809-1916}}</ref> He was an educator, author and linguist at the University of Helsinki. Castrén is known for his research in the linguistics and ethnography of the Northern Eurasian peoples.<ref name="nat_bio"/><ref>{{cite book |url= http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;sid=452d151d503381da1765feb4829344c0;q1=polar%20world;rgn=full%20text;idno=AFK7084.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000170 |title= The polar world : a popular description of man and nature in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the globe |publisher= Longmans, Green and Co; Chapter XIII, page 168 |author= Hartwig, G. (Georg) |date= 21 March 1869 |access-date= November 1, 2016 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
== Early life == Castrén was born at Tervola, in northern Finland. His father, Christian Castrén, the parish priest and vicar in Rovaniemi, died in 1825. Castrén passed under the protection of his uncle, Matthias Castrén. At the age of twelve, he was sent to school at Oulu. On entering the Alexander University in Helsinki (now the University of Helsinki) in 1828, he first devoted himself to Greek and Hebrew with the intention of entering the church, but his interest was soon excited by the Finnish language, and even before his course was completed, he began to lay the foundations of a work on Finnish mythology. He received his bachelor's degree in 1836 and graduate degree in 1839.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust264/sust264_hakkinenk.pdf|title = Matthias Alexander Castrén suomen kielen tutkijana |publisher = University of Turku |author = Kaisa Häkkinen |date = February 12, 2012|access-date = November 1, 2016}}</ref>
== Linguistic adventures == [[File:Castrén Bust.jpg|thumb|right|Bust of Castrén in Töölö, with National Museum of Finland in the background]] The necessity of personal explorations among the still-unwritten languages of cognate tribes soon made itself evident. In 1838. he joined a medical fellow student, Dr. Ehrström, in a journey through Lapland. That was the first of the voyages Castrén undertook to investigate the kinship between Finnish and several other languages. He was later appointed in 1840 to associate professor in Finnish and the Norse languages at the University of Helsinki. The next year, he traveled in Karelia at the expense of the Literary Society of Finland.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.hamhelsinki.fi/en/sculpture/m-a-castren-alpo-sailo/|title= M. A. Castrén|publisher= hamhelsinki|access-date= November 1, 2016|archive-date= November 4, 2016|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161104075901/https://www.hamhelsinki.fi/en/sculpture/m-a-castren-alpo-sailo/|url-status= dead}}</ref>
In 1841, he undertook with the Finnish philologist Elias Lönnrot a third journey, which ultimately extended beyond the Urals as far as Obdorsk and lasted three years. Before starting on the expedition, he had published a translation into Swedish of the Finnish epic of Kalevala. Upon his return, he gave to the world his {{langx|la-x-new|Elementa grammatices Syrjaenæ|label=none||Elements of Komi-Zyryan grammar}} (1844) and {{langx|la-x-new|Elementa grammatices Tscheremissæ|label=none||Elements of Mari (Cheremiss) grammar}} (1845).<ref name="nat_bio">{{cite web|url= https://kansallisbiografia.fi/kansallisbiografia/henkilo/3164 |title= Castrén, Matthias Alexander (1813 - 1852)|publisher = Kansallisbiografia|author= Tapani Salminen|access-date= December 9, 2020}}</ref>
No sooner had he recovered from the illness, which his last journey had occasioned, than he set out, under the auspices of the Academy of St Petersburg and the Alexander University, on an exploration among the indigenous peoples of Siberia, which resulted in a vast addition to previous knowledge but seriously affected the health of the adventurous investigator. The first fruits of his collections were published in St. Petersburg in 1849 in the form of {{langx|de|Versuch einer ostjakischen Sprachlehre|label=none||Essay on Khanty (Ostyak) grammar}} (1858). In 1850, he published the treatise {{langx|la-x-new|De affixis personalibus linguarum Altaicarum|label=none||On the personal affixes of Ural-Altaic languages}} and was appointed professor of the new chair of Finnish language and literature at the University of Helsinki. The following year saw him raised to the rank of chancellor of the university. He was busily engaged in what he regarded as his principal work, a grammar of the Samoyedic languages, when he died in 1852, at 38 years of age.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite web|url= https://runeberg.org/tieto/1/0818.html|title= Castrén, Mathias A.|publisher = Tietosanakirja|access-date= November 1, 2016}}</ref>
==Personal life== In 1850, he married Lovisa Natalia Tengström (1830–1881), whose father, Johan Jakob Tengström (1787–1858), was a professor of theoretical and practical philosophy at Alexander University. They were the parents of the newspaper publisher and elected official {{ill|Robert Castrén|fi|Robert Castrén|sv|Robert Castrén|ru|Кастрен, Роберт}} (1851–1883).<ref>{{cite web|url = https://ylioppilasmatrikkeli.fi/henkilo.php?id=14681 |title = Castrén, Lovisa Natalia (Tengström)|publisher = kootutteokset|access-date = November 1, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = http://filosofia.fi/suomalainen_filosofia/galleria/2851|title = Tengström, Johan Jakob|publisher = filosofia|access-date = November 1, 2016|archive-date = December 14, 2024|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20241214185319/http://filosofia.fi/suomalainen_filosofia/galleria/2851|url-status = dead}}</ref>
== Posthumous publications == [[File:Matthias Castren bust.JPG|thumb|right|250px|A bust of Matthias Castrén in Kamppi.]] Five volumes of his collected works appeared from 1852 to 1858, containing respectively (1) ''Reseminnen från åren 1838-1844''; (2) ''Reseberättelser och bref åren 1845-1849''; (3) ''Föreläsningar i finsk mytologi''; (4) ''Ethnologiska föreläsningar öfver altaiska folken''; and (5) ''Smärre afhandlingar och akademiska dissertationer''. A German translation was published by Anton Schiefner, who was also entrusted by the St. Petersburg Academy with the editing of his manuscripts, which had been left to the University of Helsinki and were subsequently published.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
==M. A. Castrén Society== The M. A. Castrén Society was founded in Helsinki on 22 January 1990. It creates contacts and fosters dialogue between Finns and other Uralic peoples and provides assistance for the publication of literature in the Uralic languages.<ref name="nat_bio"/><ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.macastren.fi/arkisto/MAC_in_english.pdf|title = M. A. Castrén Society|publisher = M. A. Castrén Society|access-date = November 1, 2016}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Primary Source== * [http://375humanistia.helsinki.fi/en/humanists/matthias-castren Matthias Castrén in 375 humanists 01.03.2015, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki]
==Attribution== * {{EB1911|wstitle=Castrén, Matthias Alexander|volume=5}}
==External links== *[http://www.macastren.fi/ M. A. Castrén Society website]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castren, Matthias Alexander}} Category:1813 births Category:1852 deaths Category:People from Tervola Category:People from Oulu Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Category:19th-century Finnish people Category:Finnish philologists Category:Linguists from Finland Category:Finnish ethnologists Category:Finnish Finno-Ugrists Category:Finnish translators Category:Translators from Finnish Category:Translators to Swedish Category:Historical linguists Category:19th-century translators Category:Academic staff of the University of Helsinki Category:Linguists of Samoyedic languages Category:Linguists of Sámi Category:Sámi studies Category:19th-century philologists