[Ura-list] Valei Kelmakov (1942 - 2023) in memoriam

[Esa-Jussi Salminen]

Professor Kelmakov (14.01.1942 - 28.12.2023) has died as our
colleagues from Izhevsk have informed us today. Valei Kelmakov was one of
our most important and well-known colleagues from the Finno-Ugric world in
Russia. In 1992-94, he was a lecturer of the Udmurt language in Finland. He
studied Udmurt dialects, phonetics, vocabulary, literary language and its
development, and much more. In addition to an extensive scientific career,
he prepared a textbook of the Udmurt language for Finns and wrote articles
presenting Udmurtia in detail for the Finnish journals during his time as a
lecturer. Even before his period in Finland Kelmakov had already
established fruitful contacts with Hungarian colleagues.

Even yesterday he was said to be in full swing at work at the university. A
true hero of the Finno-Ugric world died today. He was a strict and
productive scholar, but even more important were, in my opinion, his social
skills. He loved to meet fellow-linguists as well as any other people. He
was an active participant of Finno-Ugric congresses and other forums. He
organized the symposia of Permic studies in 1980-ies. Till the last years
he actively gathered the participants for these symposia and always
encouraged younger generations and students to come along.

It is unbelievable that such a vivid person as Kelmakov is no longer with
us.
This is an enormous loss for Finno-Ugric studies and the Finno- Ugric world.

-- 
https://puheenvuoro.uusisuomi.fi/author/ejsalminen/
https://vapaavuoro.uusisuomi.fi/author/ejsalminen/
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