<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Dear URA-LIST Community,<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">yesterday, sad news came from Estonia: Prof. emer. Tiit-Rein Viitso had passed away at the age of 84 years, after a long career in Finnic linguistics, practically all the time at the University of Tartu, where he was employed since the 1960s.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In the first online obituaries I have seen so far, his role as a researcher and developer of the Livonian language is highlighted. Tiit-Rein Viitso worked with the last "traditional" Livonians and with the first generation of Livonian "new speakers", he was a founding member of the Society of the Friends of Livonians and gave a crucial contribution to the standardization of the modern Livonian orthography. It is impossible to think of the Livonian language today, its cultivation and activism, without Tiit-Rein's work and his linguistic expertise. In the Livonian community, he is sorely missed.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">But Tiit-Rein Viitso's productivity and his empirical and theoretical ambitions included the whole field of the Finnic languages. He published extensively about diverse questions of historical and synchronic phonology and morphology in various Finnic languages but also about loanwords, etymology, and the (pre)history of Estonian, and his work on the questions of Finnic taxonomy is a legend. Now not just a good colleague, a friend of the Livonian community and an experienced researcher of many Finnic languages but a truly great linguist has left us.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Rest in peace, puhka rahus, nov armsõ, tõurõz Tiit-Rein! </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Joining numerous colleagues and friends in mourning</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">jl</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">--</div><div class="">Univ.Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso</div><div class="">Universität Wien, Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (EVSL)</div><div class="">Abteilung Finno-Ugristik</div><div class="">Campus AAKH Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7</div><div class="">A-1090 Wien</div><div class=""><a href="mailto:johanna.laakso@univie.ac.at" class="">johanna.laakso@univie.ac.at</a> • <a href="http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/" class="">http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/</a></div><div class="">Project ELDIA: <a href="http://www.eldia-project.org/" class="">http://www.eldia-project.org/</a> </div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br class=""></div></div></body></html>