Fwd: Tuomo Tuomi in memoriam

[Johanna Laakso]

> Lähettäjä: Sirkka Saarinen <sirkka.saarinen at utu.fi>
> Päiväys: 25. marraskuuta 2011 13.54.47 UTC+1.00
> Vastaanottaja: Johanna Laakso <johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at>
> Aihe: Tuomo Tuomi in memoriam
> 
> TUOMO TUOMI IN MEMORIAM
>  
> The grand old man of Finnish dialectology, prof. Tuomo Tuomi passed away on Thursday November 24 at the age of 82 years. Tuomo Tuomi was the first director (1976–94) of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland (KOTUS); he had also been the head (1966–76) of its predecessor Sanakirjasäätiö ('Finnish lexicography foundation'). During his reign KOTUS was one of the three centres of Finno-Ugric studies in Finland.
>  
> Tuomo Tuomi was the editor-in-chief of the four first parts of Suomen murteiden sanakirja ('the dictionary of Finnish dialects'). He created the very precise semantic description followed in the dictionary. Most of the enormous material was collected by earlier generations, as the idea of a dictionary comprising all the words of the Finnish language had been presented already in the beginning of the 20th century. Tuomo Tuomi gave this monumental work its final form. (After eight published volumes KOTUS has now decided to  continue the work only in abridged electronic form: today's wealthy Finland has lower cultural standards than the earlier poorer generations.)
>  
> Tuomo Tuomi  published the Reverse Dictionary of Modern Standard Finnish in 1972. He saw the importance of automatic data processing at an early stage, and also the material of the dialect dictionary was presented in a structured manner in order to make its further use in electronic form possible.
>  
> Tuomi's main interest was the dialect lexicon, of which he wrote several articles. He was a man of action. His organizational skills were in use in many scientific as well as in social projects concerning the Finnish culture and language.
>  
> Tuomi had good contacts with Estonian scholars already during the Soviet era. In 1980s he initiated the project on a Finnic atlas with Finnish, Karelian and Estonian scholars.  The questionnaire followed Tuomi's vision of a vocabulary that would at the same time show the genetic proximity of the Finnic languages but also shed light on the history of  their diffusion and differentiation. The three large volumes of Atlas Linguarum Fennicarum were published in 2004–10 with Tuomi as their editor-in-chief.
>  
> Tuomo Tuomi was granted an honorary doctorate by the Universities of Joensuu and Turku. He was honoured with the Maarjamaa Cross by the Estonian State.
>  
> With condolences to Tuomi's family and to all colleagues who knew and respected his wit, energy and integrity.
>  
> Sirkka Saarinen

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