[Ura-list] Ilmari Hovila in memoriam

[Johanna Laakso]

Dear URA-LIST Community,

we all know how important the teaching of languages is for Uralic studies "extra muros" and what a fundamental role many Finnish and Hungarian lecturers have played in the history of Finno-Ugric departments. Ilmari Hovila, one of the most memorable carriers of this long tradition, taught Finnish at the university of Munich from 1956 until his retirement in 1997, thus giving an essential contribution to the development of Finno-Ugric studies in Germany. From colleagues in Munich I have now heard that Ilmari’s long and industrious life ended yesterday. His friendly and cheerful character and his commitment to the teaching of Finnish studies will remain in the grateful memory of those numerous Finno-Ugricists and other friends of Finland in Germany who were fortunate to study or work together with him. 

Those of you who would like to send their personal condolences to Ilmari's family can contact his niece, Satu Vuori (Kenttäkatu 37, 40720 Jyväskylä; svuori10 at gmail.com). 

After retiring from Munich, Ilmari taught Finnish for some time in Regensburg. When commenting on this transition, he used to make a pun with the two parallel forms of "best" in Finnish, unmarked and regularly marked: "Olen siirtynyt parhaasta parhaimpaan." Let me join all those friends and colleagues who are now missing a third, even more strongly marked superlative variant, in order to express how they wish to see Ilmari in the very-very-best of places.

JL

--
Univ.Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso
Universität Wien, Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (EVSL)
Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
Campus AAKH Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7
A-1090 Wien
johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at • http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/
Project ELDIA: http://www.eldia-project.org/ 
VIRSU network: http://www.univie.ac.at/virsu/ 



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