[Ura-list] Vuokko Eiras in memoriam

[Johanna Laakso]

Dear URA-LIST Community,

sad news just arrived from Turku:
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Vuokko Eiras in memoriam

The acknowledged expert of Mansi language, Vuokko Eiras (née Kulmala) passed away yesterday at the age of  83 in Tampere, where she was born in 1941. Her academic career started  at the University of Turku, where she studied Finnish and Finno-Ugric languages. After graduation, prof. Matti Liimola invited her to work as his assistant in publishing the text material on Mansi language collected by Artturi Kannisto in Siberia in the early 1900s. 

In 1970, Liimola and Eiras started to plan the work on Mansi (Vogul) dictionary based on Kannisto's huge material. However, first they were to publish the complete vocabulary of the texts. After Liimola's death in 1974, Eiras continued the work alone, and the volume (MSFOu 180) came out in 1982. After that Eiras dedicated her life's work to the compilation of the Mansi dictionary: Wogulisches Wörterbuch (Lexica Societatis Fenno-Ugricae XXXV) came out in 2013. Eiras had retired in 2009, and Arto Moisio took over the technical editing of the magnum opus.

After the Institute for the Languages of Finland was established in 1976, Vuokko Eiras became one of its lexicographers, but the University of Turku remained as her place of work. In many respects she was the life and soul of our small Finno-Ugric unit. Eiras was also a born teacher. Lucky were those of us who had the possibility to listen to her lectures on Mansi.   

With condolences to her relatives, colleagues and friends,

Sirkka Saarinen







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