Mihkel Veske uurimustest soome-ugri keelte morfoloogia vallas
Concerning the studies by Mihkel Veske [Michael Weske] on Finno-Ugric morphology

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses morphological studies of the versatile Estonian scholar and poet Mihkel Veske (1843–1890), which dealt with morphological similarities and differences between the Finno-Ugric and Indo-European languages. These studies focused on the n-element containing Finno-Ugric cases, word structure of the Finnic languages, and morphological peculiarities of the Estonian language and its dialects. Veske left a remarkable trace in the evolution of the morphology of the Finno-Ugric, Finnic, and Estonian languages. By applying the comparative method, he studied morphological problems mainly during his Leipzig and Tartu periods. He taught this subject at the universities of Tartu and Kazan. Veske explained the main morphological similarities and differences between the Finno-Ugric and Indo-European languages. His extensive collection of examples about the occurrence of the n-element in cases of locative and other origin remained his main contribution to topic Finno-Ugric morphological studies. Veske derived the all Finno-Ugric cases with n from the locative, which seems implausible although the locative origin of some cases is certain. Veske as an ardent supporter and practitioner of the comparative method criticized the grammarians of the Finnic languages, who did not start from language history. He dealt with some problems of the comparative morphology of the Estonian language, such as the adverb suffi x -ti, contracted verbs, and so on. Veske as an enthusiastic organizer of the language expeditions collected a great deal of material from the Estonian dialects and was one of the founders of Estonian dialectology. He asserted that the coastal dialect is especially important from the viewpoint of comparative linguistics.

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