Axel Olof Fredenthal enrolled at the Imperial Alexander University in 1854 to study Classical Philology and Archaeology. He graduated with a master’s degree five years later. In spite of his main subject, he was increasingly drawn to the study of the Swedish language and the Swedish-speaking population of Finland.

Freudenthal’s interest in the Swedish-speaking rural population of Finland first arose when he made two research trips to small villages in the Uusimaa region in Southern Finland in 1860 and 1861. Going from village to village, he collected Swedish folklore such as songs and stories and studied relics found in the area. He later made a similar trip to Swedish-speaking parts of Ostrobothnia.

In 1861, Freudenthal moved to Uppsala, Sweden, to pursue studies in Nordic Philology. The following year, he moved to Copenhagen to study archaeological museology.

On returning to Finland he devoted himself to the study of languages, which culminated in a doctorate in 1865 with a thesis entitled Einar Skålaglams Vellekla öfversatt och förklarad (‘ ‘ ). Freudenthal was appointed Docent of Old Scandinavian Languages and Antiquities in 1866.

In the 1870s, Freudenthal studied the Swedish dialects of Finland and Estonia. The establishment of a chair in Swedish language was already being planned at the University, but the initiative met with strong resistance in the Diet of Finland. In the end, Freudenthal was appointed the first Acting Professor of Swedish Language and Literature in 1876. His position was made permanent two years later after Freudenthal published his professorial thesis Über den Närpesdialect, concerning the Swedish dialect found in the Ostrobothnian coastal town of Närpes-Närpiö. He retired in 1904.

Freudenthal promoted the teaching of Swedish even outside of the University. He published a new orthography of the language in 1881, striving to model writing on pronunciation. It was accepted quite widely and many schools adopted his model in their teaching.

Freudenthal was very active in numerous academic societies and organisations that supported Swedish-language culture. He was appointed as a member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters in 1876 and acted as its chair in 1888/9. He was also a founding member of several cultural associations that remain active, including Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, and Svenska Folkskolans vänner, ‘friends of Swedish schools’.

References

• Lars-Folke Landgrén, ”Freudenthal. Axel Olof (1836–1911)”, National Biography of Finland. Accessed March 19, 2015.
• Lars-Folke Landgrén, ”Freudenthal. Axel Olof (1836–1911)”, Biografiskt lexikon för Finland. Accessed March 19, 2015.
• Wikipedia, Axel Olof Freudenthal. Accessed March 19, 2015.