Heikki Ojansuu compiled folk poetry and the dialect of his native Tyrvää already in upper secondary school, offering a list of dialect words to the Finnish Literature Society in 1896. The Finnish, Karelian and Estonian languages became the cornerstone of Ojansuu’s academic career. He received his Bachelor’s degree at the Imperial Alexander University in 1899.

A mere two years after his graduation, Ojansuu published his doctoral dissertation entitled Suomen lounaismurteiden äännehistoria. Vokaalioppi. Descendentti esitys (1902) (‘The history of pronunciation in south-western Finnish dialects. A study of vowels. A synchronic demonstration’), receiving his Licentiate degree. After a further work on south-western dialects in the study Suomen lounaismurteiden äännehistoria. Konsonantit. Descendentti esitys (1903) (‘The history of pronunciation in south-western Finnish dialects. Consonants. A synchronic demonstration’) Ojansuu was appointed Docent of Finnish Language and Literature.

Ojansuu was substitute Professor of Finnish many times due to E. N. Setälä’s leaves of absence, for the first time in 1905-7. During his spell as acting professor, Ojansuu went on a linguistic research trip to study the Estonian-speaking people in the governorates of Livonia, Pskov and Vitebsk in the years 1910-1 and again in 1912. He collected a vast amount of information about south Estonian folk poetry and language.

In addition to Finnish and Estonian dialects, Ojansuu was also interested in the Karelian language. In 1907 he published a book called Karjalan kielen opas (‘A guide to the Karelian language’) with Setälä, and in 1918 he published Karjala-aunuksen äännehistoria (‘The history of pronunciation in Olonets Karelian’). Later, in 1921, he joined a research group with the aim of mapping out the folk traditions of Karelian people who had migrated to Finland. Ojansuu’s contribution to the research were a set of extensive notes on sixteen different dialects, which were later published almost entirely in the work Lyydiläisiä kielennäytteitä (1934) (‘Samples of the Ludic language’).

One of Ojansuu’s biggest concerns was placing language phenomena in a chronological order, and he was considered a leading scholar in the field of old written Finnish. Onomastics was another of Ojansuu’s special fields and he was also a journalist. He worked on the editorial board of the journal Virittäjä for a long time and was editor-in-chief between 1904 and 1908.

Ojansuu was appointed to the newly-founded substitute professorship of Finnish Philology in 1914. He remained in post until his appointment in 1922 as the first Professor of Finnish and Finnic Languages at the University of Turku. His tenure was cut short, however, with his demise the following January.

References:

• Toni Suutari & Merja Salo (eds.), Castrénin perilliset. Helsingin yliopiston suomen ja sen sukukielten professorit 1851–2001, (’The heirs of Castrén. The Professors of Finnish and Finnic languages at the University of Helsinki 1851-2001’) Helsinki 2001.
• E. A. Tunkelo, Prof. Heikki Ojansuu, Virittäjä 27/1923, Helsinki 1923.
• Seppo Suhonen, ‘Ojansuu, Heikki’, National Biography of Finland online. Accessed June 4, 2015. Available for free via Nelli
• ‘Heikki Ojansuu’, Wikipedia. Accessed June 4, 2015.