Timo Riiho
Humanist of the day

Timo Riiho

Professor Timo Riiho’s long career has been good for the languages of the Iberian Peninsula. It is partly down to him that, in addition to Spanish and Portuguese, it is also possible to study Catalan, Galician and Basque at the University of Helsinki. Being a linguist, Riiho has found himself in some interesting situations: anything from meeting members of the Spanish Royal Family to translating the lyrics of Finland’s first ever Eurovision Song Contest winner, Lordi’s Hard Rock Hallelujah, into Spanish, at the request of the embassy.

Timo Riiho

Timo Tapani Riiho
Born 7 October 1950, Kymi

Master of Philosophy 1975 (Romance philology) and PhD (Romance philology) 1979, University of Helsinki.

Professor of Ibero-Romance Languages 1981-

Publications, research projects and other activities
Research areas: linguistics, Ibero-Romance languages, historical and comparative syntax, prepositions, personal pronouns.

Awards and recognitions
Foreign correspondent of the Royal Spanish Academy
Commander of the Spanish Order of Civil Merit
Grand Officer of the Portuguese Order of Henry the Navigator
Commander of the Brazilian Order of Castelo Branco

Authors: Timo Riiho and Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta (ed.)
Translated by: Laura Mena and Aija-Leena Bernouilli
Revised by: John Calton

Enthusiasm for Ibero-Romance languages does not fade

Timo Riiho has worked as the professor of Ibero-Romance languages (of the Iberian Peninsula) in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Helsinki since 1981. His area of research consists of historical and comparative syntax of Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan. His research centres on the syntax of prepositions and pronouns.

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Timo Riiho i l'ensenyament a Finlàndia

‘Timo Riiho on teaching in Finland’. In this video from January 2012, Professor Timo Riiho tells about his presentations introducing the Finnish education system in Madrid, the Canary Islands, Mallorca, Catalonia and the Basque region (in Spanish and Basque).

My best memories of the University

My years in the University, starting back in the autumn of 1969, have witnessed many changes. Throughout this time the study of Spanish and Portuguese has continued to grow. Spanish is no longer held to be an exotic language, as it was for many in the 1970s.

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