Jaakko Juteini was born in the Häme region of southern Finland in June 1781. His family were of limited means and nor did the family’s new portion on crown lands guarantee the children a future. Partly under pressure from the local dean of his parish, Juteini was sent to the grammar school in Hämeenlinna when he was twelve. This is when his name officially became Jacob Judén.

From Hämeenlinna he went to the Royal Academy of Turku, where theological studies entered the scene. Although he studied for several years, Juteini never actually completed a degree. He was able to finance his studies by becoming a private tutor to families in various places and this brought him into contact with ordinary folk. He left the Royal Academy of Turku in 1810.

After the Academy, Juteini attempted to find work as a translator, but, most likely it was the lack of a formal qualifications that ruled him out. Eventually he was appointed secretary to an administrative court, first in Hämeenlinna and later in Vyborg, which is where he lived the rest of his life. He held this full-time position until his retirement in 1840.

Juteini is, however, not known for his work as a secretary, but rather as a writer who sought to improve the status of the Finnish language. The Royal Academy of Turku, had become suffused with national romanticism and the spirit of the Enlightenment. In the first half of the 19th century, the language of government and administration in Finland was still undoubtedly Swedish. The Finnish-speaking nation, in terms of status and culture, was as yet inchoate, or at any rate existed in theory alone. One of the ways Juteini sought to raise the status of Finnish was by changing administrative shortcomings through the drafting of his Finnish texts.

The phrase arvon mekin ansaitsemme ‘we too deserve dignity’ is well-known to Finns, but few are aware that it was penned by Juteini and represents an era when the position of the Finnish language was clearly marginal.

Sources

• Jaakko Juteini, Häme-Wiki online. Accessed March 19, 2015.
• Kaarina Sala, Juteini, Jaakko. National Biography of Finland online. Accessed March 19, 2015.       
• Jaakko Juteini, Wikipedia. Accessed March 19, 2015. In Finnish.