Doctor of
Philosophy in Finno-Ugric Languages, University of Turku 1991. Since 1998, I have
worked as a professor of Finno-Ugric Languages at the University of Turku. 1981
to 1997, I was a senior researcher (lexicographer) at the Research Centre for
the Languages of Finland (now: Institute for the Languages of Finland). 1992 to
1998, I acted as Docent in Finno-Ugric Languages and Cultures at the University
of Turku.

I have
studied vocabulary in the languages of the Volga region and compiled (together
with native scholars) the Udmurt-Finnish (2008) and Finnish-Udmurt (2013)
dictionaries. I have edited and published old Mari manuscripts (Timofej
Jevsevjevs Folklore-Sammlungen aus dem Tscheremissischen I–IV, 1983, 1989,
1992, 1994) and (together with Arto Moisio) a dialect dictionary of Mari (Tscheremissisches
Wörterbuch, 2008). I have worked as editor-in-chief of the journals
Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen (2001–2018) and Sananjalka (1998–2015). My
articles deal with, inter alia, history of Finno-Ugristics, situation of
Finno-Ugric minority languages, language of folklore, morphosyntax of the FU
languages in the Volga region.

I am head of the Research Unit for Volgaic Languages.

Structure
of Finno-Ugric languages; Mari, Mordvin, Komi, Udmurt, Northern Saami;
lexicology; folklore of the Finno-Ugric peoples