As we were discussing the order of elements in Uralic possessive constructions with the students today, we discovered a nice example from Udmurt that turned out to be not only head-final but also horse-initial 🐎

We are starting NOMAC — a three-year project within which we will create a diachronic corpus of Northern Mansi, an endangered Uralic language spoken in Siberia gepris.dfg.de/gepris/proje... Join us on 4 May at 14:15 for a presentation (in person or online): www.copius.eu/lmu-colloqui...

The post-colloquium summer ritual 😎

Spent the morning in Helsinki (virtually). So happy for Riku! It was a very interesting discussion, and I really hope the research will continue!

Great news! Riku Erkkilä will defend his dissertation "The semantics of Udmurt spatial cases" on 25 April 2026 starting at 9:15 CEST (10:15 in Helsinki). The defence can be followed online at helsinki.zoom.us/j/62092701703. The dissertation is available here: hdl.handle.net/10138/630195.

Our research colloquium is back! The first talk is by Prof. Dr. Beáta Wagner-Nagy (University of Hamburg), Das Leben ist ein Geben und Nehmen: zwei Ereignisse und ihre Verwendung in den samojedischen Sprachen. 13 April, 14–16, in person and on Zoom. The program is here: www.copius.eu/lmu-colloqui...

A request for fellow linguists, especially those who supervise BA/MA theses. If you have any examples of excellent theses that are publicly available, could you please share them with me? I would especially appreciate corpus studies or studies dealing with minority languages.

This week, we have been hosting Idaliya Fedotova, a doctoral researcher from the University of Eastern Finland, who came to our institute for a research visit and consultations on Khanty. We are always happy to have guests, so please reach out if you would like to visit us!

Registration for the International Finno-Ugric Students' Conference (IFUSCO) is open until 31 March. The conference itself will take place in Helsinki from 11 to 15 May 2026. Here is the link to the conference website: ifusco.siulary.fi

The winter school has started with Zsófia Schön's Surgut Khanty course and a game of hangman based on Khanty phonetics!

The weather forecast predicts 15 degrees and sunshine next week, but Munich is clearly ready for WINTER school as of tonight! We look forward to welcoming all the participants here soon!

Transalpine Typology Meeting is coming to Munich this year (26–28 November)! We invite submissions for presentations on topics related to linguistic typology and comparative linguistics. The deadline for abstract submission is 15 April 2026. Spread the word! sites.google.com/unipv.it/tra...

After a six-month break, we are again a unique institution in Germany with full-time lecturers of Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian 🎉🎉🎉

Unser Institut nimmt am Samstag am Campustag teil. Wenn ihr überlegt, Finnougristik zu studieren, kommt zwischen 10 und 15 Uhr an unserem Infostand im Lichthof des Hauptgebäudes vorbei! www.lmu.de/de/studium/b...

On Monday, 26 January, Miina Norvik (University of Tartu) will give a talk on Continuity and change of structural features: the example of southern Finnic. 14:15–15:45 CET, A 016 in the main building or in Zoom. Further information here: www.finnougristik.uni-muenchen.de/studium_lehr...

On Wednesday, 21 January, at 18:15, we are organizing an event on Indigenous Languages at the Intersection of Society, Identity and Journalism: Komi in Contemporary Russia. Schellingstraße 3, S 007. Come and spread the word! www.sprachlit.lmu.de/mcl/de/aktue...

We are hiring a doctoral candidate to work in our project that will create a diachronic corpus of Northern Mansi. It is a 65% position (E13 TV-L) for 2 years 9 months starting in spring 2026. Please spread the word! www.finnougristik.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/fo...

The 2026 Winter School of Finno-Ugric Studies will be held at LMU Munich between 23 and 28 February 2026 (Monday through Saturday). The registration form for in-person and online participants can be found here: www.finnougristik.uni-muenchen.de/infuse/ankue...

A really interesting online talk in our research colloquium on eye-tracking experiments with Northern Khanty speakers!

LMU Munich offers a funded PhD position for three years at the Graduate School of Language & Literature. The deadline for applications is 7 December 2025: www.en.lipp.uni-muenchen.de/application/...

On Monday, 3 November, Daria Zhornik (LMU) will give a talk summarizing the results of her doctoral dissertation. The title of the talk is "Discourse organisation in Northern Mansi: new findings". 14:15–15:45 CET, A 016 in the main building: www.finnougristik.uni-muenchen.de/forschungssc...

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 is awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art.” www.nobelprize.org/prizes/liter...

The time before the beginning of the semester is perfect for all kinds of academic exchange, both for our students and for our teachers. Greetings from ELTE Budapest where Ksenia Shagal is giving several lectures on linguistic typology and Finnish pragmatics this week!

Mʉβəɬi juːɣət sɐːjnə? Manər jiwət sājt? Mi van a fák mögött? Wenn Sie solche Fragen beschäftigen, Antworten erfahren Sie im kommenden Semester beim Kurs "3-in-1: Chantisch-Mansisch-Ungarisch kompakt!" von Zsófia Schön!

(Wiesen)marisch an der LMU, direkt von den Leuten, die mit der Sprache arbeiten: im kommenden Semester bieten Jeremy Bradley & Johannes Hirvonen einen Sprach- und Strukturkurs zum Marischen an. Keine erforderlichen Vorkenntnisse!

Every August on my vacation, I teach linguistics to school students in the best place on earth with the best people around me. Narva-Jõesuu 💙🧡💛

The LMU delegation at #cifu14 was so big that we did not fit into one picture, but here are at least some of us on various occasions. Many thanks to the organizers for this wonderful congress!

Opening the symposium on Building diachronic corpora for minority languages at Congressus XIV Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum. The symposium is organized by Jeremy Bradley, Daria Zhornik, Ksenia Shagal (Munich), Timofey Arkhangelskiy, Alexandre Arkhipov (Hamburg), and Trond Trosterud (Tromsø).

The Institute of Uralic Studies at LMU Munich is seeking applications for a position of a lecturer in Hungarian. It is a full-time permanent position with a starting date in February 2026. The deadline for applications is 20 September 2025. Please spread the word! job-portal.lmu.de/jobposting/a...

The third bilingual Hungarian–German volume of Dezső Kosztolányi's works translated by our students and our wonderful Hungarian lecturer Mária Kelemen together with a writer and translator Akos Doma was presented yesterday at the Consulate General of Hungary in Munich!

Greetings from Riga where we are presenting our research at the conference on Areal linguistics and language contact of Uralic languages. Our institute is represented by Margarita Wolf, Johannes Hirvonen, Ksenia Shagal @ksushagal.bsky.social, Jeremy Bradley @jeremue.bsky.social, and Gwen Eva Janda.

On Monday, 16 June, Irina Burukina (University of Florida) will give a talk on Inflected infinitives in Mari: Clitics, subject agreement, or a secret third thing. 14:15–15:45 CEST, A 014 in the main building – or using the Zoom link available here: www.finnougristik.uni-muenchen.de/forschungssc...

On Monday, 12 May, Aigul Zakirova (University of Potsdam) will give a talk on Necessity constructions in Hill Mari: a diachronic corpus perspective. 14:15–15:45 CEST, A 014 in the main building – or contact us for a Zoom link!

The Class of Language at the Graduate School of Language & Literature, LMU Munich is offering a PhD-scholarship for international applicants (DAAD), starting winter semester 2025/2026. The deadline for applications is 1 April 2025: www.en.lipp.uni-muenchen.de/application/...

My main personal achievement at the Finno-Ugric winter school in Vienna was discovering a long-eared owl with three fluffy chicks right in front of the city hall 🦉🦉🦉

If you want to learn more about Mansi, you can listen to the episode of "A Language I Love Is..." with Daria: shows.acast.com/64e0e1540b9d...

Our amazing doctoral researcher Daria Zhornik is teaching a Northern Mansi course at the Winter School of Finno-Ugric Studies in Vienna #2025WinterSchool

If you 1) have received your PhD in the last five years, 2) have a project in mind that you can imagine doing with me, 3) would like to spend 1–3 months in Munich in 2026, please let me know, as the Center for Advanced Studies at LMU might have an opportunity for you: www.cas.lmu.de/en/programs/...

Our fantastic intern Tuuli Savela is giving a talk on Sámi mythology at the LMU Campus Day right now. If you have missed it, the good news is that in the summer semester we will also have a course on Sámi languages in time and space by our doctoral researcher Ilia Egorov.

Universities all over Europe are cutting language programs and closing the doors to the world. We want to get a more complete picture: where, when, why? If you know of any such cases, please tell us (and share the link with your language and linguistics contacts)! elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/13...

The University of Helsinki is looking for a lecturer in Finno-Ugric linguistics: jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

In today's #map_of_the_month rubric, we have a map of places in Karelia and southern Finland whose names feature the Proto-Saami root meaning 'stone'. In this and many other cases, toponyms found in a region can tell a lot about its earlier inhabitants.

The Chuvash (Turkic) word akka 'elder sister' has made its way into many Uralic languages, so we decided to include it in our #etymology_of_the_month rubric!

On Monday, 20 January, Maria Reile (University of Tartu) will give a talk in our research colloquium on Referential devices in Estonian and its adjacent languages. 14:15–15:45 CET, M 105 in the main building. The Zoom link and the abstract are here: www.finnougristik.uni-muenchen.de/studium_lehr...

Jan Dlask, specialist of Finnish and Finland-Swedish literature, was one of the victims of the mass shooting at the Charles University in Prague in December 2023. Now, his colleagues have founded a memorial fund which will continue his legacy in Nordic studies. Donate here:

Is it time to get back to work already?! This sudden turn of events calls for some mirativity! Luckily, some Uralic languages excel at expressing it #structure_of_the_month

Guten Rutsch!

The Old Komi inscriptions are among the oldest written texts in a Finno-Ugric language. They use a special script called Abur (or Anbur) created in the 14th century based on Cyrillic and Greek #manuscript_of_the_month

Students and staff of the institute singing regilaul under the guidance of our wonderful Tiia 💙🖤🤍

Me making students and staff of our institute guess Finno-Ugric languages in which they hear rap songs 😎😎😎