Hella Keem

Hella Keem (also Hella Keem; 6 April 1915 Keema, Vaabina Parish – 27 December 1997 Tartu) was an Estonian linguist and ethnographer.[1]

From 1936 until 1943, she studied Estonian language, ethnography, and Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Tartu. Following the German occupation of Estonia during World War II, Keem was arrested in 1943 and spent a year in prison. She was subsequently arrested in 1945 following the Soviet occupation of Estonia and spent fives years as a prisoner, released in 1950. From 1957 until 1993, she worked as a laboratory assistant at the Estonian SSR Academy of Sciences' Language and Literature Institute.[1]

Her main fields of research were Tartu and Võro dialects. She was the most prolific dialect collector in Estonia: in total she created 223,000 labels of words, over 4000 pages of texts, and recorded 690 hours of sound recordings.[1]

Awards:

Works

  • Tartu murde tekstid. Eesti murded III (1970)
  • Tartumaa saja-aastaste jutud (1995)
  • Võru keel (1997)
  • Johannes Gutslaffi grammatika eesti keel ja Urvaste murrak (1998, in the book: J. Gutslaff. Grammatilisi vaatlusi eesti keelest)
  • Võru murde tekstid. Eesti murded VI (2002, with I. Käsi)

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Keem, Hella - Eesti Entsüklopeedia". entsyklopeedia.ee. Retrieved 9 July 2021.