There’s a Finno-Ugric bee in Marani’s Italian bonnet, it seems. His most known work was New Finnish Grammar, the translation of which came out in 2011, and now this book, which came out last year (translated by Judith Landry) and which also concerns itself with the mysterious origins of the Finnish language.
There’s a Finno-Ugric bee in Marani’s Italian bonnet, it seems. His most known work was New Finnish Grammar, the translation of which came out in 2011, and now this book, which came out last year (translated by Judith Landry) and which also concerns itself with the mysterious origins of the Finnish language.
The Last of the Vostyachs tells the story of the last living member of an imaginary ethnic group who wanders into reality when suddenly released without any reason from mines in some Russian mountains. Ivan, as the man is called, has been held in slavery for 20 years, ever since a little boy when he and his father were captured. The rest of their people suffered a much worse demise, but during their captivity Ivan’s father is soon murdered as well, leaving Ivan dumb with grief.
Upon emancipation, Ivan returns to the area where he grew up and slowly begins to remember and utter the sounds of his ancestors, but there is no one to hear him apart from a rapt audience of wolves, and the rest of the wild mountain animals. That is until a linguist scholar shows up and throws herself into Ivan’s guttural world.
Olga is delighted to have discovered Ivan, and thus the proof that she needs for her linguist theories that possibly link Finnish with certain American Indian languages. The two become friendly and Olga convinces Ivan to come along to a conference in Helsinki to share his knowledge with a wider audience. This is when things derail thanks to a certain Professor Jaarmo Aurtova, who has a completely different – and murderous – agenda for the couple, as he harbours strong nationalistic beliefs along with his academic jealousies.
Marani’s day job so far has been as a senior linguist for the EU, as well as writing a column in a Swiss newspaper in a language called Europanto, which he has made up himself. It is obvious that his work, and his merits as a conlanger (one who constructs languages), have bled into his fictional work, and they are interesting premises to use as a base, but the question is do they work?
I feel they do. Much of this book I enjoyed, it was well constructed and interesting, and especially if you have no previous knowledge of the subjects dealt with, this forms a good platform from which to get further involved.
The world of linguistics can to some of us seem very dry at times, but in this form one realises how very deep the issues go and how much is at play.
