Karl Pajusalu


Karl Pajusalu is an Estonian linguist and poet. He is a professor of history of the Estonian language and dialects at the University of Tartu and has been a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences since 2011.

Academic career

Pajusalu graduated from Pärnu 1st Secondary School and studied Estonian philology at the University of Tartu. He earned a PhD from the University of Turku in 1997, with a dissertation on multiple linguistic contacts in South Estonian.
At the University of Tartu, he has held academic posts including professor of the history of the Estonian language and dialects, and he has also served as visiting professor of Estonian at the University of Helsinki.
In 2015, he was elected a foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.

Research

Pajusalu's research focuses on Estonian and other Finnic languages, dialectology, and the historical development and variation of Estonian. His publications number approximately 200.
Ernštreits, Tomingas and Tuisk describe him as one of the leading contemporary experts on Salaca Livonian, a Finnic variety historically spoken in northern Latvia and extinct as a community language since the 19th century.

Literary work

Under the pseudonym Ķempi Kārl, Pajusalu writes poetry in Salaca Livonian.

Poetry collections

Salats joug kolm aģa Trillium Ēzkyrdiz vīzd
The 2023 collection Ēzkyrdiz vīzd received the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research's Kindred Peoples' prize in literature.

Honours