Hugo pipping - a pioneer phonetician at the University of Helsinki

Hugo Pipping was the first person to officially function as a phonetics teacher at the University of Helsinki. His most important contribution to Finnish phonetics was the introduction of scientific physiological research methods into the study of speech. Especially, he used the Phonautograph/Sprachzeichner developed by Victor Hensen in Kiel to manually analyse the spectral structure of vowel sounds, mostly the vowels of his native Finland-Swedish language but also those of Finnish. Pipping held the position of "docent" of phonetics in Helsinki until 1903, when he was invited to the university of Gothenburg to the position of docent of Nordic languages and phonetics. After four years in Sweden, he returned to Helsinki in 1907, but this time as a professor of Swedish language and literature (later professor of Nordic philology). Pipping retired in 1929, but remained academically active until his death in 1944.