Aarand Roos

Aarand Roos (28 May 1940 – 9 August 2020) was an Estonian linguist, writer (prose and poetry) and diplomat. He spent much of his life in exile in Sweden and the United States, including service as consul of the Republic of Estonia in New York (1982–1995), before returning to Estonia in 1996.

Early life and education Roos was born in Tartu into a family of philologists. In July 1944 his family fled Estonia to Sweden as part of the wartime refugee exodus, arriving in Stockholm on 12 July 1944.

He studied Finno-Ugric languages at Lund University (with additional study periods at the universities of Helsinki, Szeged and Uppsala). He defended his doctoral dissertation at Lund University on 2 April 1980; the dissertation was titled Morfologiska tendenser vid språklig interferens med estniska som bas (1980).

Career After completing his doctorate, Roos taught Finno-Ugric languages at Lund University.

Writing and research Roos published fiction and poetry as well as works in linguistics and cultural history. His book Jumalaga, Kars ja Erzurum (1975; expanded edition 1992) concerns the history, life and language of the Estonian settlement of Uus-Estonia in northeastern Turkey and was based on fieldwork in the region.

Selected works (Selection based on the Estonian Writers' Online Dictionary and ESAS.) According to a later biographical account, he returned the decoration in 2003 as a political protest related to Estonia's accession to the European Union.

Personal life Roos came from a family of philologists; his father was classical philologist , and his brother is classical philologist and archaeologist . He was a Baptist. Roos was married to Maaja Duesberg, who is the granddaughter of composer Rudolf Tobias; they had two children.