Gerson Klumpp, Lidia Federica Mazzitelli, Fedor Rozhanskiy Typology of the Uralic languages: introduction TYPOLOGY OF URALIC LANGUAGES: CURRENT VIEWS AND NEW PERSPECTIVES. INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE OF ESUKA – JEFUL Gerson Klumpp 1 , Lidia Federica Mazzitelli 2 , and Fedor Rozhanskiy 1,3 1 University of Tartu, 2 University of Cologne, and 3 Institute for Linguistic Studies RAS Abstract. In our introduction to the volume, we address the history and current devel- opments in Uralic studies, with particular attention to the evolution of grammar-writ- ing since the very first Uralic grammars until today, and summarize some of the most interesting Uralic phenomena from a typological point of view. In Section 2 we show that, even though Uralic studies can boast a remarkable number of linguistic studies and a rich production of descriptive grammars, the published grammars often lack in comparability (as they use different terms to describe the same phenomena), interna- tional reach and they often are not typologically informed. Therefore, we advocate for a stronger cooperation between typology and Uralic studies. In Section 3 we present the papers included in this special edition of ESUKA, a selection of typologically-informed, data-driven and terminologically consistent studies of different phenomena in a number of Uralic languages. Finally, in Section 4 we present a short overview of some typologi- cally relevant features in Uralic languages. Keywords: Uralic studies, typological features, grammar-writing DOI: https://doi.org/10.12697/jeful.2018.9.1.01 1. Introductory note This volume is based on papers read at the workshop “Typology of Uralic Languages: Towards Better Comparability” during the 49th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (Naples, 31 August – 2 September 2016). The aim of the workshop was to bring together researchers working on Uralic languages within the contempo- rary typological framework, in order to foster and prompt discussion on how Uralic linguistics can profit from typology, and vice versa. ESUKA – JEFUL 2018, 9–1: 9–30