Edvard Vilhelm Ahtia (1867–1953) was a Swedish-speaking Finn with degrees in philosophy and literature from the University of Helsinki. He spent his childhood years on the island of Tammisaari and in Vyborg, and eventually settled in Suojärvi where he married a Karelian woman and found work as a teacher. Suojärvi became the base for his studies of the Karelian language.Leskinen, 1947.

The first volume of his grammar of the Olonets-Karelian dialect, Karjalan kielioppi: Äänne- ja sanaoppi, fell victim to the Soviet purge of Finns from Karelia in 1938. A second and third volume with conjunctions and sentence theory were published posthumously in 2014.Leskinen, 1953.

Ahtia’s manuscript for a Finnish-Karelian dictionary was completed in 1940, but negotiations for its printing fell through, and the rights were eventually aquired by the Finnish Literature Society in 1956. Ahtia’s lexicographical work formed a major contribution to the Dictionary of Karelian, published in six volumes between 1968 and 2005.Institute for the Languages of Finland, 1968–2005.