Bättre folk, bättre smak? : Suomenruotsalaisten maku ja kulttuuripääoma

The aim of my thesis, which consists of five original articles and a summarizing chapter, is to study the identity, lifestyle and cultural taste of the Finnish Swedes, i.e. the Swedish-speaking language minority in Finland, from a qualitative point of view. The Finnish Swedes are a somewhat special minority, first of all because of their wide-ranging language rights guaranteed by the constitution, and secondly because of the common image that Finnish Swedes represent a more legitimate or better lifestyle and taste than the Finnish-Speaking Finns. This conception is corroborated by the fact that, in comparison to the language majority, the Swedish-speakers have better health, employment, income and so on according to a number of quantitative studies. My research data is composed of twenty-six focus group interviews conducted among a geographically and socio-economically wide range of Swedish-speaking Finns. Group sizes ranged from 3 to 11 people. In the interviews, culture was approached through a framework of seven topics: music, cinema, television, arts, reading, eating and clothing. In each focus group interview, two subfields of culture were discussed along with a short section about cultural events and participation and definitions on good and bad taste. After discussing culture and taste, there was a final discussion on the Finnish Swede identity. The main theoretical framework of my thesis comes from Pierre Bourdieu (1979) and his followers: I am asking whether the status of being a Swedish-speaker can be used as a means of distinction. The main research questions are the following: (1) How does the Swedish-speaking minority look studied in the light of extensive qualitative data and in a framework of lifestyle and taste? (2) What kind of differences in lifestyle, taste and linguistic identity are there between different Finnish Swedes and how do those connect with socio-economical position, place of residence or age? I also ask how belonging to the language minority might work as a tool for cultural distinction and how different Swedish-speaking groups take use of it. My main research question is (3) whether mother tongue is a remarkable factor of lifestyle or cultural taste in contemporary Finland.

Tiedettä Pohjantähden alla : Pohjoisen tutkimus ja Ruotsin tiedeseurojen suhteet Ranskaan 1700-luvulla

In the eighteenth century, the birth of scientific societies in Europe created a new framework for scientific cooperation. Through a new contextualist study of the contacts between the first scientific societies in Sweden and the most important science academy in Europe at the time, l Académie des Sciences in Paris, this dissertation aims to shed light on the role taken by the Swedish learned men in the new networks. It seeks to show that the academy model was related to a new idea of specialisation in science. In the course of the eighteenth century, it is argued, the study of the northern phenomena and regions offered the Swedes an important field of speciality with regard to their foreign colleagues. Although historical studies have often underlined the economic, practical undertone of eighteenth-century Swedish science, participation in fashionable scientific pursuits had also become an important scene for representation. However, the views prevailing in Europe tied civilisation and learning closely to the sunnier, southern climates, which had lead to the difficulty of portraying Sweden as a learned country. The image of the scientific North, as well as the Swedish strategies to polish the image of the North as a place for science, are analysed as seen from France. While sixteenth-century historians had preferred to put down the effects of the cold and claim a similarity of northern conditions to the others, the scientific exchange between Swedish and French researchers shows a new tendency to underline the difference of the North and its harsh climate. An explanation is sought by analysing how information about northern phenomena was used in France. In the European academies, new empirical methods had lead to a need for direct observations on different phenomena and circumstances. Rather than curiosities or objects for exoticism, the eighteenth-century depictions of the northern periphery tell about an emerging interest in the most extreme, and often most telling, examples of the workings of the invariable laws of nature. Whereas the idea of accumulating knowledge through cooperation was most manifest in joint astronomical projects, the idea of gathering and comparing data from differing places of observation appears also in other fields, from experimental philosophy to natural studies or medicine. The effects of these developments are studied and explained in connection to the Montesquieuan climate theories and the emerging pre-romantic ideas of man and society.

Meän tapa puhua : Tornionlaakso pellolaisnuorten subjektiivisena paikkana ja murrealueena

This folk linguistic and human geographic study deals with dialect awareness, dialect use and place attachment. The study discusses theoretical and methodological issues current in sociolinguistics suggesting that the study of attitudes should be regarded as a core area in the study of variation and change. Furthermore, it is suggested that instead of putting effort into improving mental mapping methodology (adopted into folk linguistics from behavioural geography of the 1960 s), the more up-to-date thinking of space in geography should be adopted. The region and the dialect are treated as perceptual constructs in the study. The dialect perceptions of high school seniors in the Finnish Tornio Valley are examined trough a triangulation method involving a questionnaire, interviews and dialect recognition test as the research methods. The h in non-initial syllables (e.g. lähethä(ä)n, saunhaan ~ sauhnaan let s go into sauna ) turns out, expectedly, as the most salient feature in the dialect awareness of the locals and in terms of local identity construction. This feature is no longer heard in most of the present dialects of Finnish but is still thriving in the Tornio Valley in the cross-border dialect area. The metathetic variant (saunhaan > sauhnaan into sauna , käymhään > käyhmään to go ) is a characteristic feature of the Tornio Valley dialect. However, individual differences have long been found in the use of the h. This study challenges the essentialist variationist view of social categories (gender) by analysing variation from a quantitative but emic and human geographic point of view. The study shows that the variation of the h is statistically significantly patterned in terms of the degree of feeling of insideness vs. outsideness. New light is shed on the gender differences found in earlier sociolinguistic studies: differences in dialect use between and inside gender groups are illuminated by the fact that, in this case, it is young women who are generally less attached to the local community than young men, but this does not hold for all the individuals. The ideological motivation for preservation of the h seems to be based on the imagined community of Tornio Valley covering both the Swedish and the Finnish valley area. The general image of the dialect area and it s speakers, the shared cognitive dialect boundaries of the locals and the particularly deep level of awaress of the linguistic variation of the h are notable resources of the Tornio valley identity. Hyperdialectic forms analogical to the most frequently attested metathetic forms are found in the interview data, predicting that in this dialect the h will be maintained also in the future.

My Fair Lady på skandinaviska : En studie i funktionell sångöversättning

The dissertation presents a functional model for analysis of song translation. The model is developed on the basis of an examination of theatrical songs and a comparison of three translations: the songs of the Broadway musical My Fair Lady (Lerner and Loewe, 1956), made for the premiere productions (1959–1960) in Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. The analysis explores the three challenges of a song translator: the fitting of a text to existing music, the consideration of a prospective sung performance, and the verbal approximation of the content of the source lyric. The theoretical foundation is based on a functional approach to translation studies (Christiane Nord) and a structuralist/semiotic analysis of a theatrical message (Ivo Osolsobě, building on Roman Jakobson). Thus, three functional levels in the fitting of a text to music are explored: first, a prosodic/phonetic format; secondly, a poetic/rhetoric format; and thirdly, semantic/reflexive values (verbalizing musical expression). Similarly, three functional levels in the textual connections to a prospective performance are explored: first, a presentational goal; secondly, the theatrical potential; and thirdly, dramaturgic values (for example dramatic information and linguistic register). The functionality of Broadway musical theatre songs is analyzed, and the song score of My Fair Lady, source and target lyrics, is studied, with an in-depth analysis of seven of the songs. The three translations were all considered very well-made and are used in productions of the musical to this day. The study finds that the song translators appear to have worked from an understanding of the presentational goal, designed their target texts on the prosodic and poetic shape of the music, and pursued the theatrical functionality of the song, not by copying, but by recreating connections to relevant contexts, partly independently of the source lyrics, using the resources of the target languages. Besides metaphrases (closest possible transfer), paraphrases and additions seem normally to be expected in song translation, but song translators may also follow highly individual strategies – for example, the Norwegian translator is consistently more verbally faithful than the Danish and Swedish translators. As a conclusion, it is suggested that although linguistic and cultural difference play a significant role, a translator’s solution must nevertheless be arrived at, and assessed, in relation to the song as a multimedial piece of material. As far as a song can be considered a theatrical message – singers representing the voice, person, and situation of the song – the descriptive model presented in the study is also applicable to the translation of other types of song.

Ystävä sä lapsien : Lasten virret ja hengelliset laulut suomenkielisissä kokoelmissa 1824-1938 ja niiden vaikutus vuoden 1938 virsikirjaan

Ystävä sä lapsien. Collections of Finnish language children s hymns and spiritual songs from 1824─1938 and their influence on the Hymnal 1938. The Hymnal has been the common song book of Lutheran parishes since the 1500s. In the beginning, the congregations sang the hymns from memory led by the choir or the church musician. The fundamentals of Christian faith are taught through the hymns, both in church and in family devotions. The Hymnal was the only song book of the church in Finland until the end of the 1800s. This study attempts to clarify when and by who were spiritual songs and hymns for children written in Finland. Research materials used were all the books I could find (approximately 200), whose headings were for pupils and young children in the home and school circles. The method of study is historical and analytical. In the first chapter, it is explained that children s literature in Finland differentiated from other literature at the end of the 1700s. Eric Juvelius published a small prayer book in 1781 with the prayer Gud, som hafver barnen kär / Jumala joka Lapsia rakasta. From that, after many Finnish translations, the first verse of the hymn Ystävä sä lapsien took shape. The second chapter considers singing instruction in the folk school from the beginning of the 1860s. Textbooks, including songbooks, were produced for the pupils. Some of the first pioneers in producing these materials were the teachers P.J. Hannikainen, Sofie Lithenius, Mikael Nyberg, Anton Rikström and Aksel Törnudd, as well as Hilja Haahti, Immi Hellén and Alli Nissinen, who were all teachers gifted in writing poetry. Several new spiritual songs appeared in the folk school songbooks. Hymns were sung often, especially in connection with church year celebrations. Children s songs in Christian education are discussed in the third chapter. The Lutheran Evangelical Association of Finland recognized children already in its early song collections. The illustrative teaching methods in the folk school influenced the Sunday school activities and especially the Sunday school hymns. Hymns introduced as exclusively for children and pupils which appear in the Hymnal from 1886 and the supplement to the 1923 Hymnal are explored in the fourth and fifth chapters. The study shows that the renewal of church life at the beginning of the 1900s also resulted in an increase of the number of spiritual songs for children. This is also seen in the diverse choice of songs in the supplementary materials from 1923. The final chapter deals with the School and Childhood section of the 1938 Hymnal. The Hymnal committee did not think that the already well known folk school and Sunday school songs received enough attention in the Hymnal. Those songs were, among others, Kautta tyynen, vienon yön, Oi, katsopa lintua oksalla puun, Olen Luojani pikku varpunen, Rakas Isä taivahan ja Tuolla keinuu pieni pursi. Heikki Klemetti, Ilmari Krohn, Armas Maasalo and Aarni Voipio influenced the opinion that the spiritual songs still were not suitable to be sung in church. Hymns for children and pupils were brought into the same line as the entire Hymnal. The same hymn tunes, which were mainly old ones, were used as common settings for numerous hymn texts. No special type of melody emerged for the children s hymns. It was still notable that hymns for children and pupils were collected at all. In addition, the Hymnal committee marked those verses suggested for singing in both the folk school and Sunday school with an asterisk (*) throughout the entire Hymnal.

Sångöversättning – någonstans mellan respekt och slagkraft

Abstract (Song translation. Balancing between respect and hit capacity): The article discusses song translation by posing questions relevant to the study, practice, and assessment of translating/translated song: Is song translation really translation? Do non-singable translations count? Can we distinguish between free and faithful song translation? Are there untranslatable (aspects of) songs? etc. Three song translations between Finnish and Swedish are analyzed in the discussion: one made for a booklet to a recording, which in spite of the evident documentary purpose is fairly singable, one that is a national transplantation, which moves the sung story to the target country but even so is fairly faithful, and one that is considered respectful to its source, became a target culture hit, but perhaps because of the subtle changes in content. Changes can be seen as caused by a particular translation brief, as manipulations negotiating a cultural difference, or as examples of how (liberally) the craft of song translation is exercised. An amateur translation of the same song, made by the article’s author, is deemed dysfunctional for having put emphasis merely on semantic accuracy and rhymes, neglecting other aspects of the craft. The article suggests that singability is a relative concept, that stylistic/intertextual values matter a great deal in song and exert significant influence on song translation, and that source and target attentions in this area can be discussed as a much variable vacillation between a stance of respect and an aim for hit capacity.

Mig eller mej, själ eller sjel? Problem och lösningar vid transkription av svenska sångtexter

Abstract (Mig or mej, själ or sjel? Problems and solutions in the transcription of Swedish song texts): In this article I am pointing out and discussing problems and solutions concerning phonetic transcription of Swedish song texts. My material consists of 66 Swedish songs phonetically transcribed. The transcriptions were published by The Academy of Finnish Art Song in 2009. The first issue was which level of accuracy should be chosen. The transcriptions were created to be clear at a glance and suitable for the needs of interpretation of non Swedish speaking singers. The principle was to use as few signs and symbols as possible without sacrificing accuracy. Certain songs were provided with additional information whenever there was a chance of misinterpretation. The second issue was which geographic variety of the language should be visible in the transcription, Standard Swedish or Finland-Swedish? The songs in the volume are a selection of well-known works that are also of international interest. Most were composed by Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), a substantial number of whose songs were based on poems written by Finland’s national poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804–1877). Thus I chose to use the variety of Swedish language spoken in Finland, in order to reflect the cultural origin of the songs. This variety differs slightly from the variety spoken in Sweden both on prosodic and phonetic level. In singing, the note-text gives the interpretor enough information about prosody. The differences concern mostly the phonemes. A fully consequent transcript was, however, difficult to make, due to vocal requirement. So, for example, in an unstressed final syllable the vowel was often indicated as a central vowel, which in singing is given a more direct emphasis than in a literal pronunciation, even if this central vowel does not occur in spoken Finland-Swedish.

The Relationship Between Liquidity, Trading Activity and Return - Studies of the Finnish and Swedish Stock Markets

Liquidity, or how easy an investment is to buy or sell, is becoming increasingly important for financial market participants. The objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the understanding of how liquidity affects financial markets. The first essays analyze the actions taken by underwriters immediately after listing to improve liquidity of IPO stock. To estimate the impact of underwriter activity on the pricing of the IPOs, the order book during the first weeks of trading in the IPO stock is studied. Evidence of stabilization and liquidity enhancing activities by underwriters is found. The second half of the dissertation is concerned with the daily trading of stocks where liquidity may be impacted by policy issues such as changes in taxes or exchange fees and by opening the access to the markets for foreign investors. The desirability of a transaction tax on securities trading is addressed. An increase in transaction tax is found to cause lower prices and higher volatility. In the last essay the objective is to determine if the liquidity of a security has an impact on the return investors require. The results support the notion that returns are negatively correlated to liquidity.

Swedish Premium Pension Funds: Attributes and Performance

This study investigates the relationship between fund attributes and performance. The focus is on funds available in the Swedish Premium Pension system (PPM-funds). The aim has been to investigate whether administration fees, manager tenure or past performance are of importance for pension savers when they pick their PPM-funds. The results indicate that high fees are a disadvantage to pension savers investing in bond funds but not to those investing in stock funds. Manager tenure has no relationship with performance. There is evidence of performance persistency in most of the investigated fund categories.

Swedish advertising language in Finland mirrored by the newspaper advertisements of the Stockmanns department store during the 20th century

The advertising business is often said to favour a modern, innovative language use. This is a statement not easily verified. Newspaper ads are in fact the genre of written language that linguists have paid the least attention to. People writing texts for newspaper ads are individuals representing contemporary language use. Advertisements representing different periods therefore diverge not only regarding the change of style and form advertising undergoes over time, but changes in the language itself also reflect the continuous process of alteration in a speech community. Advertisements and marketing material on the whole, are also read by many individuals who otherwise are not accustomed to reading at all. The marketing manager, the copywriter and the Art Director, in other words, produce texts that unconsciously function as language models. Changes are not created by, or urged on by linguistic expertise, but by ordinary users confronting other ordinary users. From a sociolinguistic perspective the widely diffused advertising language is therefore a most influential factor.

Reklamsvenska i Finland speglad genom varuhuset Stockmanns tidningsannonser under det 20e seklet - Swedish Advertising Language in Finland Mirrored by the Newspaper Advertisements of the Stockmanns Department Store during the 20th Century

Reklam sägs använda ett modernt, gärna ett nyskapande språk. Detta är ett påstående som inte så lätt kan verifieras. Tidningsannonsen är troligen den skriftspråksgenre som har fått minst uppmärksamhet av språkforskare. De som skriver texten i en tidningsannons är personer som representerar det samtida språkbruket. Annonser som representerar olika tidsepoker skiljer sig därför från varandra inte bara genom att annonsen förändras i fråga om stil och form. Annonsens språk avspeglar också den språkliga förändringsprocess som kontinuerligt pågår i varje språksamhälle. Annonser, och marknadsföringsmaterial över huvud taget, läses också av många människor som i övrigt läser mycket litet eller kanske inte alls. Marknadsföraren, reklamskribenten (copywriter) och AD:n producerar m.a.o. texter som på ett omedvetet sätt kommer att vara språkmodeller för sina läsare. Förändringar i språket kreeras inte och drivs inte på av språkforskare, utan av vanliga språkbrukare i interaktion med andra språkbrukare. Sett ur ett sociolingvistiskt perspektiv har det vitt spridda reklamspråket därför inflytande på språket i samhället. Syftet med det reklamspråksprojekt som presenteras i föreliggande rapport är att analysera hur och när förändringar i svenskan som uppträder i Sverige dyker upp i annonser som skrivs på svenska i Finland. Reklam på svenska Finland under 1900-talet står i fokus, och tidningsannonser för Stockmanns varuhus i Helsingfors utgör primärmaterialet. Tidningsannonser för varuhuset Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) i Stockholm under motsvarande tid tjänar som jämförelsematerial. I denna rapport presenteras projektets syfte, de uppställda forskningsfrågorna, och resonemanget illustreras med exempel ur projektmaterialet. Rapporten innehåller också en beskrivning av projektets reklamdatabas och basfakta om material och metoder. -

Valistus suomalaisessa kirjakulttuurissa 1700-luvulla

The dissertation discusses the history of the book and the Enlightenment in Finland by studying the reception and diffusion of eighteenth-century books and by approaching the discourse on the Enlightenment in Finnish source material. The methods used relate to historian Robert Darnton s studies on eighteenth-century print culture and his analyses of the relations between print culture and society. The study is based on diverse eighteenth-century sources: books, pamphlets and dissertations, bibliographies, book auction protocols, parliamentary documents, estate inventory deeds, newspapers, letters, lectures, memoirs and commonplace books. By the end of the eighteenth century, book production had increased and secular literature had begun to challenge the dominance of religious literature. The books of the Enlightenment belonged to the new literature that found its way into Finnish book collections previously dominated by religious literature. Enlightenment literature is not a set selection of books but rather diverse works from different genres. Thus the study introduces a variety of printed material, from philosophical tracts and textbooks to novels and pornography. In the case of books of the Enlightenment, the works of French Voltaire and German Christian Wolff were among the most widely read and circulated books in Finland. First and foremost, the Enlightenment was an era of intellectual debate. These debates carried strong criticism of the prevailing systems of thought. Enlightenment ideas challenged the Lutheran society of Sweden and especially its sense of conformity. Contemporaries saw many of the books of the Enlightenment as vessels of new ideas and criticism. Furthermore, this kind of print material was interpreted as being dangerous for uneducated readers. Belonging to a certain estate and social class had a major impact on individuals reading habits and their acquisition of books. One specific social group stands out in the Finnish source material: the officers at the Sveaborg naval fortress possessed and distributed Enlightenment books more than the members of any other social class. Other essential social groups were scholars, the nobility and the clergy, who took part in debates concerning the ideas and benefits of the Enlightenment. In the Finnish debates at the time, the concept of Enlightenment involved three primary notions. Firstly, it referred to the French philosophers, les philosophes, and to their works as well as to the social changes that took place during the French revolution. It also carried the idea of philosophical light or the light of reason, in a sense similar to Immanuel Kant s writings. Most importantly, it referred to a belief in progress and to a trust in true knowledge that would supercede ignorance and fanaticism. Hence, it is impossible to speak about the Enlightenment era in the Swedish realm without such concepts as reason, benefit or progress. These concepts likewise marked the books of the Enlightenment in eighteenth-century Finland.

Finlandssvenska åsikter om och attityder till modern språkpåverkan

The study describes and analyzes Finland Swedes attitudes to modern-day linguistic influence, the relationship between informants explicitly reported views and the implicit attitudes they express towards language influence. The methods are primarily sociolinguistic. For the analysis of opinions and attitudes I have further developed and tested a new tool in attitude research. With statistical correlation analysis of data collected through a quantitative survey I describe the views that Swedish-language Finns (N=500) report on the influence of English, on imports, and on domain loss. With experimental matchedguise techniques, I study Finland-Swedes (N=600) subconscious reactions to English imports in spoken text. My results show that the subconscious reactions in some respects differ markedly from the views informants explicitly report that they have: informants respond that they would like English words that come into Swedish to be replaced by Swedish replacement words, but in a matched-guise test on their subconscious attitudes, the informants consider English words in a Swedish context to have a positive effect. The topic is further dealt with in interviews where I examine 36 informants implicit attitudes through interactional sociolinguistic analyses. This study comes close to pragmatic discourse analysis in its focus on pragmatic particles and modality. The study makes a rather strict distinction between explicitly expressed opinions and implicit, subconscious attitudes. The quantitative analyses suggest that the opinions we express can be tied to the explicit in language. The outcome of the matched-guise test shows that it is furthermore possible to find subconscious, implicit attitudes that people in actual situations rely on when they make decisions. The discourse analysis finds many subconscious signals, but it also shows that the signals arise in interaction with one s interlocutor, the situation, and the norms in the society. To account for this I have introduced the concept of socioconscious attitude. Socioconscious attitudes reflect not only the traditions and values the utterer grew up with, but also the speaker s relation to the social situation (s)he takes part in.