From Swedish to Finnish in the 19th century: a historical case of emancipatory language shift
-
Anna-Riitta Lindgren
,
Klaus Lindgren
and
Mirja Sari
Abstract
The rise of Finnish in the 19th century is an example of a concluded and successful language emancipation process. The important factors in raising the status of Finnish were language ideology, strong motivation, and the introduction of the use of Finnish into all domains. On an individual level, the establishment of Finnish language schools was more important than the choice of home language. An important feature of the language situation in Finland at the end of the 19th century was that industrialized and modernized Finnish society was developed through both Finnish and Swedish simultaneously. In contrast, the situation of many minorities today is much more problematic. They find themselves in a situation which could be described in terms of a “sociolinguistic time lag” as their language emancipation lags far behind in what has been rapid modernization. In this situation, the introduction of minority languages into the most important contemporary domains of activity is, in many ways, a very demanding task. Consequently, whilst much can be learned from 19th century Finnish language emancipation by contemporary emancipators, today's emancipatory language movements are in an essentially different situation and face new and tough challenges.
© 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction: defining language emancipation
- From Swedish to Finnish in the 19th century: a historical case of emancipatory language shift
- Reclaiming Sámi languages: indigenous language emancipation from East to West
- The birth of the Kven language in Norway: emancipation through state recognition
- Embracing Hungarian: top-down emancipation of an immigrant language in Finland
- Reassessing Gallo as a regional language in France: language emancipation vs. monolingual language ideology
- National languages in education in Guinea-Conakry: re-emancipation in progress?
- Coda: linguistic emancipation
- When support for language revitilization is not enough: the end of indigenous language classes at Warm Springs Elementary School
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction: defining language emancipation
- From Swedish to Finnish in the 19th century: a historical case of emancipatory language shift
- Reclaiming Sámi languages: indigenous language emancipation from East to West
- The birth of the Kven language in Norway: emancipation through state recognition
- Embracing Hungarian: top-down emancipation of an immigrant language in Finland
- Reassessing Gallo as a regional language in France: language emancipation vs. monolingual language ideology
- National languages in education in Guinea-Conakry: re-emancipation in progress?
- Coda: linguistic emancipation
- When support for language revitilization is not enough: the end of indigenous language classes at Warm Springs Elementary School
