Competing norms and standards

Abstract

Language change can be seen as an ideological negotiation between different actors. Here, we present two morphological changes that took place in nineteenth-century Finland when the modern written standard of Finnish was being codified. Our aim is to reveal the complex nature of language planning as it comes to conflict with ongoing language change. The study combines three different methods and data sets: Firstly, we analyze newsletters that readers sent to Finnish newspapers. Secondly, we examine the visible meta-level discussion in grammars, newspapers and language guides. Thirdly, we provide a quantitative overview of the ongoing change in nineteenth-century Finnish newspapers. Combinations of different methods and data enable new approaches not only to standardization but also to the actual processes behind it.

Letters to the Paulaharjus from Ruija: The emergence of two writing cultures in Finnish among Kvens in the early twentieth century

“…The latter ideology lost support, and MWF language planning followed a language ideology stressing homogeneity, thus allowing for little variation in form (Paunonen 1992, Laitinen & Nordlund 2013:179, Nordlund & Pallaskallio 2017. By contrast, written language during the EMF period, and especially that produced by writers among the common people during the nineteenth century, was of a much more heterogeneous variety (Lauerma 2008, Nordlund & Pallaskallio 2017.…”