To discover the essential differences in cultural and linguistic patterns of a certain society, we need to look no further than to the most common relations of all – those between family members. When studying, working and living in, or for instance marrying into another culture, we must not only learn, but also acquire and utilise a whole new set of relationships and terms in order to be able to function and communicate. Without this knowledge we will quickly encounter a multitude of social difficulties in the other environment. On a deeper level, if we follow the assumption that a language is the mirror of its culture, and that language also influences culture, the linguistic terms designating family relations present a number of interesting phenomena, such as: which relations occupy the centre of importance in the society; the concept and understanding of a core family; which family relations are considered “worth” having a term for, and thus meaningful to keep up; the relations after a crisis, for instance a divorce; and several more, including the transfer of family relations to friendship and business contacts. This qualitative pilot study discusses some important aspects of family relations from the perspectives of Swedish-language (Sweden and Swedish-speakers in Finland) family terminology, in comparison with Serbian and Bulgarian. The study also includes a Serbian-language survey about kinship terms, and it raises questions about further research into cultural and social patterns and connotations reflected in kinship terminology. Social and cultural differences specifically between the Serbian and Swedish spheres are highlighted; the Bulgarian and Swedish-speaking terminologies in Finland are used here mainly as references and for comparative purposes. The study combines different scientific fields in mapping out some aspects of cognitive, social and cultural patterns. It emphasises the importance and necessity of multilingual and multicultural learning instead of foreign language and culture learning, and shows some of the pitfalls and possibilities students of languages and cultures encounter when learning new kinship concepts and terms.
{"title":"The family tree – a challenge for multicultural learning: some aspects of Swedish, Serbian and Bulgarian kinship terminology","authors":"S. Ståhlberg, Dorijan Hajdu","doi":"10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_5","url":null,"abstract":"To discover the essential differences in cultural and linguistic patterns of a certain society, we need to look no further than to the most common relations of all – those between family members. When studying, working and living in, or for instance marrying into another culture, we must not only learn, but also acquire and utilise a whole new set of relationships and terms in order to be able to function and communicate. Without this knowledge we will quickly encounter a multitude of social difficulties in the other environment. On a deeper level, if we follow the assumption that a language is the mirror of its culture, and that language also influences culture, the linguistic terms designating family relations present a number of interesting phenomena, such as: which relations occupy the centre of importance in the society; the concept and understanding of a core family; which family relations are considered “worth” having a term for, and thus meaningful to keep up; the relations after a crisis, for instance a divorce; and several more, including the transfer of family relations to friendship and business contacts.\u0000This qualitative pilot study discusses some important aspects of family relations from the perspectives of Swedish-language (Sweden and Swedish-speakers in Finland) family terminology, in comparison with Serbian and Bulgarian. The study also includes a Serbian-language survey about kinship terms, and it raises questions about further research into cultural and social patterns and connotations reflected in kinship terminology. Social and cultural differences specifically between the Serbian and Swedish spheres are highlighted; the Bulgarian and Swedish-speaking terminologies in Finland are used here mainly as references and for comparative purposes. The study combines different scientific fields in mapping out some aspects of cognitive, social and cultural patterns. It emphasises the importance and necessity of multilingual and multicultural learning instead of foreign language and culture learning, and shows some of the pitfalls and possibilities students of languages and cultures encounter when learning new kinship concepts and terms.","PeriodicalId":104344,"journal":{"name":"Multiculturalism and multilingualism in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region","volume":"125 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123720860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The newly independent Finland in the 1920s and 1930s was, in principle, a nation state in which ethnic Finns had an undisputed leading position. Nevertheless, there was a lively debate about the status that would be given to other nationalities in various spheres of social life. The Swedes were the country’s main national minority (accounting for 10 per cent of the total population), and they were granted extensive minority rights. Another locally significant minority were the Sámi who lived in northern Lapland. This paper analyses the extent to which the majority population was willing to meet the wishes of the Sámi. Some Finns were in favour of the Sámi being acculturated as quickly as possible, but a few activists would have liked to grant the Sámi broad autonomy. Several ministries and government agencies investigated the matter thoroughly, but the result was negative for the Sámi.
{"title":"Acculturation or autonomy? Controversy over the status of the Sámi in Finland during the interwar period","authors":"K. Alenius","doi":"10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_2","url":null,"abstract":"The newly independent Finland in the 1920s and 1930s was, in principle, a nation state in which ethnic Finns had an undisputed leading position. Nevertheless, there was a lively debate about the status that would be given to other nationalities in various spheres of social life. The Swedes were the country’s main national minority (accounting for 10 per cent of the total population), and they were granted extensive minority rights. Another locally significant minority were the Sámi who lived in northern Lapland. This paper analyses the extent to which the majority population was willing to meet the wishes of the Sámi. Some Finns were in favour of the Sámi being acculturated as quickly as possible, but a few activists would have liked to grant the Sámi broad autonomy. Several ministries and government agencies investigated the matter thoroughly, but the result was negative for the Sámi.","PeriodicalId":104344,"journal":{"name":"Multiculturalism and multilingualism in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region","volume":"112 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133682638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article seeks to identify the educational tendencies in the case of Russian and Estonian second language instruction in Finland observing the shift from language erosion to maintenance. We examine the reasons why the promotion of Russian and Estonian in Finland is opportune and how acquainted immigrant children’s parents are with their rights to Russian or Estonian language instruction. The aim of this study is to examine the level of ethnic and linguistic intolerance sensed by the Russian and Estonian immigrants and the degree of integration into the Finnish culture and society. The study addresses the following research questions: How does Finland try to attenuate the social exclusion of the Russian and Estonian immigrants? Do immigrant students receive enough support to achieve bilingual proficiency? In what cases does the child not agree to speak Russian or Estonian at all? Is knowledge of the two analyzed languages a prerequisite for economic and cultural perspectives in Finland? The topic will be focused from sociolinguistic, linguistic, cognitive, cultural perspectives and the article will adopt a comparative approach.
{"title":"Knowledge of Russian and Estonian – an aisle of Finnish–Russian–Estonian relations","authors":"Adél Furu","doi":"10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_6","url":null,"abstract":"This article seeks to identify the educational tendencies in the case of Russian and Estonian second language instruction in Finland observing the shift from language erosion to maintenance. We examine the reasons why the promotion of Russian and Estonian in Finland is opportune and how acquainted immigrant children’s parents are with their rights to Russian or Estonian language instruction. The aim of this study is to examine the level of ethnic and linguistic intolerance sensed by the Russian and Estonian immigrants and the degree of integration into the Finnish culture and society.\u0000The study addresses the following research questions: How does Finland try to attenuate the social exclusion of the Russian and Estonian immigrants? Do immigrant students receive enough support to achieve bilingual proficiency? In what cases does the child not agree to speak Russian or Estonian at all? Is knowledge of the two analyzed languages a prerequisite for economic and cultural perspectives in Finland?\u0000The topic will be focused from sociolinguistic, linguistic, cognitive, cultural perspectives and the article will adopt a comparative approach.","PeriodicalId":104344,"journal":{"name":"Multiculturalism and multilingualism in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region","volume":"72 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115545569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
International traveller and acclaimed Swedish-language author Göran Schildt sailed in the Black Sea in the summer of 1963. He was a well-read scholar with a deep interest in the Antiquity and a seasoned traveller with a vast experience of multilingual and multicultural situations. This was the first and last visit of his yacht Daphne to the Black Sea and the Eastern Bloc. Through the eyes of this keen observer, a small aperture can be detected among the bricks in the walls dividing Europe. A window had been opened by world politicians in the Iron Curtain at the end of the 1950s. Although there were periods of high global tension, new possibilities for travel and tourism were created in some Eastern Bloc countries, among them Bulgaria and Romania. Visits by dozens of journalists, writers and artists and thousands of charter tourists from the Western Bloc over the next few decades opened up new windows to the world beyond the Iron Curtain. Göran Schildt stands out among the Nordic cultural visitors to Bulgaria and Romania in the post-war period. His desire to get acquainted with everyday life and ordinary people, capability to see behind facades and analysing experiences could be defined as journalistic, but his travel writing went deeper. In comparison with some other writers from Finland, who visited Bulgaria or Romania during the Cold War, such as the poet Lassi Nummi or comic fiction writer Arto Paasilinna, and the Bulgarian author Yordan Radichkov who visited Sweden, Schildt’s background, interests and multilingual and multicultural strategies supported the discovery and collection of extensive information and the processing of it into a multidimensional travel book. This article discusses the journey and travel narrative of Göran Schildt from the perspective of multilingual and multicultural strategies for encountering other languages, societies and cultures, and the processing of experiences as recorded in his diary and his popular travel narrative.
{"title":"Window to a world beyond: Göran Schildt’s journey to Bulgaria and Romania in 1963 and some multilingual and multicultural strategies","authors":"S. Ståhlberg","doi":"10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_4","url":null,"abstract":"International traveller and acclaimed Swedish-language author Göran Schildt sailed in the Black Sea in the summer of 1963. He was a well-read scholar with a deep interest in the Antiquity and a seasoned traveller with a vast experience of multilingual and multicultural situations. This was the first and last visit of his yacht Daphne to the Black Sea and the Eastern Bloc. Through the eyes of this keen observer, a small aperture can be detected among the bricks in the walls dividing Europe.\u0000A window had been opened by world politicians in the Iron Curtain at the end of the 1950s. Although there were periods of high global tension, new possibilities for travel and tourism were created in some Eastern Bloc countries, among them Bulgaria and Romania. Visits by dozens of journalists, writers and artists and thousands of charter tourists from the Western Bloc over the next few decades opened up new windows to the world beyond the Iron Curtain.\u0000Göran Schildt stands out among the Nordic cultural visitors to Bulgaria and Romania in the post-war period. His desire to get acquainted with everyday life and ordinary people, capability to see behind facades and analysing experiences could be defined as journalistic, but his travel writing went deeper. In comparison with some other writers from Finland, who visited Bulgaria or Romania during the Cold War, such as the poet Lassi Nummi or comic fiction writer Arto Paasilinna, and the Bulgarian author Yordan Radichkov who visited Sweden, Schildt’s background, interests and multilingual and multicultural strategies supported the discovery and collection of extensive information and the processing of it into a multidimensional travel book. This article discusses the journey and travel narrative of Göran Schildt from the perspective of multilingual and multicultural strategies for encountering other languages, societies and cultures, and the processing of experiences as recorded in his diary and his popular travel narrative.","PeriodicalId":104344,"journal":{"name":"Multiculturalism and multilingualism in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region","volume":"17 5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134376341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The present study describes the poetics of two contemporary multilingual writers, one born in Finland (Sabira Ståhlberg) and one in Bulgaria (Tzveta Sofronieva). Besides being prolific writers in literary genres such as poetry, prose, drama, both also translate and edit world literature. Early in their career each of them achieved a PhD. Sofronieva and Ståhlberg carry out academic activities through their research studies. After visiting a multitude of places, they have become not only literary figures of both their birth countries’ literature and the literatures of several other countries, but real literary citizens of the ‘new’ world literature (McDougall, 2014). Their philosophical and ecological aestheticism voices the most urgent problems of humanity by incorporating the latest insights of brain studies, quantum physics, psychology, migration and cultural studies. Their oeuvre addresses any reader irrespective of language(s), background(s), and location(s). After looking into the monolingually multilingual (using hidden code-switching) as well as multigraphic and multilingual (using overt code switching) artistic production of Sofronieva and Ståhlberg, this study compares two poems, one by each of them, sharing the common metaphor of the sea horse. The aim of this comparative study is to point out how their highly topical poetries activate the multilinguality of any reader, as well as how the linguistic, alphabetic code-switching and shifts of interpretation paradigms loosen formal and conceptual borders. By their act, the reader is empowered to take part in not only piecing together but creating a better ‘new’ world.
{"title":"On semantic and semiotic multilingualism in earlier and latest works of Sabira Ståhlberg and Tzveta Sofronieva","authors":"Johanna Domokos","doi":"10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.53604/rjbns.v13i1_3","url":null,"abstract":"The present study describes the poetics of two contemporary multilingual writers, one born in Finland (Sabira Ståhlberg) and one in Bulgaria (Tzveta Sofronieva). Besides being prolific writers in literary genres such as poetry, prose, drama, both also translate and edit world literature. Early in their career each of them achieved a PhD. Sofronieva and Ståhlberg carry out academic activities through their research studies. After visiting a multitude of places, they have become not only literary figures of both their birth countries’ literature and the literatures of several other countries, but real literary citizens of the ‘new’ world literature (McDougall, 2014). Their philosophical and ecological aestheticism voices the most urgent problems of humanity by incorporating the latest insights of brain studies, quantum physics, psychology, migration and cultural studies. Their oeuvre addresses any reader irrespective of language(s), background(s), and location(s).\u0000After looking into the monolingually multilingual (using hidden code-switching) as well as multigraphic and multilingual (using overt code switching) artistic production of Sofronieva and Ståhlberg, this study compares two poems, one by each of them, sharing the common metaphor of the sea horse. The aim of this comparative study is to point out how their highly topical poetries activate the multilinguality of any reader, as well as how the linguistic, alphabetic code-switching and shifts of interpretation paradigms loosen formal and conceptual borders. By their act, the reader is empowered to take part in not only piecing together but creating a better ‘new’ world.","PeriodicalId":104344,"journal":{"name":"Multiculturalism and multilingualism in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123221313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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