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Exploring Future Paths for Historical Sociolinguistics
Edited by Tanja Säily, Arja Nurmi, Minna Palander-Collin and Anita Auer
[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics 7] 2017
► pp. 131–156

Competing norms and standards

Methodological triangulation in the study of language planning in nineteenth-century Finland

| University of Helsinki
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.
Keywords: standardization, newspapers, grammar books, Finnish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Rural letters, meta-level discussions and newspapers
  • 3.Morphology and language planning
    • 3.1Nominal morphology in Finnish
    • 3.2The essive case: Change from below
    • 3.3The illative case and visible language planning
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ahs.7.06nor
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