People

 

In the picture from the left Hanna Lappalainen, Caroline Sandström, Pauliina Latvala, Pirkko Nuolijärvi, Pia Olsson, Katri Priiki, Heikki Paunonen, Kaarina Mononen, Päivi Markkola and Sakari Röyskö. Photograph: Sakari Röyskö.

 

Heads of the project

Docent Hanna Lappalainen is a University Lecturer of Finnish at the University of Helsinki and serves as co-head of this project with Pirkko Nuolijärvi. She has analysed topics such as the linguistic variation of personal pronouns, real-time changes in idiolects, code-switching and address practices in her research. In the current project, she will investigate the linguistic variation of variables such as quotatives. Further information can be found here.

Pirkko Nuolijärvi acted as the head of the Institute for the Languages of Finland in 1998–2016. She has studied variation and change in the Finnish language, interaction in television debates and the role of spoken language in literature. In addition, she has dealt with questions concerning language policy and status in her publications. She acts as co-head of the project, together with Hanna Lappalainen, and is interested in the variation in Finnish people with different linguistic backgrounds.

 

Other members of the research group

Antti Karisto is a Professor Emeritus of social gerontology. See more here.

Pauliina Latvala-Harvilahti defended her PhD at the University of Helsinki in 2005 on the oral history of the family. She is a docent of folkloristics at the University of Helsinki and a docent of cultural heritage at the University of Turku. Her fields of expertise include oral history, heritage communities, ethnographic fieldwork, political narratives and archived memoirs. In the current project, she is responsible for the implementation of the exhibition together with Pia Olsson.

Päivi Markkola is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki. Her dissertation deals with the linguistic accommodation of displaced Karelians in Finland.

Kaarina Mononen received her PhD in 2013 from the University of Helsinki. Her thesis concerns the use of Finnish language among the Ingrian-Finns in St Petersburg and its surroundings. At the moment, she is a post-doctoral researcher in the project. Before this, she carried out a one-year project on the interaction of older adults in a care home. In the current project, she is interested in language users’ descriptions of their linguistic repertoires and the ways in which their personal life stories are connected with their perceptions of multilingualism and the languages around them. See more here.

Pia Olsson is a University Lecturer in European ethnology at the University of Helsinki. She has utilised questionnaire data as well as the ethnographic process in her research. She is interested in how people experience, remember and articulate their lives. See more here.

Heikki Paunonen defended his PhD at the University of Helsinki in 1974 on Finnish dialects. He has studied and collected Finnish dialects and meänkieli since the 1960s as well as the spoken language and the slang of Helsinki since the 1970s. His research interests include the history of language planning in Finland and the Estonian language. He has supervised several doctoral theses and led many research projects. In addition to scientific papers, he has published books and articles for the public.

Katri Priiki received her PhD degree in February 2017 at the University of Turku. Her thesis, representing the field of interactional sociolinguistics, examines references to people in the contemporary dialect of the Satakunta region. In this project, Priiki coordinated the data collection and the course “Collect a Linguistic Life Story” from June 2017 until May 2018. Concerning the data of the project, she is interested in Finnish migrants and their attitudes towards different varieties of Finnish. See more here.

Sakari Röyskö is a photographer who is photographing selected interviewees for the exhibition. For more information, see here.

Caroline Sandström defended her PhD concerning the variation in Swedish dialects spoken in Finland in 2010. She is the editor-in-chief of the Dictionary of Swedish Dialects in Finland at the Institute for the Languages of Finland.