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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1204

Part of Session 166: Indigenous Minority Languages in Urban Areas (Other abstracts in this session)

Phonetic quantity as dialect marker in urban varieties of Finland-Swedish

Authors: Leinonen, Therese
Submitted by: Leinonen, Therese (Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, Finland)

The Swedish population in Finland comprises almost 300.000 people and is concentrated to the western and the southern coastlines. The historical background to the Swedish population is the fact that Finland was part of Sweden for almost 700 years until 1809. Swedish settlers started to come to Finland in the 13th century.
At the end of the 19th century the Swedish and Finnish population in Finland lived geographically virtually separate from each other. The language structure changed dramatically during the 20th century, as rapid industrialization and migration led to fennicization of the cities in the Swedish-dominated coastal areas (Tandefelt & Finnäs 2007). Today, some rural areas still have a Swedish majority, but in urban areas the Swedish population lives as a local minority. An exception is made by the Åland Islands, which are officially unilingually Swedish with a small Finnish minority.
The varieties of Swedish spoken in Finland have been influenced by language contact with Finnish. One such feature is quantity: Helsinki-Swedish has been characterized by exceptionally long durations of voiceless obstruents in V:C sequences. In rural Finland-Swedish dialects, on the contrary, the C durations in V:C sequences tend to be much shorter than in Sweden. Both the long C durations in Helsinki and the short C durations in rural dialects seem to be a result of language contact.
The large acoustic distance of the durations in V:C syllables in different varieties of Finland-Swedish has made this feature a salient dialect marker. Long consonant durations are strongly associated with Helsinki and have been regarded as posh. Helsinki-Swedish is not generally regarded as Standard Finland-Swedish by all Finland-Swedes, and typical Helsinki features are stigmatized and made fun of by speakers from other areas (Östman & Mattfolk 2011).
Acoustic measurements of phonetic quantity so far only exist for highly educated speakers from Helsinki (Reuter 1982) and for rural dialects (Schaeffler 2005). The aim of this paper is to study phonetic quantity in Swedish spoken in four cities in Finland. The four cities have different demographic language structures. In Helsinki and Turku only 5-6% of the population are Swedish-speaking. Vaasa has a Swedish minority of 25% and is surrounded by a dominantly Swedish-speaking countryside. Mariehamn on the Åland Islands is dominantly Swedish (89%).
Spontaneous speech data from 46 speakers in two age groups and with different social backgrounds were analysed. The results, which show significant differences between the four cities, can be explained by language contact and by attitudes within the speech community.
References:
Reuter, M. 1982. Kvantitet i helsingforssvenskan. Licentiate thesis, Helsinki University.
Schaeffler, F. 2005. Phonological quantity in Swedish dialects: typological aspects, phonetic variation and diachronic change. Ph.D. thesis, Umeå University.
Tandefelt, M., & Finnäs, F. 2007. Language and demography: historical development. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 187/188 (The Swedish-Speaking Finns), 35–54.
Östman, J.-O., & Mattfolk, L. 2011. Ideologies of standardisation: Finland Swedish and Swedish-language Finland. In T. Kristiansen, & N. Coupland (Eds.) Standard languages and language standards in a changing Europe, (pp. 75–82). Oslo: Novus.