A literary aspect of the hidden language conflict of Finland

• Autores: Bengt Loman
• Localización: Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, ISSN 0143-4632, Vol. 1, Nº. 3, 1980, págs. 207-216
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • During this century the Swedish speaking minority of Finland has had a well‐defined and generally accepted standard norm for speech and writing. As this standard norm has been taken over from Sweden it has, however, caused some social and cultural problems for that part of the Swedish speaking population in Finland which lives in rural districts (along the coasts of the Baltic) and speak genuine old Swedish dialects. Also, the rigid adherance to the standard norm has for a long time delayed the development of a literature reflecting the culture of this part of the population. Recently, however, the situation has changed considerably, partly due to influence from contemporary Finnish literature. The article illustrates the effects of rigid language standardization on literary development, and particularly discusses some negative effects of language standardization vis‐à‐vis the culture of dialect speaking minorities.