Variation and Change in Finnish (Sumu)

The research group of Variation and Change in the Finnish Language combines researchers whose aim is to examine how our language has changed in the past and how it is changing now and in the future. It is a common knowledge that there is an essential connection between language change and variation. Our goal is to examine the mechanisms through which this connection is realized. The methods that make it possible to observe variation and change are also central in our analysis. The group consists of researchers in the fields of linguistics, statistics and population biology.

The research subjects of our group include:

• Finding populations of language users by examining variation
• Variation and change in idiolect over time
• Using cognitive linguistics to examine changing structures
• Changes in contemporary vernacular, especially in the city vernaculars of Tampere and Helsinki
• Changes in contemporary written Finnish
• The development of early Finnish language and the origins of dialect variation in today’s dialects
• Theories and methods of sociolinguistic real-time research

Members

Projects

Sulka: Changes in Finnish Syntax over Moderate Time Period (Suomen lauseet keskipitkällä aikavälillä), Kone Foundation 2023–26
Kippo: Change of linguistic populations over time (Kielellisten populaatioiden muutos ajassa), Kone Foundation 2017–2022
UraLex: Cognate corpus of Uralic languages, Kone Foundation 2013–16

Publications

2022. Knuutila, S., Kuparinen, O., Santaharju, J., Mustanoja, L., Leino, U., Peltonen, J. Miksi kato leviää? hd-yhtymän katovariantin diffuusion syyt Helsingin puhekielessä. Sananjalka 64. https://doi.org/10.30673/sja.115658

2022. Kuparinen, O., Santaharju, J., Leino, U., Mustanoja, L., & Peltonen, J. Katomuotojen eteneminen yleiskielen hd-yhtymässä Helsingin puhekielessä. Virittäjä 126(3). https://doi.org/10.23982/vir.100585

2021. Syrjänen, K., Maurits, L., Leino, U., Honkola, T., Rota, J. & Vesakoski, O. Crouching TIGER, Hidden Structure: Exploring the nature of linguistic data using TIGER values. Journal of Language Evolution, lzab004. DOI 10.1093/jole/lzab004

2021. Kuparinen, O., Peltonen, J., Mustanoja, L., Leino, U. & Santaharju, J. Lects in Helsinki Finnish. A probabilistic component modeling approach. Language Variation and Change 33(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394521000041

2020. Leino, U., Syrjänen, K. & Vesakoski, O. Linguistic change and biological evolution. R. Nefdt, C. Klippi & B. Karstens (eds.), Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Philosophy and Science of Language, 179–193. Palgrave Macmillan.

2019. Kuparinen, O., Mustanoja, L., Peltonen, J., Santaharju, J. & Leino, U. Muutosmallit Helsingin puhekielessä. Sananjalka 61(61), 30-56. https://doi.org/10.30673/sja.80056

2019. Honkola, T., Santaharju, J. , Syrjänen, K. & Pajusalu, K. Clustering lexical variation of Finnic languages based on Atlas Linguarum Fennicarum. Linguistica Uralica 55:3. https://dx.doi.org/10.3176/lu.2019.3.01

2018. Kuparinen, O. Infinitiivien variaatio ja muutos Helsingissä. Virittäjä 122 (1): 29-52. https://doi.org/10.23982/vir.65310

2018. Honkola, T., Ruokolainen, K., Syrjänen, K.J.J, Leino, U.-P., Tammi, I., Wahlberg, N. & Vesakoski, O. Evolution within a language: Environmental differences contribute to divergence of dialect groups. BMC Evolutionary Biology 18 (1), article 132. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1238-6

2018. UraLex v 1.0: Syrjänen, K., Lehtinen, J., Vesakoski, O., de Heer, M., Suutari, T., Dunn, M., Määttä, U., Leino, U.-P. lexibank/uralex: UraLex basic vocabulary dataset. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1459402

2016. Syrjänen, K., Honkola, T., Lehtinen, J., Leino, A. & Vesakoski, O. Applying population genetic approaches within languages: Finnish dialects as linguistic populations. Language Dynamics and Change 6.  DOI: 10.1163/22105832-00602002, 235-283.

2016. Heikkilä, Mikko.  Varhaissuomen äännehistorian kronologiasta. Sananjalka 58,136−158.

2014. Lehtinen, J., Honkola, T., Korhonen, K., Syrjänen, K., Wahlberg, N. &Vesakoski, O. Behind family trees: Secondary connections inUralic language networks. Language Dynamics and Change 4. DOI: 10.1163/22105832-00402007, 189-221.

2014. Heikkilä, Mikko. Bidrag till Fennoskandiens språkliga förhistoria i tid och rum. Helsinki: Unigrafia. Monografiaväitöskirja.

2013. Honkola, T., Vesakoski, O., Korhonen, K., Lehtinen, J., Syrjänen, K., Wahlberg, N. Cultural and climatic changes shape the evolutionary history of the Uralic languages. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12107.

2013. Syrjänen, K., Honkola, T., Korhonen, K., Lehtinen, J., Vesakoski, O., & Wahlberg, N. Shedding more light on language classification using basic vocabularies and phylogenetic methods: a case study of
Uralic. Diachronica 30:3. DOI: 10.1075/dia.30.3.02syr, 323-352.

2011. Mustanoja, Liisa. Idiolekti ja sen muuttuminen. Reaaliaikatutkimus Tampereen puhekielestä. Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1605. Tampere.

Ceterum censeo

Some of the research projects are a part of the BEDLAN research initiative that also includes projects led at the University of Turku. BEDLAN was originally started in Tampere.