Language Attitudes and Social Identity: Oppression and Revival of a Minority Language in Sweden. Occasional Paper No. 17.

The aim of this paper is to study the Finnish spoken in the Swedish Torne Valley, its use and development during the 1960s and the 1990s, and how it differs now from the Finnish spoken in the same area in the early 1960s. The study also examines which people speak Finnish in this valley today and in what contexts, as well as how the Finnish language has changed and how linguistic attitudes have shifted since the 1960s. The social and demographic characteristics of Tornedalen Finnish speakers (gender, age groups, occupational differences, etc.) are also studied. Public attitudes in Sweden are changing toward Finnish speaking, and Finnish is now accepted to some extent as a positive sign of cultural identity. As a consequence, interest in reviving Tornedalen Finnish is increasing among Torne Valley residents, many of whom now speak only Swedish. Public opinion is evenly divided between those who favor preserving and reviving this local language, and those who do not. (Contains approximately 350 references.) (KFT)