Helsingfors

The Helsinki network group

The group in Helsinki is responsible for research on dialect syntax in the Swedish-language parts of Finland, which in traditional terms comprise some 80 distinct dialects distributed over the three regions Nyland (southern coast), Åboland and Åland (southwestern coast/archipelago), and Österbotten (western coast).

• Jan-Ola Östman (leader)
• Camilla Wide (co-manager)
• Jan Lindström
• Leila Mattfolk
• Åsa Mickwitz
• Lisa Södergård (Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland)
• Saija Tamminen

In the period 2007-2009 Dr. Camilla Wide carries out a postdoctoral research project on issues concerning noun phrase structure in Finland-Swedish varieties, see this page for further information.

Members of the group are in close contact with the project “Spara det finlandssvenska talet” (‘Saving Finland-Swedish speech’) at Svenska Litteratursällskapet i Finland (‘The Society for Swedish Literature in Finland’) where data from some 1000 speakers are being collected and in part transcribed during the period 2005-2008. The project leader of ‘Spara talet’ is professor emerita Ann-Marie Ivars, who is on the advisory board for ScanDiaSyn. The project is coordinated by Lisa Södergård.

The Helsinki group has monthly meetings and is an integral part of the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literature. The group organized the 2006 Grand Meeting for ScanDiaSyn in Solf, and the NORMS fieldwork in Northern Ostrobothnia in June 2006. The Helsinki group is also in close contact with the FinDiaSyn project, which is now getting itself established, and joining in under the Edisyn umbrella.

The group leader coordinates the NORMS thematic group on Pragmatic particles, and organized a seminar for this group in June 2006. In 2007-2008 Pål Kristian Eriksen (from Norway) was affiliated with the group through a researcher position funded by NORMS.