International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, ICOS XXIII
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Browsing International Congress of Onomastic Sciences, ICOS XXIII by Author "Ainiala, Terhi"
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Item Open Access Place Names in the Construction of Social Identities: The Uses of Names of Helsinki(York University, 2009) Ainiala, TerhiToponyms are used not only to identify places, but also to accomplish many relevant social and interactional tasks. In a conversation speakers may use diverse forms of a toponym or different names to refer to the same place. The choice of a name or a name variant is not coincidental or free but depends on the context, e.g., the formality of the situation. The name variants speakers use may even reveal the identities they have as local dwellers. The article studies the relationship between the use of toponyms and social identity. The names used by Finnish speakers of Helsinki (the official variant Helsinki and two unofficial variants, 'Hesa' and 'Stadi') and both the use of them and images and ideas connected to these names, are studied. With the names 'Hesa' and 'Stadi', the central distinctions are made between the speakers’ status as country people and city dwellers and between native Helsinki dwellers and people who have moved to Helsinki from elsewhere. The metalinguistic and actual use of names used of Helsinki show considerable differences. They may be based on a desire to identify oneself with a given group, which is, however, not always manifested in actual language use. The material consists of focus group interviews conducted among dwellers in one neighbourhood in Vuosaari.Item Open Access Slang Toponyms in Early Twentieth Century Helsinki(York University, 2009) Vuolteenaho, Jani; Ainiala, TerhiIn this article, we analyse spatial slang coinages by boys and young men from Sörnäinen, a bilingual working-class neighbourhood in early twentieth century Helsinki (1900–1939). During this period, Helsinki slang developed into a unique slang spoken among the working class of both Finnish and Swedish language backgrounds in their densely occupied quarters. In their childhood, male juveniles of Sörnäinen used many place-referring slang words in both appellative (classifying) and proprial (identifying) functions. When the same males got older and began to move more widely in different kinds of social settings across Helsinki, the use of these kinds of double-functional nouns decreased in favour of slang names derived from the city’s official nomenclature. The primary research material of the article covers a set of interviews made between the 1920s and the 1980s.