Linguistic Landscape in the Finnish Town of Kuopio

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Linguistic Landscape in the Finnish Town of Kuopio

Antti Tapaninaho 183258 University of Eastern Finland

Department of Geographical and Historical Studies Master's thesis

28.4.2019

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RESEARCH STATEMENT UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

In this Master’s thesis, I discuss and analyze the linguistic landscape in the town of Kuopio in Eastern Finland. The main research question is how do foreign residents and visitors to Kuopio shape the linguistic landscape of Kuopio? Other research questions are following: Which languages are present in the visible linguistic landscape of Kuopio and what are the reasons behind this visibility, what kind of spaces are these languages occupying and how visible are these language in the spaces that they are occupying and to what extent we can talk of multilingualism in the case of Kuopio?

My research intersects human geography and sociolinguistics with an emphasis on the space and place as well as on landscape. Since the linguistic landscape has a dynamic character that is often shaped by mobility, the role of mobility in transforming the linguistic landscape will be discussed. Another important concept here is transnationalism and discussions around it.

Major findings of this research are as following: Kuopio’s linguistic landscape is changing and more emphasis on multilingualism has taken place on different levels. However, multilingualism is very uneven and often does not coincide with the languages of migrants and visitors of Kuopio. The English language is very visible in the center of Kuopio, both as a lingua franca in the communication with non- Finnish speakers as in the names of the privately owned shops. Often the chosen solution in the communication with non-Finnish speakers is the English. The linguistic landscape varies very in the state and municipal and individual levels, and moreover, differences between the physical and virtual landscapes do exist.

Kuopio, as well as Eastern part of Finland in general, is underrepresented in the linguistic landscape research and therefore further research on this topic is recommended.

Author: Antti Tapaninaho Student number: 183258

Title of research: Linguistic landscape in the Finnish town of Kuopio Faculty: Social Sciences and Business Studies

Subject: Border Crossings Master’s Degree Programme – Human Geography Number of pages: 85

Work: Master’s thesis Time: Spring 2019

Key words: space and place, city, migration, mobility, landscape, linguistic landscape, sociolinguistics

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Secondly, the objective is to contribute to the linguistic landscape research and to increase the understanding of the multilingual environment in everyday lives. In my research, I would emphasize the cross-border mobility and its influence on the linguistic landscape. The novelty of this research is to conduct a study of the traditional linguistic landscape in areas (Kuopio) where this has not been done yet. When linguistic landscape research has been done, it often focuses on the major cities that are known for their multilinguistic social contexts, such as Brussels or Jerusalem. Smaller towns, in which one language has the clear dominance, have not been so much researched. Another rather new perspective in linguistic landscape studies is the study of virtual linguistic landscape. I plan to go through various websites of public actors and see which languages are present there and whether the findings are similar than in town. Finally, this study aims to increase the knowledge of the presence of lesser-known languages in the linguistic landscape. I will not only focus on the languages of the major migrant groups, and also in the presence of other languages, such as English and some European languages will be discussed. Also, in the case of some migrant languages such as Russian, I seek to find out whether the presence of Russian is mostly due to tourists or migrants.

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This research combines sociolinguistics and geography. As the difference of most of the studies in the linguistic landscape, which are mostly done by sociolinguistics, this research puts lots of emphasis to such geographical concepts as space, place and landscape. Before assessing more in depth these geographical concepts, few words about sociolinguistics.

Sociolinguistics can be understood in various ways. The main focus can be on the social influences in language or the role of language in society. Bernard Spolsky (1998) underlines instead of giving priority to language or society it is important to study both aspects together and define the connection between them. He discusses the hegemony of English language. In sociolinguistics, it has been widely discussed whether the rise of English as dominant language is the result of various processes of globalization or to what extent it has been the result of the willingness of English-speaking countries to make English as a dominant language worldwide (Spolsky 1998, 76-77). Spolsky comments on the hegemony of English in the following way

But whatever the cause, the spread of English is producing a new sociolinguistic reality, by threatening to take over important functions from the other main languages, and by furthering language shift. It is an important task of sociolinguistics to understand this process. (Spolsky 1998, 77)

For instance, in Finland, there is a worry about the future of the Finnish language in many fields. Being a small language which is spoken mainly in Finland, in recent years, there has been a substantial shift towards English. Higher education illustrates this very well. Today, there are many entire study programs in English in Finland.

Various spaces in the fields of administration, education, culture and the service sector are included in this research. The focus is on public spaces like for instance libraries, schools, museums and religious institutions. Also, such spaces which to some are public spaces and to some are private spaces, like shopping centers and shops are discussed, at least to some extent. A term privately owned public spaces is sometimes used to describe such spaces. I will also discuss the official linguistic landscape briefly.

Place and street naming will be assessed shortly, but this is not the main focus of this research as in Kuopio almost all the street names are only in Finnish.

Regarding the theoretical framework, I elaborate on the discussion about linguistic landscape and introduce the previous research made in this field. Also, the term landscape will be discussed in detail

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before moving on to the concept of linguistic landscape and other concepts that are more familiar from the sociolinguistics. In this and next chapter I will discuss the introduce the theoretical framework of this paper and discuss major geographical and linguistic concepts that are useful for this work and for the understanding of the linguistic landscape in an urban setting.

1.1 Space and place

For this work, space and place are at the core of the research. In this paper, I discuss the visibility of the texts in different languages in various places in a limited geographical area. The texts can refer to that place where the text is located, for example the opening times of a museum written on the door. Or it can refer to the place somewhere else, for example signposts that show the distance to that place. Space and place are not always in the core of the research of the linguistic landscape. Cities and towns are often places where lots of language contacts occur. According to Backhaus (2007, 145):

The city is a place of language contact, as we have said, and the signs in public space are the most visible reminder of this. The linguistic landscape not only tells you in an instant where on earth you are and what languages you are supposed to know, but it contains information going far beyond this. It provides a unique perspective on the coexistence and competition of different languages and their scripts, and how they interact and interfere with each other in a given place

In this section, space, and place, two of the core geographical concepts will be discussed¹. Space and place are basic components of the lived world; we take them for granted. When we think about them;

however, they may assume unexpected meanings and raise questions we have not thought to ask” (Tuan 1977, 3).

Space and place are often used as synonyms in everyday discussions. The fact that these terms are very closely related, explains the confusion. There has been much debate on these concepts in the academic world. Thus, a few words are warranted about these two concepts. In human and political geography, in particular, the place has always held a core position. This can be explained by the history of geography which, for a long time, has been the study of different regions and strongly focused on place. Place can be described as a location filled with human experiences. A place can be a country, a city, a street, or one’s home. A Chinese-American geographer Yi-Fu Tuan (1977) points out that to put it simple, the

1 This subsection is based on my Master’s thesis in University of Jyväskylä

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place can be defined the combination of the location and the meaning; each place has a different meaning to different people. A place has both human and physical characteristics. It can be the result of the human’s activity such as roads, buildings or it can have mostly physical characteristics; an example being rivers or mountains. Very often, however, the place is the combination of these two. Both space and place are essential for human beings. Tuan (1977) discusses a significant difference between space and place:

while space is open, the place is a peaceful center of well-established values.

Tuan notes that “what begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we know it better and endow it with value” (Tuan 2008, 6). A place encompasses affection and emotions (Herbert & Matthews 2004).

Similarly, Tim Cresswell observes that when people become more attached to space, it becomes a place.

The naming of a place is one example of this process (Cresswell 2004, 10). Naming a place is often part of this process. For example, an owner a restaurant may give to his business a place that is important to him / her. For instance, a restaurant name Da Mario may refer to the owner’s name. Sometimes the name of the company may have a significant impact on the business.

Another major researcher who has had a major impact on the understanding of space and place is Doreen Massey. Her key idea is that space and politics are co-constitutive forces and that they are the results of different ongoing processes. Massey emphasizes the co-existence of space, time, and politics (Featherstone, 2013). The place being an aspect of space, space is constituted by the place. The place can be perceived as a localized aspect of space (Agnew, 2011). It is important to understand multiple characters of places: their different meanings to different people and how a place is perceived at different times. An example of this is a busy city (Western) during the afternoon rush hour and the same city but deserted from people during the Sunday morning with no people on its streets. Moreover, it is important to avoid considering place and space as two separated and exclusive concepts but rather see the interdependency between the two.

Usually, place is fixed and static, but it can also be mobile. For instance, I give a following example: a bus of a famous rock band going on the European Tour can become a place; these people are in close contacts with others for a period of time , and they give to this bus a particular meaning filled with shared experiences and memories. Similarly, for a football team, their bus can become an important place filled with the shared experiences and emotions of joy and disappointment. It is often stated that our society is characterized by “placelessness.” In globalized societies, many spaces become similar to one another.

In international airports, shopping malls, and motorways, one easily loses the sense of place due to the

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lack of local specificities. Marc Augé uses the term non-places (non-lieu) (Augé 2008). More and more public spaces are becoming what he defines as non-lieu. Airports are one of the best illustrations of this.

However, as stated above, places have different meanings to different people. Therefore, an airport which is a non-lieu to many people can be a place with meaning for someone else, for example, who works there or few people whose home is in some international airport. For Friedberg (2002), shopping malls are perfect examples of a space of representation, in which representations of consumption is emphasized. For instance, the latest renovation in the airport of Helsinki obliges passengers to walk through the shops before going to the gate.

British geographer Doreen Massey speaks about the decline of public space in the sense of space that can be used for several purposes by different actors (Massey 2005, 152). As the place is something known for us, it is often associated with the feeling of safety. Traditionally, space has mostly been the domain of geographers. Space is a more abstract concept than a place. (Tuan 1974; Cresswell 2004, 7) Some researchers regard space foremost as a social space, operating without the distinction between the concepts of space and place. One of the major contributions comes from the Frenchman Henri LeFebvre who was philosopher and sociologist. According to him, space is socially produced (LeFebvre 2000). In recent years, the spatial turn has taken place: space is a widely discussed concept in social science today.

Martin and Miller observe “that spatial perspectives illuminate the connections between daily life experiences and broader social, political, and economic processes” (Martin & Miller 2003, 143).

A lot of the political discussion has to do with space. Places are also full of regulations and rules (Creswell 2004, 35). We are not allowed, for instance, to enter into another person’s home, or we cannot go into local a supermarket after its closing time, or travel without a ticket in a local transport. According to Cresswell (2004, 28) a strong link exists between different practices and a particular place. Conflicts with authorities arise once people start to behave “out-of-place”. Often, the security aspects are emphasized in discussions of the political dimensions of space. Furthermore, the use of public space is often the matter of a debate on who is allowed to use it and who is not. Similar logic applies to place naming: who has right to name a place and who does not have.

One approach to space is dichtotomy between absolute and relational space. In an absolute perception of space, space emphasizes distance, fixes coordinates, and space is seen as a container. On the contrary, in the relational understanding of space, multiple heterogeneous relations make space (Murdoch 2006).

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Relational space fits well in our discussion about the linguistic landscape where speakers of different languages share the same space.

The idea of relational space originates from post-structuralist thinking (Murdoch, 2006, 3-4). Some typical features of post-structuralist thinking can be discerned: one characteristic feature being the multiplicity of meanings. The new geographies of resistance in the end of the 20^th century emphasized multiple perspectives, multiple spaces, and multiple spatial relations. Murdoch (2006, 14) continues that many studies that focused on marginal and/or oppressed groups, such as post-colonial studies or feminism were in the forefront to promote this new approach to space. In the post-structuralist geography, struggles provide opportunities for change: they may bring new spatial openings as well as “new forms of spatial identity as well as new forms of social practice”(Murdoch 2006, 18).

Space is a concept that has changed in recent years. It has become even more important in the global world and the economic sector. In her book, for space, Doreen Massey presents a revised understanding of space. In Massey’s view (Massey 1991), space is widely seen as being political. Much of Massey´s work deals with labour and uneven development in different regions. One of the main critiques of the argument proposed by Massey is that these globalist discourses do not take into account local differences and their different stories.

As Massey points out:

it is a sense of place, an understanding of ‘its character’, which can only be constructed by linking that places to places beyond. A progressive sense of place would recognise that, without being threatened by it. What we need, it seems to me, is a global sense of the local, a global sense of place. (Massey, 1991, 29)

Globalization can be understood as a vision of free space in which mobility takes place without boundaries (Massey 2005, 83). Massey argues that an important spatial dimension exists in globalization.

According to Massey (2005) very often space is used as something commonly understood, but in reality, there are various interpretations of space. Massey (2005) did write about the global sense of place, and she argues that instead of the local, we need a global understanding of a place where different identities are mixed. Moreover, Massey (2005) has analyzed London as a case study of the impact of global flows in a city and she is critical of the debates in which London is seen as a success story. She does not disagree with the success but emphasizes the fact that this achievement produces poverty and exclusion while it

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should decrease it (Massey 2005, 157). Space has recently gained prominence in the discussions of globalization, yet. Massey criticizes many scholars writing about what she terms aspatial globalization (Massey 2005, 81-89). According to this view, all cities from Bamako to Beijing follow a similar path to globalization. However, globalization has a different impact in different areas. Massey observes that:

The imagination of globalization in terms of unbounded free space that powerful rhetoric of neoliberalism around ´free trade´, just as was modernity’s view of space, is a pivotal element in an overweaning political discourse. It is a discourse which is dominantly produced in the countries of world’s North (though acquiesced in by many a government in the South). It has its institutions and its professionals. It is normative; and it has its effects. (Massey 2005, 83)

However, to study different spatial dimensions in an international or a global scale is not a recent issue.

To Gramsci, spatial differentiation was an important concept (Morton 2013). Gramsci was interested in labour migration as a form of cosmopolitanism and internationalism. He studied various connections between Italian workers and the non-Italian world (Featherstone 2013, 75). Another space-politics relation that Gramsci studied was the relationship between urban and rural areas. Gramsci emphasized the role of cities in the construction of Italian society (Kipfer 2013, 83-103). Finally, a concept that is useful in this research is the spatial repertories. This concept is useful because it aims to show that the use of a language is not only an individual act but it emerges from spatially ordered interactions (Pennycook & Otsuji, 2015).

1.2 Geography and linguistics

It has not been very common, especially in the past to combine geography and linguistics. However, languages evolve and change in space and place. Space can become place through the language. I would assume that they are widely interconnected. In this research especially, it is quite obvious to see the relation. Mostly, similar research is made by linguists, and often the definitions of geographical concepts remain quite thin. The term linguistic landscape may be taken for granted without thinking about what landscape is. When we are discussing landscape, we are in the core of geographical research. This is, however, quite easy to explain. Often, those who study geography may not be so interested in linguistics and viceversa, even though often research in both disciplines are interested in other countries and cultures.

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However, language and geography are often interconnected. Good examples of research which combines these two are, for instance, the research on place-naming and on linguistic landscape. Also, when we move from the traditional understanding of the landscape as something related to nature towards the wider understanding of the landscape, for example in our cities which includes various texts.

Discussion on the relation of language and geography is at least indirectly part of many issues such as language policy. Multilingualism and endangered languages. It is important to keep in mind that many world languages are spoken by very few people, and many speakers may live in some very remote areas.

For instance, the largest country in the world Russia has many small languages² Especially language geography is interested in these issues. Human geography is taught in many universities, but also here, the relation between language and geography may not be assessed. We can find an important relation between the mobility in the earliest times and the development of various individual languages. For instance, the evolution of Semitic languages is linked to the specific region, which is, in this case, the Middle East³

Barbara Johnstone has made an important contribution to the study of language and place. In linguistics, and especially sociolinguistics place has played an important role. Different places, such as nation, region, country, city, or even the own neighbourhood have been studied when linguistic variations have been at the core of the research, Especially in recent years, place has become a core concept in sociolinguistics, for example in the studies of place identity or in studies how “physical environment may influence on patterns of variation and change by shaping speakers social environments” (Johnstone 2011, 204). Johnstone points out that “linguistic difference, the topic of sociolinguistics, is not just a result of a physical distance as we once imagined. Rather, language is linked with a place, or not, through ideas about what language, languages, varieties, and places mean, and these ideas are reproduced and circulated in talk and taken up in individuals’ experience of the linguistic landscapes they encounter”.

(Johnstone 2011, 204).

2https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/issues_geography.html

3http://www.geographynotes.com/human-geography/language-and-its-influence-on-human- geography/1002

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Jani Vuolteenaho et. al (2012) have discussed the linguistic turn in urban research. This means to analyze socio-cultural phenomena as linguistic constructions. The examples of the linguistic turn on research are for instance the branding and the promotion of the cities, the roles of narratives, street signs, different kind of texts in a city. In structuralist and post-structuralist theories every kind of representational system was considered to be related to language ( Vuolteenaho et al. 2012). Although the main focus of this paper in on the written texts, one should not undermine the role of the spoken language and the negotiations on identity and otherness.

People usually pay little attention to the texts in the urban space. Also one may not think how many different texts for the different purposes there can be. Often there are rules what can be written and where.

Graffiti is a good example of well visible texts in the urban landscape. Sometimes writing graffiti is strictly forbidden and considered vandalism which may lead to major troubles while sometimes graffiti may even be appreciated by the decisionmakers, and the artist may even be paid for it. Some cities like Berlin are well-known for its graffiti/wall murals. In Finland, they have been traditionally seen in quite negative way. However, in recent years this has changed, and in some contexts, graffitis are appreciated

4. Before habitants in Finland could see major wall murals mostly during the trips in cities like Berlin or Lyon. Nowadays, it is possible to see houses with walls decorated with graffitis in places like Turku, Tampere and Joensuu. Graffitis indeed have an impact on the urban landscape. Also, regarding to the linguistic landscape graffiti may have an interest, depending on the definition of the linguistic landscape.

And what about graffiti as part of linguistic landscape. For some researchers, graffitis are very relevant and important while for others this may not be the case.

What kind of texts can be interesting from the point of view of the researcher? This is quite a challenging question, but as a starting point, all kinds of texts have, in my opinion, some kind of interest. Of course, for instance, if we think of the political writings in the urban landscape it is possible that someone wants to express his/her political opinion and is able to do so and giving much visibility on the urban space.

This may, however, be an opinion that is not generally divided. Sometimes, there are debates for instance of political opinions or symbols in one’s home, but visible outside.

4 https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10166252

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1.3 Trasnationalism

For my research, the transnatiolism is relevant because migration and migrant communities are transforming the linguistic landscape in Kuopio. Transnationalism is useful especially in the sense that migrants want to preserve certain elements, languages for example, of their home culture, and therefore Transnationalism is often located somewhere between the local and the global. John Urry (2001) states that to gain a better understanding of the interconnections of local and global processes we need to deeply analyse the nature of social flows, of people, information, companies, ideas, and image. Urry acknowledges similar tendencies towards globalized forms of culture but does not believe in the homogenization of cultures (Urry 2001, 152).

Transnational networks connect different social networks that are not located in the same national territory. Transnational discourse is often limited to transmigration, especially in sociology and anthropology (Mahler, 2008).

Migration and transnational practices certainly bring many kinds of diversity to migrant-receiving societies; in turn, they carry ‘social remittances’ and other reverse-cultural flows – of ideas, values, and tastes, practices and material culture – back to the migrants’ societies of origins. Since most transnational connections are translocal or linking specific sites with specific sites – in the short run, this often means a transnational maintenance of local cultural forms (Vertovec 2009, 162).

Smith (2001) suggests comparing the various transnational networks in the same city. According to him this enables us “a) to examine the different local effects of different modes of transnational social organization and b) different impacts the social and political organization of a particular city has on the networks” (Smith 2001, 76.) In order to conduct a successful research about transnational networks in a city, one needs to bear in mind the following issues. The researcher should use the language and optic that may be valid in the representation of complex transnational connections and cross-border networks.

According to Smith “a fruitful approach for research on transnational urbanism would start with an analysis of sociocultural, political and economic networks situated in the social space of the city, with an awareness that the social space being analyzed might usefully be understood as translocality, a fluid cross-border space in which social actors interact with local and extralocal institutions and social processes in the formation of power, meaning, and identities. “ (Smith 2001, 174). Cultural, interpersonal and technological networks are also relevant when conducting a research in the field of transnationalism

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Transnationalism is commonly as understood as various “ties and interactions linking people or institutions across the borders of nation-states”(Vertovec 1999, 2) Various studies have been done with transnationalism as a frame of analysis. According to Steven Vertovec, these include “transnational communities, capital flows, trade, citizenship, corporations, inter-governmental agencies, non- governmental organizations, politics, services, social movements, social networks, families, migration circuits, identities, public spaces, and public cultures” (Vertovec 1999, 2). Transnationalism is not a new phenomenon. Vertovec (1999) points out that it existed before the nation-states were defined, but the term itself is rather recent.

While the term transnationalism is fairly new and currently en vogue, the sociologists of migration have for a long time recognized that migrants maintain some form of contact with their families and others in their homelands, especially through correspondence and the sending of the remittances (Vertovec 2009, 13).

Sarah Mahler (2008) indeed questions the terms transnationalism from above and transnationalism from below by arguing that it is often difficult to differentiate between what is the transnationalism from above and what from below (Mahler 2008, 71). Despite the criticism, transnationalism from below is a useful concept here. Transnationalization of cultural and political practices differs from globalization discourse that it is often from below (Smith 2001, 150). “Just how transnational lives are shaped among individuals, and how they impact social spheres, can be approached from a wide variety of angles and levels”

(Vertovec 2009, 53).

When speaking about the world’s impacts on cities, the most common reference is globalization.

However, as Swedish antropologist Ulf Hannerz (1996) states, not every process that crosses state border’s can be explained by the globalization discourse as many of these processes do not extend worldwide. As Hannerz points out “the term transnational is in a way more humble” (Hannerz 1996, 6).

Transnationalism, in contrast to globalization discourse, does not assume the insignificance or disappearance of national borders (Smith, 2001). Very often in the globalization discourse, the role of ordinary people as the actors of an urban change is underestimated. Global city discourse, for instance, often emphasizes technology and economy rather than political and sociocultural aspects (Smith 2001).

Furthermore, transnationalism is in many cases a better term than international because often the issues that transnationalism deals with are not international, in the strict sense of involving states. Transnational

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actors vary from individuals to groups and from social movements to transnational companies (Hannerz 1996, 6).

Michael P. Smith describes the transnationalism from below as the ways of the everyday practices of ordinary people. Smith stated that people could create the change every day. Transnational urbanism can be experienced in various ways in a city. Beside the above-mentioned migrant networks, cities maintain transnational urbanism by using and developing their means of travel and communication. Smith underlines the local dimensions of transnationalism. By translocality, he refers to the various transnational practices that take place in more than one national territory. For instance, migration may be considered a global phenomenon but it is important to bear in mind the “local social constructs “of migrants. (Smith 2001, 167-168)

Transnational urbanism can include “the translocal dynamics of long-distance nationalism; the multi- local emplacement and effects of transnational social or religious movements; or the socio-spatial organization and impacts of transnational entrepreneurialism. The complexity of contemporary transnational urbanism is nothing short of astounding, even within a single field site” (Smith 2005, 10).

Guarnizo and Smith (2008) ask where the boundaries of transnationalism lie. Authors ask whether the various transnational flows, such as migration flows and capital investments, are simply imposed on the cities.They argue that “the local sites of global processes do matter”(Smith & Guarnizo 2008, 12).

Transnational urbanism may be considered more useful in evaluating many cities than the very popular concept of the global city. Transnational urbanism covers various types of social change that take place in the urban context. The concept of transnational urbanism is especially suitable when we discuss various transnational connections forged by international trade, global migration, cross-border political movements, and cultural interpenetrations (Smith 2001). Smith points out that it is important to “compare and contrast transnational practices undertaken by different social networks in the same city”. (Smith 2001, 176) Furthermore, he argues that “to understand the future of urban change we must, therefore, focus our attention upon the communication circuits, no matter how complex, by which people are connected to each other, make sense of their lives, and act upon the worlds that they see, in which they dwell, and through which they travel. “ (Smith 2001, 194).

Transnational urbanism is closely related to the multilingual environment as often it is the consequences of people’s mobility, both tourism and migration. Transnationalism is relevant here also when we assess the names of the use of languages in transnational companies, in the case of Kuopio the examples of such

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are for example McDonalds and Subway. Even if in the common understanding these companies are known as multinational of global companies, the term transnational is well appropriate here as it has businesses in many countries in a world.

1.4 Mobility

As I discuss the migration and tourism in this paper, the concept of mobility is particularly relevant here.

We can see that the migration has increased in recent years to Kuopio. Also, mobility may increase the linguistic landscape in an indirect way. For instance, people travel more abroad than they used to travel some decades ago and they have more foreign influences. ⁵

One of the major contributions to the study in mobility comes from British sociologist John Urry. He is mostly known for his work in the fields of tourism and mobility. Urry (2007) argues that nearly every activity implies some form of mobility. Movement concerns people, things, information, and ideas.

Instead of speaking of mobility, Urry suggests discussing mobilities as the title of his well-known book indicates. A cultural geographer Peter Adey, too, states that mobility involves us. How Adey (2009) sees the mobility, it brings up the relational dimension “to speak of mobility is in fact always to speak on mobilities. One kind of mobility seems always to involve the kind of mobility. Mobility is never singular but is always plural. It is never one but necessarily many. In other words, mobility is really being mobile with” (Adey 2009, 18). In recent decades, the global traveling and telecommunication have grown rapidly (Urry 2007). Adey (2009) emphasizes the importance of mobility that can be a very useful concept in researching many various processes such as globalization, migration, tourism, homelessness, security and transport. Mobility is often seen as something very positive. However, as Urry points out it also has negative sides: illegal trafficking, terrorism, the impact on climate, and diseases (Urry 2007,12). At the same time, when the increasing mobility brings us new opportunities, also risks are increasing.

Different kinds of mobilities exist: for instance, student mobility or social mobility. In contemporary society, many people see mobile lifestyle as something fashionable. The media, advertisements are promoting a mobile lifestyle in which usually communication plays an important role. To some extent, for many people, mobility has become much easier and more affordable than some years or decades ago.

For instance, 20 years ago flying in Europe was, in general, more expensive comparing the prices today.

The same goes for mobile phones: 20 years ago it was rather rare to have a mobile phone which was, for

5 See statistics, migration in Kuopio

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many people, an object of prestige. Today, a mobile phone is seen almost as something self-evident, and if someone does not have a mobilephone, people may wonder what is the reason for this.

When conducting research on cross-border mobility in a rather small town like Kuopio, it is important to take account of different kinds of mobility. One can easily find people who have arrived as refugees, or those who have arrived as students or researchers. Some have arrived because they found a job in Kuopio and others for family reasons or because they knew a friend who suggested the city. Also, within one category reasons may vary; tourist may stop in Kuopio because it is in their way towards Lapland, while someone else comes to stay here because of its nature or culture. Such a relation between place and mobility intrigues also Urry. As he notes that “I am particularly concerned in this chapter with places of attraction, for various reasons people find some place the reason for moving, for being ‘drawn’ there (Urry 2007, 253).

As a result of international mobility, language contacts occur. Mobility has, at least to some extent, an impact on the linguistic landscape in a given area. Despite this, there is rarely a conceptual discussion about the mobility in the linguistic landscape research. However, some research (Burdick 2007) focuses on different aspects of the mobility. Thinking of English visibility, this is mostly explained by other factors than people’s mobility. However, for instance, a shopkeeper may have received the idea for the name of his shop because of his travels abroad. Mikko Laitinen and Anastassia Zabrodskaja (2015) reflect on the relation between the linguistic landscape and mobility in the following way.

We are undoubtedly living in the era of mobility and globalization of people, thoughts, ideologies, and goods. Mobility and movement influence how linguistic resources are distributed, regulated and interpreted, and sociolinguistic landscapes reflect societal change and enable mapping what (multilingual ) linguistic resources are used (Laitinen & Zabrodskaya 2015, 11).

When the transformation of the linguistic landscape is the result of migration or tourists, mobility becomes very relevant. Many shopping centers in Finland also have their signs and announcements in Russian, due to Russian visitors. This is less visible in Kuopio than in towns close to the Russian border;

for instance in Lappeenranta, Imatra and Joensuu. There is also an increasing number of Asian tourists in Finland, which also increases the need for the visibility of information in Asian languages. Regarding asylumseekers, many of them do not know Finnish or English when they arrive. This increases the need for knowledge of their languages and the availability of information brochures in their languages. In many cases, it is hard to find the people who know some rare languages.

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Pennycook and Otsuji (2015) have introduced the term metrolingualism. They refer with this concept to the relation between migration and the city; how the presence of new speakers impacts on the urban landscape and linguistic resources. As Pennycook (2012) points out in his book Language and Mobility, sometimes a foreign language can be found in very unexpected places. Many years ago, I saw a prominent graffiti written in Finnish on the wall of an Italian train, somewhere in Northern Italy. There was written

“pysäytä jos pystyt,” which means stop if you can.

Similarly, various message boards, or for example the visitor’s book in museums are often fascinating collections of the presence of multiple languages: very often people leave messages there in languages other than English. Sometimes In many cities of Europe, one can write graffiti and other texts against the war in Syria. One illustration of the impact of mobility on the linguistic landscape is different protests, or texts referring to events situated physically far away, especially in capital cities.

Furthermore, various cross-border means of transport are interesting also from the linguistic perspective.

Airplanes have usually strictly defined rules for this. For instance, the Emirates being a global company and their staff usually consist of many different nationalities, makes their announcements at first in Arabic. Besides the language choices between the crew and passengers, another interesting and important study area is the language used between the Crew and Air Traffic Control. English is commonly used, even on domestic flights of many non-English speaking countries. Hutchinc and Nomura (2017) mention an exception from the French aviation industry where the most common language, even on foreign flights, is French.

The regular bus line between Joensuu and Petrozavodsk is, according to my observations, a Russian- dominated linguistic space. Passengers are usually predominantly Russians, and drivers usually do not speak Finnish. Another example of the linguistic landscape of its own is the high-speed Allegro train between Helsinki and St Petersburg where announcements are made in several languages, and usually passengers are of many different nationalities, not only Finnish or Russians. Also, people working on the train consist of different nationalities. Regarding the visual landscape, trains also have an impact on it. It is quite common to see, in different parts of Finland the Russian train wagons, mostly freight cars. Train wagons, being a mobile element in the landscape, is also an illustration of the appearance of a foreign language in an unexpected place.

Moreover, a mean of transport may be very interesting for the linguistic landscape research from another point of view. In many countries buses, trains and metros are filled with advertisements. Some countries,

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like in India or many African countries local buses are rich of various texts varying from the religious texts to political messages. It is also normal to see writings referring to road safety. Kenyans have matatus⁶, Senegalese have cars rapides; in Tanzania, people take Dala Dala and in Ghana Tro Tro.

These minibuses are privately owned and therefore owners can freely to design their buses. One can see a minibus painted to represent Ferrari, or having symbols of Rastafari. In Senegal, cars rapides often have Muslim slogans and various images. They are usually very colorful and interesting from the linguistic viewpoint, too, as they often contain writings in various languages. In Senegal, it is common to see in the same minibus texts in French and in one of the local languages, usually wolof. These colorful minibuses offer a good illustration of unexpectedness in the linguistic landscape. One can find the reference to the United States of America in the decoration of an African minibus. Likewise, one can find a bus decorated in images of Jean-Claude Van Damme in the streets of Nairobi. ⁷ Means of transport would offer an interesting area of research. Also, these visually rich buses are at risk to disappear; cars rapides seemed to disappear from the streets of Dakar in 2018 ⁸

Also, some easily mobile items may create new kinds of landscapes where different images and languages are mixed. In many pubs worldwide, one often used way of decoration are postcards from different countries of the world, or currencies of different countries. Mobility appears to shape the linguistic landscape in many ways, but as we have seen also linguistic landscape is often dynamic and may be also mobile. The means of transport are good illustration of this. A different kind of example of mobile lives is the use of technologies as part of life. In the next section I will discuss the virtual linguistic landscape more in detail.

1.5 Virtual linguistic landscape

In this section, I will discuss the virtual linguistic landscape. As Ivkovic and Lotherington (2009) note

“LL is embedded in the physical geography of the cityscape. However, with the increasing scope of multilingual capabilities in digital communications, multilingual options and choices are becoming more prevalent in virtual space” (Ivkovic & Lotherington 2009, 17).

6 Tne name matatu derives from Swahili and it means three. It is not clear why they are called like that.

7 http://infinitedictionary.com/blog/2016/04/09/matatu-the-decorated-minibuses-of-kenya/

8 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-senegal-transportation-car-rapides-idUSKCN0T129L20151113

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I have taken the virtual linguistic landscape part of this Master Thesis as in some ways it completes and co-exists with the visible linguistic landscape. However, I was also considering whether to include it here. It could easily be a separate topic of a master’s thesis. People look for information on the Internet, for instance, information on opening times of shops and Museums, the exhibitions and concerts in a city, main sights or extra information on the town’s history. In this paper, I will discuss which languages different information in Kuopio is given.

The World Wide Web (www) has succeeded, at least to some extent, to create a global virtual village. If I decide I want to talk to someone from Vietnam, Burkina Faso, or Chile; I will probably be able to do so through the Web after some research. If I want to see how the urban landscape of Kigali seems today, I can go online instead of need to buy a flight ticket to Ruanda.

There has been, however, much debate if the Internet decreases inequality or increases it. Not everyone has access to the Internet, and not everyone even wishes to have it. In many Western societies, like in Finland, society encourages people to use the internet in their daily lives. For example, banks may add significant fees if using the services directly in the bank. Also, studying at the University without using the Internet may be possible, but difficult.

After general debates on virtual spaces, now I move to the linguistic landscape on the World Wide Web.

A relevant and important question here is which languages are present on the web, and maybe even more interesting, which are not. Why have certain languages been chosen to have visibility on the Internet and others not? Sometimes the reasons may be entirely practical; a company has a web-site in French because one of its employees speaks French. However, usually, the language choice is made according to the target group.

In the beginning, the Internet was by far an English-dominated space (Deumert 2014, 54). It still is so even today, but increasingly many sites are available in many language versions. As the Internet today, is much more accessible to many people in different geographical areas in the world, this has also spread the Internet to new linguistic regions. A German news site, Deutsche Welle ⁹, exists today in 30 languages including Amharic, Bengali, Bulgarian, and Swahili. Radio France Internationale, exists in 15 languages; both radio as the news sites are available in Vietnamese, Romanian Hausa,¹⁰ and Mandinka¹¹.

9 http://www.dw.com/en/top-stories/s-9097

10 Hausa, a Chadic language, most of its speakers live in Nigeria

11 Mandinka, is the main language of the Gambia, spoken also in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.

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Despite the fact that the dominance of English on the Internet may be in decline, still more than half of the content of the Internet is in English. Some major world languages, like Hindi and Chinese, have a small presence rather on the Internet. In fact, from the languages of the global South, the most visible online is Chinese; but only 3% of Internet content is in Chinese (Deumert 2014). Many languages of the global North have a considerable presence in the web: English, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Polish ¹². In fact, it seems that while the percentage of English has declined, other Western languages have considerably increased their presence in the World Wide Web. The content of Asian languages is also a minuscule proportion in the Web. This is striking bearing in mind that more than half of the world’s population lives in Asia. Can we talk about multilingualism in the situation when approximately 90% of Internet content is created in ten languages, mostly European ones? There are many multilingual projects on the Internet, such as Wikipedia, but the reality is that most of the world’s languages are hardly not present in the World Wide Web. Observing the Internet language presence, one can easily note the striking difference between the languages spoken globally and those used in the web (Deumert 2014).

Many websites are translated by the people without a good command of that language or even worse, by trusting programmes such as google translate. As Deumert points out: “the use of Google-assisted multilingualism is also an increasingly common-practice on social-network(ing) sites, where users suddenly come up with phrases in a language… they have no command of”(Deumert 2014, 73).

Deumert (2014) in her chapter about virtual linguistic landscapes focuses on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is, indeed, a multilingual project. However, the quality of Wikipedia articles is varied and in many cases, dubious. An example of this is illustrated in Wikipedia articles in Yoruba edition. Deumert points out that the vast majority of over 30 000 articles have been created by one person only. However, as Deumert argues, these Wikipedia articles were created by bots, software applications which run automatically translated tasks. Bots are used to create many Wikipedias in African languages, but not only. As Deumert points out, for example in Dutch and in Swedish content creation the use of bots have played an important role. (Deumert 2014, 72-73). One of the common features in Wikipedia is so-called city-spam entries.

These entries “allow contributors to create pseudo-sentences based on structural repetition, similar to drill exercises in the second language classroom (Deumert 2014, 70).

12 https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_language/all

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Regarding the websites of Finnish municipalities, the major differences exist. Sometimes, the rule that a monolingual Swedish municipality has its webpage only in Swedish and bilingual municipalities in both language is valid, but not always. Eckerö in the Island of Åland has its webpage only in Swedish, while Outokumpu in eastern Finland has its website in Finnish only.

In the studies of the linguistic landscape, the virtual landscape has been underresearched. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing interest towards this. A researcher need, however, to be able to define well which websites are under investigation. Also, as Halonen (2015, 143) points out, “the dynamicity is one of the challenges for studying internet as a linguistic landscape.” Virtual space is an interesting research area also from the perspective that local and global levels are there intertwined.

1.6 Methodology

The main method is observation. Observation is a relevant method to include the researcher’s own experiences to the research. Regarding methodological framework, I go through the services offered by the city from the point of view of the language. This includes the web page of the city of Kuopio, multicultural associations, and the city library. This research is mostly qualitative, which has been rather an exception in linguistic landscape research where quantitative methods, such as counting the signs in different languages have prevailed.

I have also analysed various documents, so the content analysis is used in this paper. Mostly, the various statistics regarding theforeign languages and visitors are useful for this work. Similarly, various newspaper articles and other documents on the languages in Kuopio are relevant.

Here, I focus on the perception of the linguistic landscape in Kuopio, which is not based on the statistics or calculation of the multilingual signs. Empirically, my work will include my own perceptions as well as the interviews among 10 persons. The only criteria for the selected people is that they have been living in Kuopio for a long time and know the city. The limitations of the methods used are on the selection of the people. Due to the limited time I have decided to select people who mostly I know. For instance, they may be more multilingual or just pay more attention to these issues than an average person from Kuopio.

However, I believe that in this way we can have a wider understanding of how the linguistic landscape of Kuopio may be perceived or is it an issue that people pay attention to? People may easily bring observations that I have not been thinking.

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As Görter and Genoz (2007) note, there are some problems in linguistic landscape research. First of all, the theoretical background is still being developing as it is rather recent research field. Regarding methodology, one can usually not document and analyze all the signs in one city. Moreover, the dynamic character of the linguistic landscape may pose challenges for the research: what is being documented this month, may not exist in the following month. This is true, especially in privately owned shops and services. Another question regarding the unit of analysis in the linguistic landscape research is which texts are relevant and which are not. Should graffiti and various other writing be taken into consideration?

Often when linguistic landscape studies have been done, the approach has been quantitative. For instance, in the research of Cenoz and Gorter (2008), the aim was to research Basque and Spanish presence in two streets. I choose here the qualitative approach, discussing the overall picture of the linguistic situation in the public space of Kuopio.

As Hall (2009) points out, photography is a much method tool in human geography. However, as Hall argues, a researcher should also be critical towards photography as a tool. Relevant questions regarding this research and the use of photography are the following: will photography bring some extra output to this research, what is the nature of the documentary, how photography relates to theory? Another relevant question when researching the linguistic landscape is the selection of the pictures; it would be meaningless to fill the research with photographs illustrating different signs. In this research, photographs are not playing a major role, and their role is to support the text and situate, when possible, the pictures in their geographical context. As (Hall 2009, 455) points out “photography is seen as a way of collecting, recording and presenting data from the landscape). The aim of using photography in this research is to show how certain languages are situated in the landscape.

Similarly, the use of photography emphasizes the own observation and personal research in the core.

Also, as in my research, taking photos helps in the observation of the landscape. As in my research, rarely people walking in the streets thinking or observe the linguistic landscape around. I was thinking of using the other tools. For instance, I was also planning to organize walking tours or participative photography excursion. Also, I thought that the interviews would give more output and what comes to the pictures, they are limited to my pictures I have taken during the recent months, mostly for this purpose.

The photos shown in this work do not aim to show the entire picture of Kuopio’s linguistic landscape.

However, through my photos, I aim to show and bring to wider conscience some interesting facts

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regarding the topic, such as the reproduction of old street signs in three languages, the presence of Savo dialect, etc. Ethical questions could emerge from taking pictures in an inappropriate way. This research does not include images of people, which would require permissions. In Finland, photography in public places is generally allowed, and this does not pose a problem. Also, there is a risk that the researcher tends to exaggerate certain aspects of the linguistic landscape. For instance, a researcher may focus on showing signs in English, but for an average person, the signs in other languages may appear almost unnoticed.

The geographical area for this research is the center of Kuopio. ¹³ The center consists of six different neighborhoods, and it extends from the port of Kuopio (The lake Kallavesi) until the railway bridge in Niiralankatu between Kuopio and Helsinki. Therefore it excludes the Kuopio Campus of the University of Eastern Finland and the University Hospital. However, I have decided to include them to this paper because of the emphasis on multilingualism at the UEF. The population in the center of Kuopio is 13 400.

Most of the houses are rather low apartment buildings. Many seniors live there, but also many students and single households. As Kuopio has expanded a lot in recent years, part of the business life has moved from the center to other areas ¹⁴. In the center of Kuopio, the parking is not free usually, and that is also one reason why many people prefer to make their shopping outside.

I have made the observations in Kuopio city center for a long time as I was born in Kuopio and lived in the center for many years. Regarding the linguistic landscape, I have made observations for this purpose since 2016. I have chosen not to adopt a quantitative method for this purpose. If that was the case, the current geographical area would be quite large for that purpose. Also, as in many cases, signs are mixed English-Finnish; this should also be included.

13 https://www.kuopio.fi/keskusta

14 One example is the construction of a major shopping mall Matkus outside the center, which included the Swedish furniture shop Ikea

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ULTILINGUALISM AND LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE

The last chapter was concluded with the methodological part and how the multilingualism is present in today’s Kuopio. Therefore, few words of multilingualism are needed. In this chapter, I will focus on the linguistic landscape and other relevant concepts for my study, such as sociolinguistics and multilingualism.

Multilingualism means, for instance, the capacity of one individual to learn various languages at the same time and the co-existence of several linguistic communities in a given geographical area (Orban, 2008).

On other words, it can mean the language skills of an individual or the language situation of a nation or society (Clyne 1997). As Dufva and Pietikäinen note, the views on multilingualism varies a lot – while others see it as a richness for an individual and for- a society, for the others multilingualism is seen as problematic (Dufva & Pietikäinen 2009, 1-2).

Most of the world’s population is multi- or bilingual ( Dufva & Pietikäinen 2009, 2). Traditionally, especially when talking about the nation-state, the idea of one nation and one language has prevailed.

However, already figures show that this is in contrast with reality: there are around 200 states, but 7000 languages are spoken worldwide (Dufva & Pietikäinen 2009, 2).

Often multilingualism is in fact “de facto” multilingualism – the country is officially multi/bilingual, but many regions are monolingual. In this case“multilingualism is based on a territorial principle Multilingualism can also be based on the personality principle that refers to the multilingualism in an individual level (Grosjean 1982, 12-13).

In the case of Eastern Finland, for instance, Swedish has in general very low visibility even though Finland is officially bilingual country. Finland is an example of a dyadic state, in which two languages co-exist and compete. Official bilingualism, which is the basis of language law in Finland today, was generally accepted after WWII. Swedish is the mother tongue of around five percent of the Finnish population – mostly in the coastal area. (Spolsky 2004, 164-166). In practical terms, Finland is becoming increasingly multilingual: many people have another mother tongue than Finnish or Swedish, and the role of English has become more important in recent years. Often official bilingualism and multilingualism are promoted in parallel ways.

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Kuopio is officially a Finnish municipality and may not appear very interesting for someone who is conducting research on multilinguism.

Some European countries too have several official languages: in Switzerland, for instance, there are four official languages and in Belgium three of them: Flemish, French, and German. Thus, multilingualism also can mean that in some parts of a country one language dominates while in other parts the dominant is another one. Certainly, in some French-speaking small towns in Wallonia, one may find it difficult to speak Dutch. On the contrary, some countries are rather monolingual. However, the traditionally monolingual countries, such as Japan have their linguistic minorities. As Spolsky points out “many countries have developed an explicit or implicit language policy as though they were monolingual, but it is rare (and becoming rarer) for linguistic and national borders not to overlap in various complex ways”

(Spolsky 1998, 51). Often, the official multilingual situation may differ very much from the languages that people use. Erard (2016) illustrates this with the example of Dublin: in public spaces, signs are often in two languages, in English and Irish. However, on the contrary, one hears rather languages like Polish and Romanian spoken more than Irish.

Many African countries are, indeed, prime examples of multilinguistic countries. However, very often a European language is the most prestigious language and the main language of education and administration. In many cases, the local languages are not promoted and their use is not encouraged (Summanen 2001). If we think of many African countries, it is normal that a person speaks the language of his/her ethnic group. Usually, people have another language that they use in communication with people from other ethnic groups. In Kenya, for instance, many people speak English, Swahili and one of their tribal languages. The knowledge of English in Kenya is quite good. In Tanzania, Swahili is also quite widely used in education. In Cameroon, the estimated number of languages is 270. Cameroon is an interesting exception in Africa: it has adopted French-English bilingualism. Spolsky argues that French and English are officially equal languages, but in reality French dominates (Spolsky 2004, 181-182) In South Africa, there has been much discussion about the official language of the country. There are those who argue that only English should be the official language of the country. However, at this moment South African has 11 official languages: Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu. Another example of many official languages in one country is India, as there coexist than 20 official languages, including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and

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Urdu (Spolsky 2004, 173). This shows us that statistical multilingualism and the language reality in a society often differ very much. Globalization and the promotion of English as a global language do not usually support the encouragement of smaller languages.

Mobility and globalization have increased multilingualism in cities. For instance, many Finnish towns which were in the 1980s rather entirely monolingual, show today a multilingual townscape. Language contacts have increased. In fact, partly this change is due to immigration and how migrants influence on town’s linguistic landscape and also from awareness by local people of other languages. People travel nowadays more than 30-40 years ago, and they follow more international media.

The European Union aims to promote multilingualism (Dufva & Pietikäinen 2009, 2). All the official languages of EU countries (24) are also the official languages of the European Union. For instance, in the European Parliament, members of EP can make their speech in any of the EU’s official languages.

But at the same time as the EU has become more multilingual and more languages are nowadays official languages, one can observe the growing dominance of the English language. Some decades ago, French was more important in the European Union than it is today (Mykkänen 2016). Multilingualism is an integral part of the EU’s motto “united in diversity.” In today’s EU, with 24 official languages, the maintenance at multilingual policies is really expensive.

Many people deal with questions which are related to multilingualism in their everyday lives. For instance, I can decide if I want to start to study a new language, or I can think which language I should use with a new foreign colleague at the University (Martin 2016). Clyne points out that societal multilingualism depends on various factors such as international migration, borders, international borders and the spread of international languages (Clyne 1997).

Krumm (2013) discusses the position of multilingual speakers in a monolingual society. He notes that in a public space other foreign languages usually do not matter and often the communication in public communication spaces requires a significantly good knowledge of the language of the host country.

(Krumm 2013, 168-169). He observes that “the receiving society, however, often regards all these languages as useless and asks for competence in the language of the country of residence only” (Krumm 2013, 175). Often indeed, multilingual societies are, especially in the public sphere, rather monolingual.

Many cities promote themselves as multilingual and emphasize how many languages are spoken in their city. But from the viewpoint of a migrant, the multilingual society can appear strongly monolingual.

Krumm notes that “migrants have an intensive experience of linguistic discrimination” (Krumm 2013,

Linguistic Landscape in the Finnish Town of Kuopio

Contents

1 I

2 M