Akademische Abhandlung--Helsingfors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Uppsala. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [150]-154).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Uppsala. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [150]-154).

This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Skolt Saami, a Finno-Ugric language spoken primarily in northeast Finland by less than 400 people. The aim of this thesis is to provide an overview of all the major grammatical aspects of the language. It comprises descriptions of Skolt Saami phonology, morphophonology, morphology, morphosyntax and syntax. A compilation of interlinearised texts is appended. Skolt Saami is a phonologically complex language, displaying contrastive vowel length, consonant gradation, suprasegmental palatalisation and vowel height alternations. It is also well known for being one of the few languages to display three distinctive degrees of quantity; indeed, this very topic has already been the subject of an acoustic analysis (McRobbie-Utasi 1999). Skolt Saami is also a morphologically complex language. Nominals in Skolt Saami belong to twelve different inflectional classes. They inflect for number and nine grammatical cases and may also mark possession, giving rise to over seventy distinct forms. Verbs belong to four different inflectional classes and inflect for person, number, tense and mood. Inflection is marked by suffixes, many of which are fused morphemes. Other theoretically interesting features of the language, which are covered in this thesis, include (i) the existence of distinct predicative and attributive forms of adjectives, (ii) the case-marking of subject and object nominals which have cardinal numerals as determiners, (iii) the marking of negation with a negative auxiliary verb and (iv) the apparent verb-second phenomenon which is observed in clauses displaying an auxiliary verb. Skolt Saami is a seriously endangered language and it is thus hoped that this grammar will serve both as a tool to linguistic researchers and as an impetus to the speech community in any future revitalisation efforts.

<p>This dissertation, by presenting comprehensive analyses of six poems by the Hungarian poet Sándor Weöres, investigates the poetical forms and the poetical philosophies in these texts. The poems represent specific philosophic spheres of Weöres' poetry. The analyses emerge from the formal elements, and aim to shed light upon the structural coherences between the texts and their philosophical contexts. This method of analysis also complies with Weöres' views on the aesthetics of poetics and his method of writing, where form and structure always played an outstandingly important role. The complex methods used in the analyses are very much influenced by the views and methods of a text stylistics that looks at the literary work as a global entity. Taken together, these analyses illustrate the focal points of a remarkable poetical form and a most profound philosophical context in the poems of an outstanding Hungarian poet.</p>

This dissertation, by presenting comprehensive analyses of six poems by the Hungarian poet Sándor Weöres, investigates the poetical forms and the poetical philosophies in these texts. The poems represent specific philosophic spheres of Weöres' poetry. The analyses emerge from the formal elements, and aim to shed light upon the structural coherences between the texts and their philosophical contexts. This method of analysis also complies with Weöres' views on the aesthetics of poetics and his method of writing, where form and structure always played an outstandingly important role. The complex methods used in the analyses are very much influenced by the views and methods of a text stylistics that looks at the literary work as a global entity. Taken together, these analyses illustrate the focal points of a remarkable poetical form and a most profound philosophical context in the poems of an outstanding Hungarian poet.

The goal of this work is to describe the domain of predicative possession in South Saami, a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Sweden and Norway. Data has been elicited from native speakers of South Saami, and the analysis has been carried out within a general functional-typological framework. In South Saami, four different predicative possessive constructions are used: (1) a habeo-verb construc­tion, (2a) a genitive possessive without copula, (2b) a genitive possessive with copula, and (3) a locational possessive. The latter is not described in the grammars. The have-possessive and the genitive possessives occur frequently and are used to encode all notions of possession. The use of the locational possessive is restricted to inanimate possessors. Distri­bution of the constructions varies among the speakers. Examples for the have-possessive construction present the greatest structural variation. The four possessive constructions are set within a typological context. / Denna studie beskriver predikativ possession i sydsamiska, ett finsk-ugriskt språk som talas i Sverige och Norge. Materialet till studien eliciterades från sex sydsamiska modersmålstalare. Analysen genomfördes inom en typologisk-funktionalistisk inriktning. Analysen visar att i sydsamiskan används fyra olika konstruktioner för att uttrycka predikativt ägande: (1) en habeo-verbkonstruktion, (2a) en genitivkonstruktion utan kopula, (2b) en genitivkonstruktion med kopula, och (3) en lokativkonstruktion. Den senare omnämns inte i de existerande gramma­tiska beskrivningarna, och konstruktionen är begränsad till inanimata ägare. Verbkonstruk­tionen och de båda genitiv­konstruktionerna före­kommer frekvent i materialet och används för alla possessiva relationer. Fördelningen av de olika konstruktionerna varierar hos talarna. Den största strukturella variationen återfinns i habeo-verbkonstruktionen. De fyra possessivkonstruktionerna sätts i uppsatsen in i en typologisk kontext.

This text conducts an analysis of familial bear-human relationships in Sámi, Finno-Ugric, and Russian folklore, supplemented by material culture. It explores the image of the bear as a member of human and non-human communities and his roles in human society. This study draws from oral tradition from Sápmi, Finland, and Russia, focusing on the material and the theoretical framework it is presented in. Critical assessment of the approaches to the subject of bear-human relationships are a major part of this thesis. It attempts to adopt new frameworks more mindful of Indigenous perspectives and employs oral tradition as a primary historical source that, supplemented by archaeological evidence, can provide a clear view of past beliefs and practices. The main goal of this thesis is deconstructing past approaches to Indigenous knowledge and culture, with a special focus on Russian scholarship, and analysing human-bear relationships with Indigenous outlooks in mind. / Denna text genomför en analys av familjära relationer mellan björn och människa i samisk, finsk-ugrisk och rysk folklore, kompletterad med materiell kultur. Den utforskar bilden av björnen som en medlem av mänskliga och icke-mänskliga gemenskaper och hans roller i det mänskliga samhället. Denna studie bygger på muntlig tradition från Sápmi, Finland och Ryssland, med fokus på materialet och den teoretiska ram som den presenteras i. Kritisk bedömning av förhållningssätten till ämnet björn-mänskliga relationer är en viktig del av denna avhandling. Den försöker anta nya ramar mer medvetna om inhemska perspektiv och använder muntlig tradition som en primär historisk källa som, kompletterad med arkeologiska bevis, kan ge en tydlig bild av tidigare föreställningar och praxis. Huvudmålet med denna avhandling är att dekonstruera tidigare förhållningssätt till ursprungsbefolkningens kunskap och kultur, med särskilt fokus på ryskt forskningtradition, och att analysera relationer mellan människa och björn med ursprungsbefolkningens synsätt i åtanke.

This thesis is a comparative sociolinguistic study which describes and compares language choice among people with Hungarian background in Sweden and Finland and studies their views on the importance of the Hungarian language and Hungarian cultural heritage for identity. The future prospects of language maintenance and language shift and differences between the Swedish-Hungarians and the Finnish-Hungarians are discussed. A survey was completed among 50 Swedish-Hungarian informants and 38 Finnish-Hungarian informants during 2006. The survey was supplemented by in-depth interviews with 15 informants during 2007. The majority language, either Swedish or Finnish, is much more active in the second-generation Hungarians’ lives than Hungarian is. Hungarian is mostly used in the domain of family relations. The language choices made today are dependent on the informant’s situation during childhood, particularly the parents’ usage of the language and the ability to learn and use Hungarian, chiefly gained through contact with the parents’ mother country and other Hungarian speakers. For some informants, having Hungarian roots forms the sole foundation for belonging, while for others it is this heritage combined with the culture, the ability to use the language or specific character traits. The Hungarian background is most often seen as a treasure offering diversity in life. Finnish-Hungarians are generally more positive about their Hungarian background, have better competence in the language and a greater awareness of the culture than Swedish-Hungarians. The Hungarian language plays a central though often symbolic role. The most important conditions for minority language preservation are language competence together with the desire and opportunity to use it; whereof the largest deficit among second-generation Hungarians is knowledge of the Hungarian language. Only one-fourth of the informants have all of the conditions necessary to be able to maintain the language, which means that Hungarian is an endangered minority language in Sweden and Finland.

This thesis is a comparative sociolinguistic study which describes and compares language choice among people with Hungarian background in Sweden and Finland and studies their views on the importance of the Hungarian language and Hungarian cultural heritage for identity. The future prospects of language maintenance and language shift and differences between the Swedish-Hungarians and the Finnish-Hungarians are discussed. A survey was completed among 50 Swedish-Hungarian informants and 38 Finnish-Hungarian informants during 2006. The survey was supplemented by in-depth interviews with 15 informants during 2007. The majority language, either Swedish or Finnish, is much more active in the second-generation Hungarians’ lives than Hungarian is. Hungarian is mostly used in the domain of family relations. The language choices made today are dependent on the informant’s situation during childhood, particularly the parents’ usage of the language and the ability to learn and use Hungarian, chiefly gained through contact with the parents’ mother country and other Hungarian speakers. For some informants, having Hungarian roots forms the sole foundation for belonging, while for others it is this heritage combined with the culture, the ability to use the language or specific character traits. The Hungarian background is most often seen as a treasure offering diversity in life. Finnish-Hungarians are generally more positive about their Hungarian background, have better competence in the language and a greater awareness of the culture than Swedish-Hungarians. The Hungarian language plays a central though often symbolic role. The most important conditions for minority language preservation are language competence together with the desire and opportunity to use it; whereof the largest deficit among second-generation Hungarians is knowledge of the Hungarian language. Only one-fourth of the informants have all of the conditions necessary to be able to maintain the language, which means that Hungarian is an endangered minority language in Sweden and Finland.