Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-216).

The beginning of Finnish and Lithuanian–Polish cultural and literary relations, which started in the late 19th cent., wasn’t a casual phenomenon. In the late 19th – early 20th cent. Finnish scientists became interested in Polish literature and started researching its history, communicating with Polish writers. This interest in Polish literature was inevitably concerned with Lithuanian political and cultural situation. The first researches in this area were performed by two Finns. A young Finnish couple, the writer Maila Talvio and her husband linguist Jooseppi Julius Mikkola. In the late 19th cent. they arrived at Lithuania. The aim of this travel was not just to have pleasant holidays. The Finns also wanted to learn Lithuanian language, to get to know more about the culture and people of this country. They perceived that the Lithuanian nation was under oppression and that its language was sought to be annihilated. The Finns with pleasure communicated with Lithuanian public and cultural workers – Zofija and Petras Kriaučiūnai, Vincas Kudirka. Inspired by traveling impressions around Lithuania Maila Talvio wrote articles, memories and literary writings, which made known the name of this country in Finland. In the outskirts of Gardinas Maila Talvio and her husband made acquaintance with famous Polish writer Eliza Ožeškova. Their friendship was nice and kind. Maila Talvio became a good friend of Polish writer and Polish people in general. She did plenty of work in making E... [to full text]

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The thesis opens with a discussion of what attitudes are, and develops with a review of studies of attitudes towards pronunciation error, attitudes towards foreign accents and perception of foreign-accented speakers. The empirical part of the thesis attempts to identify how native (British) and Finnish listeners of English react to and evaluate typical segmental features of mispronunciation in the English speech of Finnish men and women of various ages. Two experiments using modifications of the matched-guise technique were conducted, one to consider error evaluation and to establish a hierarchy of segmental mispronunciation, the other to examine speaker evaluation, the image of the speaker created by the mispronunciation. Recordings of Finnish-accented English were presented to male and female listeners of various ages, and reactions collected. Statistical analyses of the results were carried out and the following general conclusions were drawn: the English labiodental lenis fricative /v/ when mispronounced in the typical Finnish manner as a labiodental frictionless continuant [u] is not tolerated by native English listeners at all, though it is highly tolerated by Finnish-speaking listeners (and Swedish-speaking Finns) themselves; the degree of mispronunciation in Finnish-accented English seriously affects listeners' estimations of the speaker's age, bad mispronunciation prompting under-estimation of age and good pronunciation over-estimation; both Finnish-speaking listeners and English-speaking listeners have almost identical clear pre-set standards about what constitutes 'good' and 'bad' pronunciation; a Finnish speaker's phonemically 'better' and 'worse' pronunciation affects the image listeners have of the speaker, status/competence traits in particular being up-graded for better pronunciation, solidarity/benevolence traits remaining broadly unaffected, and Englishspeaking listeners generally being more positive towards the Finnish-accented speakers than compatriot Finns.

The worlds largest exodus of children is considered the transfer of circa 70,000 children from Finland to Sweden from 1939 to 1945. The experience of the Finnish war children contains a distinctive wealth of knowledge which should not be lost. It is important from a social and cultural-anthropological point of view to pass on this collection of experiences without misrepresentation and to interpret the material to the best of my ability. Childhood experiences have a great psychological importance on how an adult his/her life. When a person's social world changes, their psychological world is also threatened. This is what happened to the Finnish war children. To be a foster child, to be a war child, to be a Finnish war foster child entails something very distinctive. Such a child has experienced separation and break-up from the biological family, confrontation with the foster family or orphanage, sometimes difficult experiences from the war itself and a change of language and culture, all of which can be very traumatic. The Finnish war children were "child refugees" and their experiences must be understood on this basis. Finnish war children represent a unique event in our chaotic world. Therefore, one can say that my interpretation has a limited scope. I cannot refer to the broader "immigrant debate." My research is of a special character and my material is unique! In our world there are countless child refugees, children who live in extremely exposed conditions and who have lost their parents. About the Finnish war children's experience it has been said that "it may not happen again". This is a very careless statement - what do we know of the world's future? No, this may not happen again. But it can happen again. The Finnish war children remember experiences which are frightening and fascinating, but which are also important for us to understand and learn from in order to be able to deal with children who are in that most exposed of situations - refugees from war and persecution, but without the protection of a parent. / digitalisering@umu

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2007. / Title from title screen (viewed 28 March 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Dept. of History, Faculty of Arts. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Helsinki, 1984. / Added thesis t.p. inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-144).

Thesis--Faculty of Humanities, University of Jyväskylä, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [234]-249).