1 Finland-Swedish Sign Language (FinSSL) Building a Future for a Severely Endangered Language Maria Andersson-Koski & Magdalena Kintopf-Huuhka Närpes 30.8.2017 2 FinSSL – a minority within a minority FinSSL = Finland- Finnish Swedish Sign Language FinSL FinSSL Swedish FinSL= Finnish Sign Language 3 Historical background • The first school for Deaf pupils was founded in 1846 in Borgå/Porvoo by Carl Oscar Malm (1826-1863) • Malm used the sign language he learnt in Sweden as the language of instruction • The rise of oralism in the end of the 19th century • Sign language looses its status as language of instruction • 1892: division into Finnish and Swedish ”speaking” and ”writing” institutions • → FinSL and FinSSL start to grow apart Carl Oscar Malm Finland's National Board of Antiquities 2017 4 From a dialect to a language • In the 1990s: officially one sign language in Finland • Regional dialects correlate with different Deaf schools and FinSSL was seen as a variety for the Deaf school in Porvoo/Borgå • 1998-2002: First research project in FinSSL (Hoyer & Kronlund-Saarikoski 2002) • 2002: Finlandssvenska teckenspråkiga r.f, the organisation for FinSSL-users was founded • 2005: First definition of a FinSSL-user, made by language users themselves (Hedrén et al 2005) • 2013: FinSSL given the status as a severely endangered language • 2015: FinSSL recognized as a language in the Finnish law 5 Language situation today • Approximately 90 Deaf language users in Finland (Andersson-Koski 2015) • 70 % born in the 50s or before • This number (90) does not include second language users, nor first or second language users living abroad 6 Challenge • How to define a FinSSL-user today? • Who has the authority to decide? 7 Loss of a linguistic environment • The only remaining Swedish Deaf school in Finland (in Borgå/Porvoo) was shut down in 1993 • After 1993, Deaf children with Swedish-speaking family background can choose to: • Be integrated in a State school with the help of interpreters • Attend a Finnish Deaf school • Move to Sweden for Deaf education and retain Swedish as their written language • The importance of schools for language acquisition • Traditionally people who attended the Deaf school in Borgå/Porvoo were seen as FinSSL-users… but what about today? 8 Signs of endengarement • Heterogeneous and fragmented language community • Lack of education, services, information, research, interpreters… • Despite of this, many positive steps forward have been taken in the past years. These steps demonstrate a feeling of togetherness within the group that gives the language users energy and motivation to continue to fight for their linguistic rights. 9 While there's life there's hope – building a future • An improved language status (Sign Language Act 2015) has supported the revitalization of the language • In 2014, the Finnish government for the first time decided to finance a project meant to “vitalize the FinSSL” → Lev i vårt språk – Live in our languages 2015-2017 (Humak University of Applied Sciences) • It is promising to be able to start a FinSSL interpreter education in the near future 10 Still a lot to be done… Janne Kankkonen 2017 11 More information: • The project Lev i vårt språk: livs.humak.fi • The organisation for FinSSL-users: dova.fi • The Finnish Association of the Deaf: www.kuurojenliitto.fi • FinSSL dictionaries: • Suvi online dictionary in the Finnish sign languages suvi.teckensprak.net • Signwiki finssl.signwiki.org 12 References • Andersson-Koski, Maria, 2015: Mitt eget språk – vår kultur. En kartläggning av situationen för det finlandssvenska teckenspråket och döva finlandssvenska teckenspråkiga i Finland 2014-2015. Finlandssvenska teckenspårkiga r.f. • Cataloguing Endangered Sign Languages: http://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/explore/projects/sign_languages_in_unesco_atlas_of_world_languag es_in_danger.php • Hedren, J., Hoyer, K., Londen, M., Wenman, L., Westerholm, H., & Östman, J.-O, 2005: Finlandssvenska teckenspråkiga i dag. In J.-O. Östman (Ed.), Nordica Helsingiensia no. 4. FinSSL, finlandssvenskt teckenspråk (pp. 113–122). Helsingfors: Nordica. • Hoyer, Karin & Kronlund-Saarikoski, Karin (red.) 2002: Se vårt språk! – Näe kieleMMe! Finlandssvenskt teckenspråk 38 ordboksartiklar. Finlands Dövas Förbund r.f. & Forskningscentralen för de inhemska språken. Tummavuoren kirjapaino. Helsingfors. • Hoyer, Karin, 2004b: “The Sociolinguistic Situation of Finland-Swedish Deaf People and Their Language, Finland-Swedish Sign Language”. I: Herreweghe, Mieke Van & Vermeerbergen, Myriam (red.): To the Lexicon and Beyond: Sociolinguistics in European Deaf CoMMunities. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. S. 3–23..