LINGUIST List 6.1053

Sat Aug 5 1995

Re: 6.1007, Misc: English only (bilingualism), German lg ban

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Paul Kiparsky, Re: 6.1023, Misc: Verner's Law, He/She, Bilingualism, German lg ban

Message 1: Re: 6.1023, Misc: Verner's Law, He/She, Bilingualism, German lg ban

There were some attempts to impose Russian in Finland in the final decades of
Russian rule, but they were unsuccessful. One reason was that since Finland
came under Russian rule in 1809 it had been pretty much self-governing. It
had been able to keep the constitutional and administrative institutions
that it had had under Sweden, had the right to maintain its own army,
passed its own laws, eventually set up its own currency etc. Public
affairs were conducted in Swedish, and later, thanks to the efforts of
Finnish nationalists, more and more in Finnish. All this was challenged
when an ultra-reactionary Russian government started a Russification
campaign in the 1890's. Among other things they issued a Language
Manifesto in 1900 which set a timetable for the introduction of Russian as
the administrative language of Finland at both the national and local
levels. But this just wound up strengthening the Finnish independence
movement.