Ilona Tragel, Laura Kiik, Liisa-Maria Komissarov
et al.
Põhikooli ja gümnaasiumi riiklikus õppekavas on ühe õpiväljundina kirjas, et õpilased peavad oskama luua eri liiki tekste, kuid jäetakse täpsustamata, mis need liigid on ning kuidas peaksid õpilased neid omandama. Artiklis käsitleme, kuidas on neile teemadele lähenenud Eesti põhikoolidele (II–III kooliaste) ja gümnaasiumidele sügisel 2024 kättesaadavad eesti keele (emakeelena) õpikud. Analüüsi tulemustest selgus, et tekstide kategoriseerimisel kasutatakse enim termineid žanr, liik ja tüüp. Kusjuures nende kasutus varieerub ulatuslikult, selgeid definitsioone enamjaolt ei anta ning kategoriseerimise aluseid selgitatakse eksplitsiitselt pigem harva. Kategooriate õpetamisel on enamasti kirjas teksti vormi-, mitte sisutunnused. Selline lähenemine tekstide kategoriseerimisele ei arenda õpilaste iseseisvat analüüsivõimet ega valmista neid ette pidevalt muutuvas tekstimaailmas toime tulemiseks. Artiklis pakume välja ühe võimaliku ülesande tüübi, mis suunaks õpilased tekste uutmoodi märkama ja seeläbi mõtestatumalt õppima.
Abstract. Ilona Tragel, Laura Kiik, Liisa-Maria Komissarov, Kati Käpp, Markus Laanoja, Nele Karolin Teiva: Categorisation of texts in Estonian L1 textbooks – sink or swim? The national curricula for both basic and upper secondary education in Estonia state that one of the learning outcomes for general education is the skill to create different types of texts. However, it remains unspecified what those types of texts are and how the students should learn to write them. This article examines how texts and their categorisation are represented in the currently available basic (second and third stages of study) and upper secondary textbooks for Estonian as a first language. The analysis shows that the terms žanr (‘genre’), liik and tüüp (both roughly equivalent to ‘type’) are used most commonly, although their usage varies and is rarely explained. The categories are usually taught through their formal features rather than the content. We argue that this kind of teaching does not develop the students’ independent analysis skills and thus fails to adequately prepare them for the ever-changing world of texts. We also propose a new type of task which can guide students to notice and make sense of texts in a more meaningful way.
Tekst-kõne-süntees on tehnoloogia, mis muudab kirjaliku teksti kõneks. Kõnesünteesi kasutusvaldkond on tänapäeval väga lai. Vajadus kõnesünteesi oma seadmesse paigaldada või tootesse integreerida on muutunud üldiseks. Käesolevas artiklis tutvustame Eesti Keele Instituudis arendatavat interaktiivset kõnesünteesi veebikeskkonda Kõneveeb, mille eesmärgiks ongi ühiskonna, ettevõtjate ja arendajate vajadusi arvestades pakkuda tasuta ühest kohast ja mugavalt kõiki Eesti Keele Instituudi kõnesünteesiga seotud teenuseid ja ressursse. Põhjalikumalt tutvustame Kõneveebis saadaval olevat uut teenust Minu Hääl, mis võimaldab igaühel luua ise sünteeshääle ilma mingite tehniliste eelteadmisteta kõnesünteesist. See teenus on mõeldud üksikisikutele ja ettevõtjatele, kelle vajadusi olemasolevad sünteeshääled ei rahulda, näiteks kellel on vaja spetsiifilises stiilis või unikaalset sünteeshäält või omaenda häälest tehtud sünteeshäält.
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Kõneveeb and Minu Hääl: An interactive web environment for speech synthesis resources and a service for custom synthetic voice creation
Text-to-speech synthesis – a technology that converts written text into speech – has become part of everyday applications. This means that there is a general need for individuals to install speech synthesis in their devices and for companies to integrate it into their products and services. It is therefore important to make speech synthesis available for maximally easy uptake, especially for languages that are in danger of being dominated by English. The paper describes the interactive web environment Kõneveeb that is being developed to this end at the Institute of the Estonian Language. The purpose of the environment is to make the Institute’s Estonian speech synthesis resources and services easily available for individuals, companies, and developers alike. In addition to various free text voicing services, application interfaces, training corpora and training software, Kõneveeb offers a custom synthetic voice creation service, Minu Hääl. The service is intended for users who need a synthetic voice that is unique, represents a specific speaking style, or resembles their own voice. It allows the user to create a synthetic voice without any technical knowledge about speech synthesis. The service includes a dedicated program that enables an effortless recording of the donor voice and outputs a training corpus in the required format. After the user has uploaded the training corpus to Kõneveeb, three synthetic voices are automatically trained, using different synthesis methods. The resulting speech synthesisers can be used for text voicing either directly in Kõneveeb or installed in the user’s computer. Both the Kõneveeb environment and the Minu Hääl service will be constantly updated with new resources and possibilities.
Lara R. Prelle, Ina Schmidt, Katherina Schimani
et al.
Temperature and salinity are some of the most influential abiotic parameters shaping biota in aquatic ecosystems. In recent decades, climate change has had a crucial impact on both factors—especially around the Antarctic Peninsula—with increasing air and water temperature leading to glacial melting and the accompanying freshwater increase in coastal areas. Antarctic soft and hard bottoms are typically inhabited by microphytobenthic communities, which are often dominated by benthic diatoms. Their physiology and primary production are assumed to be negatively affected by increased temperatures and lower salinity. In this study, six representative benthic diatom strains were isolated from different aquatic habitats at King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula, and comprehensively identified based on molecular markers and morphological traits. Photosynthesis, respiration, and growth response patterns were investigated as functions of varying light availability, temperature, and salinity. Photosynthesis–irradiance curve measurements pointed to low light requirements, as light-saturated photosynthesis was reached at <70 µmol photons m−2 s−1. The marine isolates exhibited the highest effective quantum yield between 25 and 45 SA (absolute salinity), but also tolerance to lower and higher salinities at 1 SA and 55 SA, respectively, and in a few cases even <100 SA. In contrast, the limnic isolates showed the highest effective quantum yield at salinities ranging from 1 SA to 20 SA. Almost all isolates exhibited high effective quantum yields between 1.5 °C and 25 °C, pointing to a broad temperature tolerance, which was supported by measurements of the short-term temperature-dependent photosynthesis. All studied Antarctic benthic diatoms showed activity patterns over a broader environmental range than they usually experience in situ. Therefore, it is likely that their high ecophysiological plasticity represents an important trait to cope with climate change in the Antarctic Peninsula.
This article examines features of several northeastern Vidzeme Latvian subdialects (spoken in Ilzene, Zeltiņi, Kalniena, Lejasciems, Sinole, etc.), which may have developed due to influence from the Leivu language historically spoken in this area. This influence is found at all levels of language. Finnic borrowings are typical of local vocabulary. The morphology shows characteristic phonetic changes like reduction of final-syllable vowels and diphthongs. Unfortunately, nearly all of these features have been lost in the 21st century and the only evidence of the Leivus’ presence exists in place names. Most Finnic-origin place names are found in the names of villages and homes; however, they are also found in the names of hills, swamps, and other objects. The most ancient examples are found among hydronyms. Even just based on the place names still existing in the 20th century, it can be safely said that Estonians, i.e., Leivus, settled in northeastern Vidzeme before 1600.
Kokkuvõte. Ilga Jansone: Leivu mõju Kirde-Vidzeme läti murretes. Artikkel käsitleb läti keele Kirde-Vidzeme murrakute (mida on räägitudIlzene, Zeltiņi, Kalniena, Lejasciems, Sinole jms piirkonnas) keelejooni, mis on võinud seal kujuneda ajalooliselt leivu keele mõjul. Läänemeresoome laenud on tüüpilised kohalike läti murrakute sõnavarale. Sõnavormides tuleb esile ka iseloomulikke foneetilisi muutusi, nagu sõnalõpuliste vokaalide ja diftongide reduktsioon. Kahjuks peaaegu kõik need jooned on 21. sajandil kadunud ja ainult kohanimedes püsib leivu keelepärand. Enamik läänemeresoome päritolu kohanimesid on küla- ja talunimed, siiski on leida ka kõrgendike, soode ja teiste loodusobjektide nimesid. Kõige vanemaid näiteid on hüdronüümidega. Isegi arvesse võttes ainult 20. sajandil kasutusel olnud kohanimesid, võib kindlalt väita, et eestlased, st leivud elasid Kirde-Vidzemes juba enne 1600. aastat.
The newly independent Finland in the 1920s and 1930s was, in principle, a nation state in which ethnic Finns had an undisputed leading position. Nevertheless, there was a lively debate about the status that would be given to other nationalities in various spheres of social life. The Swedes were the country’s main national minority (accounting for 10 per cent of the total population), and they were granted extensive minority rights. Another locally significant minority were the Sámi who lived in northern Lapland. This paper analyses the extent to which the majority population was willing to meet the wishes of the Sámi. Some Finns were in favour of the Sámi being acculturated as quickly as possible, but a few activists would have liked to grant the Sámi broad autonomy. Several ministries and government agencies investigated the matter thoroughly, but the result was negative for the Sámi.
On 28-29 May 2020 in full Coronavirus pandemic upsurge and lockdown conditions the Eleventh Conference on Baltic and Nordic Studies gathered on Zoom instead of The Palace of Culture and The Middle Age Citadel of Târgu Mureș as initially planned. The meeting was summoned in partnership with Rethinking Europe in order to reflect, from the perspective of the Baltic Sea Region, upon the Old Continent in the context of Brexit and the pandemic. Questions on the impact of the recent evolutions on Baltic and Scandinavian states have been raised, but the perspective was much wider looking on how the countries of this region responded to structural changes or alterations of the international environment over time.
The two plenary sessions on the EU after Brexit: Perspectives on the Future of Europe and Constructions of Christian Identity and the Idea of the Holy Land in the Northern Periphery: The Sawley World Map in Twelfth-Century England appropriately mirrored the sequential diversity of the conference. Panels have been devoted to Encounters, fantasies and perceptions in shaping Europe, Rethinking Europe in Nordic and Baltic cultures, Rethinking the Baltic Sea Region in Europe during the interwar period, Rethinking Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region in Europe during the two world wars, Intercultural relations in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Reception of Nordic literature, New perspectives on Norwegian literature, Teaching and use of Nordic languages. The main theories, concepts and ideas presented are resumed in the Book of Abstracts published before the conference, while the full papers are assembled in volume 12, issues 1 and 2 of our biannual peer review journal.
"Issues in morphological annotation of the Estonian child language corpus"
This article presents the results of an initial attempt to automatically annotate the currently existing, publicly available Estonian child language corpus morphologically. CLAN software is not suitable for morphological analysis of Estonian, but Estonian language technology resources are available for written language and can be adapted to spoken language and specific genres. The automatic parser provided annotation for 92–98% of words in the child-directed speech and 57–96% of the child speech, with the results for child speech varying across corpora. A manual analysis was also conducted of words which were automatically annotated in a random selection of transcriptions from each corpus. Across corpora, 63–96% of annotated words were correctly annotated. Reasons for the variation are discussed, and obstacles to automatic annotation are identified at various levels.
First, the corpora have been collected and transcribed with various goals and according to differing principles, hence the style and detail of transcription vary greatly across the corpora. Second, even within a single corpus, discrepancies appear in coding which need to be uniformly resolved in order to ensure accurate morphological annotation. Finally, for flagging non-standard or idiosyncratic forms, the implementation of metacodes available for use in the child language corpora would greatly assist the task of automatic morphological parsing. For each corpus, a user dictionary adapted to the particular genre and the particular corpus would need to be developed, including proper names and idiosyncratic words. The marking of errors is a crucial area which needs to be standardised in order to enable automatic annotation. Additionally, five groups of words which received inaccurate annotation were identified, and suggestions are made for transcription of child language corpora in order to ease the task of morphological annotation in the future.
Artikli eesmärk on anda ülevaade sellest, mis raskendab avalikult kättesaadava eesti lastekeele korpuse automaatset morfoloogilist märgendamist ning anda soovitusi, kuidas tulevaste korpuste märgendamist ja standardiseerimist analüüsi tarbeks paremaks muuta. Analüüsisime korpust kirjakeelele mõeldud morfoloogiaanalüsaatori abil. Automaatse analüüsi järel vaatasime, kui suur osa sõnadest sai analüüsi või jäi analüsaatorile tundmatuks nii alamkorpuste kui lapse- ja hoidjakeele lõikes. Selgus, et analüüsi saanud sõnade osakaal igas alamkorpuses varieerus hoidjakeeles 94–98% ja lastekeeles 57–96% vahel. Suurt rolli mängib lindistuste üleskirjutamisviis: hoidjakeelt kirjutatakse üles kirjakeelele sarnaselt, kuid lastekeeles lähtutakse kuuldeortograafiast. Kõik alamkorpused küll järgivad CHILDES-i transkriptsioonisüsteemi ettekirjutusi, ent iga alamkorpus on koostatud erinevaid eesmärke silmas pidades ja on erineva transkribeerimisstiiliga, millest järjepidevalt kinni ei peeta. Märgenduse tulemust hindasime käsitsi läbivaatamise teel. Artiklis toome välja, millised olid nii tundmatuks jäänud kui vale analüüsi saanud sõnade sagedasemad probleemid ja pakume võimalikke lahendusi.
The paper explores the referential interpretation of narratives through a case study of computer-mediated narrative discourse, a thread of Hungarian stories on an online discussion site. In particular, we are looking to find out what directs the addressee’s attention and how as she attempts to interpret such stories. Adopting the perspective of social cognitive linguistics, we interpret narrative discourses as joint attentional scenes whose interacting participants contribute to the intersubjective construal of referential scenes (including narrative ones) by directing and following each other’s attention. The main results of the investigation are as follows. 1) In the construal of the physical and social worlds of these stories, a key role is played by the deictic relation based on spatial and temporal contiguity which connects the world of the story to the world of the narrative discourse, interpreted as a joint attentional scene. 2) These narrative discourses frequently objectivize, in the form of metapragmatic reflections, both the situatedness of the referential centre (which lies with the storyteller), and the narrator’s subjective attitude to the narrated events.
Kahekümnes sajand oli võõrkeeleõppe jaoks mõneti sama murranguline nagu muudes eluvaldkondades. Tehnika ja ühiskonna areng on loonud olukorra, milles väide „alati on nii tehtud” maksab vähe, kui seda ei põhjendata. Kui keeli on võimalik kodust lahkumata arvuti taga õppida, miks siis selleks klassis istuda? Ja kui kommunikatiivsusel põhinev õpe on ennast tõestanud edasiviivamana kui grammatikareeglite ning sõnade nimekirjade pähe õppimine, nagu varem tavaks oli, milline on siis grammatika ja sõnavara õppimise roll tänapäevases keeletunnis? Artiklis toon välja teadusuuringuid ja keeleteadlaste seisukohti, mis mõtestavad lahti võõrkeeleõpetaja rolli e-ajastul ja juhivad tähelepanu metalingvistilise arutelu edasiviivale rollile õppeprotsessis. Võõrkeele ja emakeele omandamises on olulised erinevused, nagu on erinevad ka lapse ja täis kasvanu kognitiivsed võimed ja vajadused. Grammatikareeglite ja semantika üle arutlemine tõstab teadlikkust ja annab õppijale vahendid ise tõhusamalt õppida.
Abstract. Mari Kruse: Foreign language learning as a social, synergetic and conscious process. In foreign language learning, as in other fields of life, the twentieth century proved to be groundbreaking. The development of technology and society has taken us to a point where ”It has always been so” is no longer a valid argument unless supported by other grounds. If we can learn languages in the privacy of our own homes and at our own pace, why bother going to presential lessons? And if communicative language learning has proven to be so much more efficient than memorising of rules and word lists, as was customary earlier, what place do grammar and vocabulary learning have in contemporary language lessons? The article presents evidence from scientific research and linguists’ opinions that substantiate the role of foreign language teachers and call attention to the impelling force metalinguistic reasoning has in the process. There are significant differences between learning a first language and a foreign language; likewise children and adults differ in their cognitive capacities and needs. Reflecting on rules of grammar and semantics raises awareness and provides learners with a powerful tool to improve their learning.
Keywords: foreign language learning, role of teachers, metalinguistic reasoning, intralingual comparison, attention, cognitive baggage, self-reflection
Ruotsinkielisten alkeistason suomenoppijoiden kirjoittamissa teksteissä esiintyy paljon semanttisesti erityyppisiä verbejä. Artikkelissa ovat tutkimuskohteena sanallista kommunikaatiota ilmaisevat puhumis-, sanomis- ja kysymysverbit. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään kommunikaatioverbien puhua, huutaa, jutella, sanoa, kertoa, kysyä ja vastata käyttöä ja sitä, millaisissa lauseissa verbit esiintyvät. Keskiössä ovat kuitenkin verbien saamat täydennykset. Suomenoppijat käyttävät verbien yhteydessä yhtäältä objektina olevia lausetäydennyksiä, alisteisia kysymyslauseita ja että-sivulauseita, toisaalta sijamuotoisia adverbiaalitäydennyksiä. Allatiiviset ja ablatiiviset adverbiaalitäydennykset ilmaisevat kommunikaatioverbin viestin vastaanottajan, joka on elollinen ja inhimillinen. Kommunikaatioverbin sisältämissä lauseissa esitetään toisinaan myös viestin aihe, jolloin täydennyksen sijamuotona on elatiivi. Sijamuotoisen täydennyksen kohdalla on tarkasteltu, onko se kohdekielenmukainen vai -vastainen. Tutkimus sisältää myös katsauksen kommunikaatioverbien tempuksiin, moduksiin ja pääluokkiin. Lisäksi tarkastellaan verbien A- ja MA-infinitiivimuotoja lauseen pääverbin yhteydessä.
This paper takes a look at productive part of derivation of verbs in Finnic languages, frequentative verbs that have an l-derivational suffix in Livonian and how they occur and are constructed. The research is based on data of 15 different l-suffix verbs. The paper investigates how formally frequentative verbs are constructed in Livonian and if they are frequentative in their meaning. An essential criterion to interpret a verb as a derivative is that it has a derivational base, typically an underived word stem, and the paper attempts to find out if Livonian l-suffix verbs have one. Additionally, the paper aims to study if frequentative derivation is still productive in Livonian and to what degree frequentative l-derivatives have been lexicalised. Also other Finnic languages are taken into consideration when examining the derivational base and distribution for Livonian l-suffix verbs.
Kokkuvõte. Santra Jantunen: Piir produktiivsuse ja mitteproduktiivsuse vahel – kas liivi keele frekventatiivverbid on derivatiivsed või leksikaliseerunud? Artikkel vaatleb läänemeresoome keeltes produktiivset verbituletuse osa, frekventatiivseid l-tuletisi liivi keeles, kuidas nad esinevad ja on moodustatud. Uurimus põhineb andmetel 15 l-liitega verbi kohta. Artiklis jälgitakse, kuidas vormiliselt frekventatiivsed verbid on liivi keeles moodustatud ning kas need on frekventatiivid ka tähenduse poolest. Oluliseks kriteeriumiks verbi määratlemisel tuletisena on selle tuletusaluse olemasolu; artiklis püütakse selgitada, kas liivi l-liitelistel verbidel on alustüvi. Lisaks on artikli eesmärgiks uurida, kas frekventatiivide tuletamine on veel produktiivne liivi keeles ja millisel määral on frekventatiivsed l-tuletised leksikaliseerunud. Samuti on arvesse võetud teisi läänemeresoome keeli, uurides liivi l-tuletisega verbide tuletusaluseid ja levikut.
Märksõnad: liivi keel, läänemeresoome keeled, verbituletus, frekventatiivid, produktiivsus, leksikaliseerumine
Kubbõvõttõks. Santra Jantunen: Produktīvit ja äbproduktīvit vaili rubīž: või līvõ kīel frekventatīvtīemizsõnād ātõ derivatīvizt agā sõnāviļļõ lǟnõd? Kēra tuņšlõb mūši vāldamiersūomõ kēļši produktīvizt tīemizsõnātultõks jaggõ, īžkiz frekventatīvidi l-tultõkši līvõ kīelsõ, nänt jeddõtulmizt kui ne ātõ vīţõd. Tuņšlõks alīzõks ātõ tietõd iļ 15 l-tīedõksõks tīemizsõnā. Kēras vaņţlõb, kui frekventatīvõd tīemizsõnād formõd ātõ līvõ kīels vīţõd ja või ne ātõ frekventatīvõd ka tǟntõks pūolst. Tīemizsõnā vizāks tīemizõks um tǟdzi täm tultõks alīz vȯlmi; kēra kōļõb klīerõ või līvõ ltultõksõks tīemizsõnādõn um alīztõv. Vel sōb tuņšlõd kēras se, või frekventatīvõd tultimi um līvõ kīels vel produktīv ja kui ātõ frekventatīvõd tultõkst sõnāviļļõ lǟnõd. Nei īž um vaņţõltõd mūḑi vāldamiersuomõ kēļi, tuņšlõs līvõ l-tīedõksõks tīemizsõnād tīedõksalīži ja laigtõkst pands tǟdõl mūḑi vāldamiersūomõ kēļi.
In this paper we shall focus on the impact of Scandinavian literature in Romanian culture. The area of interest is poetry in a general context as it was perceived in Europe and especially in Romania. The period under analysis is 1848-1941. The paper is structured as follows: the initial part aims at an overview of the evolution of the Norwegian poems along the centuries. The second part of the paper presents an interview by Florin Dan Prodan in the magazine called „Mixul de cultură” (“Culture mix”), where the Norwegian poet Øystein Hauge talks about the relationship between European and Norwegian culture. The third part encompasses an overview upon Scandinavian poetry translated in Romania. Moreover, the Norwegian poets, Knut Hamsun, Astrid Hjertenæs Andersen, Rolf Jacobsen and Sigbjørn Obstfelder, have attracted the attention of the Romanian translators. In addition, we shall present also an article about Sigbjørn Obstfelder – „Un poet original: Sigbjørn Obstfelder” (“An original poet: Sigbjørn Obstfelder”) – written by Romanescu Marcel in „Flamura” magazine. Swedish and Danish poems were also translated in the Romanian anthology „Poezie nordică modernă”. In the last part of the paper there are presented a few Romanian translators such as Veronica Porumbacu, Taşcu Gheorghiu and others who have contributed at creating an intercultural bridge.
Artikkelissa pohditaan oppikirjan sanaston mahdollista vaikutusta ruotsinkielisten alkeistason suomenoppijoiden kirjallisiin tuotoksiin. Tutkimus on korpuspohjainen ja sisältää kaksi korpusta: suomenoppijoiden kirjallisten tuotosten korpuksen ja oppikirjan viiden kappaleen sanastojen korpuksen. Suomenoppijoiden korpus kuuluu osana Kansainväliseen oppijansuomen korpukseen. Molempien korpusten sanat ovat siinä muodossa kuin ne ovat esiintyneet alkuperäisissä lähteissä. Tutkimusmetodi on komparatiivinen ja kvantitatiivinen. Vertaamalla yhtäältä oppijoiden käyttämiä, toisaalta oppikirjassa esiintyviä sanoja ja sanamuotoja toisiinsa tarkastellaan, missä määrin oppijat ovat hyödyntäneet oppikirjaa. Mikäli samoja sanoja ja muotoja on löydettävissä, kyseessä voi olla oppikirjan vaikutus oppijoiden kieleen. Artikkelissa tarkastellaan myös eri sanaluokkien esiintymistä tuotoksissa ja oppikirjassa. Lisäksi kartoitetaan oppijoiden tuotoksissaan käyttämien sanojen yleisyyttä ja esiintymistiheyttä. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/LV22.07
The aim of this study is to account for stative situations through the example of structurally different but semantically close colour expressions: the Estonian stative verbs derived from colour adjectives and colour adjectives appearing as the predicative. Stative verbs are assumed to be similar to copula constructions, with the aspectual distinction of temporary/permanent property. In this article, the stative colour expressions are analysed using the linguistic diagnostics developed for the determination of ontological properties of different types of states – the sc. Davidsonian and Kimian states (see e.g. Maienborn 2003). Analysis reveals that the copula construction with colour adjective as predicative is ambiguous, inclining to the Kimian states but also assigning properties characteristic to the Davidsonian states; the stative colour verbs, in turn, are true examples of Davidsonian states. In addition to the examination of the stative properties, the conceptual structure analysis of the colour expressions instantiating stative and dynamic states is given. The observer’s evaluation of the coloured object as a mental image is treated as part of the lexical information of the colour statives. Also, sentential and contextual phenomena of the colour statives are discussed.
Tom Moring, Catharina Lojander-Visapää, Andrea Nordqvist
et al.
This paper presents some preliminary results from acomparative study of interrelations between identity (in terms of subjectively identified identity); media (in terms of completeness in supply); media use (in terms of choice of language); and EV among bilingual speakers of autochthonous minority languages. It builds on studies that are carried out among German speakers in South Tyrol, Hungarian speakers in Romania and Swedish speakers in Finland, combining institutional analysis and quantitative surveys in a comparative perspective
This article compares data of Russian, Udmurt and Komi on the distribution of colour terms in Ostwald’s colour space. Data of Russian derive from an article by Davies and Corbett (1994). Data from Udmurt and Komi were originally collected by using the field method suggested for establishing basic colour terms by Davies and Corbett (1994, 1995). Sixty-five coloured tiles were used as stimuli. It was found that the distribution of colour terms differed even in closely related languages. In addition, there are differences in the distribution of the pink colour in the Southern and Northern dialects of Udmurt. It can be argued that the distribution of colour terms in colour space is language-specific and dependent on culture. The data on unrelated languages showed that colour perception by Northern Udmurt subjects, compared to that by Southern Udmurts, was more influenced by Russian. Udmurt, like Russian, possesses a term for light blue, which in the Northern dialect was located in the same part of colour space as in Russian
This article deals with Latvian becoming the dominant language in Latvia. The results of the study show that the proportion of Latvians increased from 52% in 1989 to 57.7% in 2000 and to 59.3% in 2009. The percentage of the entire population who are speakers of Latvian increased from 61.7% in 1989 to 79% in 2000 and 93% in 2008 (Latvijas 2000. gada tautskaites rezultāti 2002, Valoda 2008). Since regaining independence, many positive changes regarding the de facto functioning of Latvian have taken place in Latvia e.g. the proportion of non-Latvians purporting to possess good knowledge of Latvian increased 10–15% between 2000 and 2008, whilst a similar decrease is registered for those whose knowledge of Latvian is weak. The most dramatic increase in Latvian speakers is in the 15–34 age group, which must be attributed to bilingual education; Latvian is becoming a more frequent tool of communication between Latvians and ethnic minorities. At present, the favourable conditions for the strengthening of the state language are contrary to common world practice.