Quantitative and qualitative perspectives on linguistic diversity

Tuomo Hiippala, Associate Professor in English Language and Digital Humanities at the University of Helsinki: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives on linguistic diversity in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

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Abstract

IIn this presentation, I discuss the diversity and richness of languages spoken in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, drawing on the results of a three-year research project (2020–2023) funded by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. The project combined methods from ethnography, geoinformatics and natural language processing to describe urban multilingualism and linguistic landscapes at various spatial scales (Väisänen et al. 2022). To identify linguistically diverse locations in the study area, we applied quantitative methods developed in the field of geoinformatics to data collected from social media platforms and the Finnish population registry (Hiippala et al. 2023). We then used these analyses to identify candidate locations for ethnographic fieldwork and documented the linguistic landscape using photographs and field notes, while also conducting go-along interviews with participants recruited from the study locations. Our analyses reveal that the linguistic landscape of each location is characterized by its own distinct affective atmosphere, which is discursively construed and made sense of through references to other places and times (Pienimäki et al. 2023). Overall, the project results demonstrate the benefits of adopting a multidisciplinary perspective to the study of linguistic landscapes.

References:

Hiippala, T., Väisänen, T. & Pienimäki, H-M. (2023) A multimodal approach to physical and virtual linguistic landscapes across different spatial scales. in S. Henricson, V. Syrjälä, C. Bagna & M. Bellinzona (eds) Sociolinguistic Variation in Urban Linguistic Landscapes. Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki.

Pienimäki, H., Väisänen, T. & Hiippala, T. (2023) Making sense of linguistic diversity in Helsinki, Finland: the timespace of affects in the linguistic landscape. Manuscript under review.

Väisänen, T., Järv, O., Toivonen, T. & Hiippala, T. (2022) Mapping urban linguistic diversity with social media and population register data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 97: 101857. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2022.101857

About the author

Tuomo Hiippala is Associate Professor in English Language and Digital Humanities at the University of Helsinki, Finland. His main research interests include multimodality, urban multilingualism and computational methods.