True 😅

Why Swedish-speaking Finns are hoping to be sent to Eurovision by Sweden. A fascinating read on the complexity of official languages and language attitudes within and across national boundaries.

I have a few thoughts about Eurovision 2025, mostly because it overlaps with language attitudes in Finland www.elizabethpeterson.org/post/when-la...

Fresh results from @lhekanaho.bsky.social @laifproject.bsky.social survey about language attitudes in Finland. Finnish people, you’ll want to see this! Not listing takeaways because … well, what do YOU think? Let us know! www.laifproject.org/post/mit%C3%...

UUSI BLOGI: Miksi tutkia kieliasenteita ja -ideologioita? Tässä kirjoituksessa Laura Hekanaho pohtii kieliasenteiden ja ideologioiden merkitystä. Toivomme, että löydätte aiheen yhtä ajatuksia herättäväksi. Linkki blogiin: www.laifproject.org/post/miksi-t... #Kielitiede #Suomenkieli #Kieliasenteet

So what are you all doing next week? I’m hosting a conference on swearing. Seems appropriate blogs.helsinki.fi/swisca9hel/ #linguistics

It’s a new year, it’s my birthday, and I just started my new position as Associate Professor of English linguistics @UniversityofJyväskylä. So please send me all the #linguistics love you can, and I send it right back at you.

I’m just sitting here reading all the #languagelog tributes to Bill Labov and ugly crying. What a legacy.

A student stayed after class to give me the most amazing gift basket of homemade goodies, including these magnets. I LOVE them. We could totally sell these as merch at NWAV, Sociolinguistics Symposium, etc.

I am switching from a mostly university teaching to mostly research career. Here are my top 10 teaching “confessions” as I switch roles. Who can relate? www.elizabethpeterson.org/post/univers...

I loved doing this interview and our discussion. And it is so great to get feedback on the textbook I wrote. Use it; it’s free thanks to Open Access funding!

Our Language Awareness and Ideologies in Finland project made this video on multilingualism at Helsinki’s famous herring festival! www.youtube.com/watch?v=odV_... It includes discussion questions for students. In three languages #suomi #linguistics #svenska

Live worm in my salad

This is not me complaining about language. This is me trying to understand what the quotation marks mean on these signs. Er, it’s the UK: the inverted commas. Minus points if your response includes complaints about apostrophes and the demise of grammar.

I have been in Dublin for all of 10 minutes, and have already heard the f-word twice, and both from unexpected mouths: one an 8-year-old (or so) boy, one from an 80-year-old (or so) woman. Wow 🍀

Reflecting on 20 years as an academic in Finland, plus some news on my future workplace. Thanks for everything, University of Helsinki! Next up, University of Jyväskylä 💫 www.elizabethpeterson.org/post/celebra...

For anyone who doesn't already know about it, check out @lingthusiasm.bsky.social (and thank me later) #Langsky

One year of LAIF: What have we been up to? You can read all about it in this letter from the project PI @lissu.bsky.social www.laifproject.org/post/letter-...

Because "Life in a New Language" has 6 authors, we've started a podcast series where each author tells their side of the story: in Episode 1, Donna Butorac shares how her experience as an ESL teacher got her interested in the lives of migrant women www.languageonthemove.com/life-in-a-ne...

So excited that the long-awaiting new book co-authored by members of the Language-on-the-Move team as a data-sharing ethnography of migrants' language learning and settlement experiences will finally be out in June global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Yesterday I was teaching about third wave linguistics. When I was discussing the Beijing yuppie study, someone raised their hand to ask me to what a yuppie is. And then most of the class concurred: yeah, what’s a yuppie? I didn’t quite recover, and still haven’t. The generation gap is REAL.

Was really lovely to do this podcast and talk about directive multilingual signs and the #LinguisticLandscape! Thanks again to @languageonthemove.bsky.social, lots of other great episodes of their podcast too!

Feelgood view and photo, post sauna

We are very happy to host Dr Matt Hunt Gardner in Helsinki this week to hear about his fascinating work on pulmonic ingressive YUP. Fortunately he made it here, even after after I typed his name wrong on his airline booking. Hope you’ll be able to leave, @matthuntgardner.bsky.social 😘

I am sorry I had to miss this lecture. Jyrki Kalliokoski has been such a supportive and kind colleague 💕

It was an honor and also a lot of FUN doing this interview with @languageonthemove.bsky.social on my book on language ideologies. Kiitos, Brynn 🤗 for the invitation and inspirational discussion

Yesterday I did one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done in my life: an interview IN FINNISH for TV. I had a sleepless night or two, but somehow I survived it. And I guess the Finnish language will survive it, too.

Here we go!! I am so excited right now. I feel like I do some of my best linguistic work when I’m in the garden. I often find myself thinking of Lesley Milroy, because she is a badass gardener and a badass linguist. Aspirations.

👏 @lissu.bsky.social

This was a great meeting! Lots of good ideas cooking about science communication in linguistics 🔥@laifproject

Punaisen Ristin organisoima #RasisminvastainenViikko päättyy pian! Lue teemaviikosta lisää: www.punainenristi.fi/rasisminvast... Tutkimustietoa rasismin ilmenemismuodoista Suomessa tarjoaa myös 'Finnishness, Whiteness and Coloniality' (2022), joka on avoimesti saatavilla: doi.org/10.33134/HUP...

Ooooh can’t wait to listen to this! 👏🏻

@eloranta.bsky.social teki loistavaa työtä miettien hyviä kysymyksiä ja tulkitsemalla pääkohtiani. Kiitos!

NYC: treasury of multilingualism and endangered languages #linguistics x.com/nytimes/stat...

Book launch of "English in the Nordic Countries", edited by Elizabeth Peterson @lissu.bsky.social and Kristy Beers Fägersten. This wonderful collection provides both historical and contemporary perspectives to use of English and English influence in the Nordic countries.

#English in the Nordic countries - kirjanjulkkarit juuri nyt Pohjoismaisessa kulttuuripisteessä @nordic_culture point. Panelisteja @lissu.bsky.social , Helga Hilmisdottír, Samu Kytölä and Louisa Gühr jututtaa Jenny Sylvin (ei kuvassa).

Hurray! I am very happy to be included in this fine roundup. And I have to say: it was a great discussion and podcast on English in the Nordic countries nordics.info/show-1-1/art...

"The real view from Mars, it turns out, is that linguistic diversity on Earth is far more profound and fundamental than previously imagined." www.theguardian.com/science/2024...

Kielitaidon kehittymiselle korkealle tasolle pitää antaa aikaa ja tukea. Jos syntyperäisen suomalaisen saaminen kielitaitoiseksi ja korkeakoulutetuksi työntekijäksi kestää 25 vuotta, niin kyllä maahanmuuttajankin prosessi saa kestää ja maksaa myös rahaa. Tulee joka tapauksessa reilusti halvemmaksi!

Niin sanotun alkaa tekemään -sarjani kolmas jakso: sen pohdintaa, mitä kielenhuolto on ja mitä se ehkä on hieman vähemmän.

I'm the Researcher of the Month at the Language Bank of Finland: www.helsinki.fi/en/faculty-a...

Exactly. This is the key question I and my collaborators ask when we investigate borrowings from English. Like, why do Finnish speakers use the English word ‘fuck’ when they already have really great Finnish swear words ready and waiting? For example. There are many more.

Will arrive in NYC on January 3 for the LSA annual meeting. My question is: who will join me for birthday drinks?? Because my birthday happens to coincide with the big event 💫

Tomorrow I have the pleasure of introducing first year students to Labov’s classic studies. And I just got to write on the slides that tomorrow also happens to be his 96th birthday. Wow! I hope he’ll have a good one. #linguistics #legend

When I was an undergrad, I once asked my civics professor after class why he was wearing two belts: one black, one brown. He blushed and said the second one was a mistake. Friends, today was the day I wore my blouse inside out for an entire day, without noticing! I have arrived.

CfP: "English as a Lingua Nordica" conference in Turku next year, now open until 31 January 24. nordicedit.fi/eln2024/call... Possible topics include: use of English in the Nordics, inclusivity, language change. Maybe see you there, I happen to know the keynote speaker quite intimately. ;) #langsky

'Finnishness, Whiteness and Coloniality' received top marks! Check out this great book review by @samirasaramo.bsky.social at: bitly.ws/332hx. Read the book, edited by Hoegaerts, @tuirelii.bsky.social, Hekanaho & @lissu.bsky.social, for free here: doi.org/10.33134/HUP... #AcademicSky

Englannin asemasta on onneksi selvitysten lisäksi myös tutkimustietoa. Sitä kokoaa esimerkiksi tämä Liz Petersonin ja kumppanien tuore kirja, joka on myös avoimesti saatavilla.

A self-proclaimed “anti-woke scholar” centers a significant portion of his new book on our volume, Finnishness, Whiteness, and Coloniality (HUP 2022). There will even be an event where far-right figures bash our work and similar. A splendid opportunity to prop our OA book! www.hup.fi/site/books/1...