REMU
Leaders
Receptive multilingualism: Mutual intelligibility of closely related languages
Language comprehension begins with perceiving similarities between the new and a previously learned language. Closely related languages have the most of these similarities and in a form that is the easiest to perceive. There is, however, no clear understanding of how the similarities between closely related languages are utilized in and which factors effect the process of comprehension. The research project examines which elements listeners and readers pay attention to when trying to understand a text in a closely related language that is new to them. The target languages are Finnish and Estonian and the native languages of the participants, respectively, Estonian and Finnish.
When the target languages are closely related, one possible level of language comprehension is receptive multilingualism. In its most interactive form this means a situation where every conversation participant can use their own native tongue and be understood by the others. We investigate the preexisting conditions for mutual understanding between Finnish and Estonian speakers and the advantages and possibilities of receptive multilingualism offered by the close relatedness of the Finnish and Estonian languages. The Finnish-Estonian joint projects aims to study the L1-based comprehension of a closely related language in writing and speech.
We use a battery of tests to establish how subjects understand written and spoken closely related language either without any instructions or with differing instructions. The data consists of the responses to translation tasks, questionnaires, and interviews, as well as recorded conversations. The project is performed at the universities of Joensuu, Tallinn, Helsinki, Åbo, and Jyväskylä, involving four senior researchers, one doctoral und two undergraduate students. The goal of the research is to expand and challenge the currently very Indo-European centered view of receptive multilingualism. The research makes it also possible to compare the L1- and L2-based comprehension of an L3 and to test the theoretical claims of universality made by previous research in other languages. The overall aim is to create a holistic model of the effects of perceived and actual similarity on the mutual intelligibility. The practical goal is to use the results to provide new tools for communication between closely related languages.
In cooperation with
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The aim of the VIRSU project is to compare the particular features involved in the acquisition and teaching of these languages and to analyse the language situation in countries in which Finno-Ugric languages are spoken. Most of the previous research has been concerned with the acquisition of Indo-European languages, and thus research of typologically different languages will either support or challenge earlier findings. The results of this research in Finno-Ugric languages will contribute an important new dimension and will be applicable in practical teaching situations and the design of teaching materials.
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CROSSLING is a new cross-disciplinary research network. It was founded in spring 2011 at the University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu. The network combines different areas of research which deal with language contact: contact linguistics, second language acquisition research, and translation studies. The main goal is to examine the cross-disciplinary applications and applicability of the viewpoints, data, results and methods prevalent in these three disciplines: How can these disciplines benefit from each other’s theoretical and methodological approaches and empirical findings? What kind new research questions arise when the viewpoints of a neighbouring discipline are taken into consideration?
Take a look at our publications
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Alekseeva, Irma 2016. Vienankarjalan ymmärtäminen suomen kielen pohjalta. Pro gradu tutkielma. Suomen kieli, Jyväskylän yliopisto.
Belikova, Darja 2016. Venäjänkieliset opiskelijat suomenkielistä kirjallista tekstiä ymmärtämässä. Bakkalaureustutkielma. Tallinnan yliopisto, Humanististen tieteiden instituutti
Eriksen, Aili 2017. Hiljemin ja huonet: riskisanoja porsanginkveenin ja nykysuomen välillä. Pro gradu -tutkielma. Suomen kieli, Jyväskylän yliopisto.
Heinonen, Maria 2015. ”Koska virossa kaikki on nurinkurin” – Kyselytutkimus eräiden luettujen ja kuultujen vironkielisten sanojen ymmärtämisestä suomen kielen pohjalta. Pro gradu -tutkielma. Itä-Suomen yliopiston Filosofisen tiedekunnan Humanistinen osasto.
Hõbe-Oja, Merike 2016. Virolaiset lukiolaiset suomenkielisiä lauseita ymmärtämässä. Bakkalaureustutkielma. Tallinnan yliopisto, Humanististen tieteiden instituutti
Härmävaara, Hanna-Ilona 2013. Kielten samankaltaisuus monikielisen virolais-suomalaisen vuorovaikutuksen resurssina. Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 23, 60–88
Härmävaara, Hanna-Ilona 2014. Facilitating mutual understanding in everyday interaction between Finns and Estonians. Receptive Multilingualism. Special issue of Applied Linguistics Review 5/1, 211–245
Härmävaara, Hanna-Ilona 2017: Official language policy as a factor for using receptive multilingualism among members of an Estonian and a Finnish student organization. – Maarja Siiner, Kara D. Brown & Kadri Koreinik (Eds.). Language policy beyond the state. Springer.
Härmävaara, Hanna-Ilona & Maria Frick 2016. Handling linguistic asymmetries by bilingual punning in conversations among speakers of cognate languages. – A. Onysko, S. Knospe ja M. Goth (Eds.). Crossing Languages to Play with Words: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Berlin: DeGruyter. 113–134.
Härmävaara, Hanna-Ilona & Charlotte Gooskens 2019. Mutual intelligibility of Finnish and Estonian vocabulary. Lähivertailuja. Lähivõrdlusi 29. 13–56.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin 2008. Lähtekeele mõju ja produtseerimiskontekst: eesti õpilased soome mitmusevorme käänamas. – Grünthal, Riho & Metslang, Helle (toim.), Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 18. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 54–76.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin 2009. Vironkielisen suomenoppijan äidinkieli – ongelma, haaste vai voimavara? Virittäjä 3, 382–401.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin 2010. Oma keel võõras peeglis. Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 19, 160–176.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin 2013. Kielten järjestelmien vertailusta kieltenvälisen vaikutuksen tutkimukseen. – Leena Kolehmainen, Matti Miestamo & Taru Nordlund (toim.), Kielet toistensa peilissä. Kielten vertailu tutkimusmenetelmänä. Helsinki: SKS, 293–323.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin 2015 . Eesti ja soome keele vastastikune mõistmine üksiksõna- ja tekstitasandil: lingvistilised tegurid, mõistmine ja sümmeetria. – Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu aastaraamat 11.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin 2017. Õppija teekond: sarnasuse tunnetamisest sihtkeelepärase kasutuseni. Mäetagused 69, 243−264.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin & Eslon, Pille 2011. Onko lähisukukielen vaikutus suomen ja viron omaksumiseen symmetristä? Korpuspohjaisen tutkimuksen tuloksia ja haasteita. Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 21, 132–153.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin & Muikku-Werner, Pirkko 2010. Reseptiiviinen monikielisyys: miten suomenkielinen oppija ymmärtää viroa äidinkielensä pohjalta? Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 20, 68–97.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin & Martin, Maisa 2014. Measuring Perceptions of Cross-Linguistic Similarity between Closely Related Languages: Finnish and Estonian Noun Morphology as a Testing Ground. − Paulasto, Heli – Meriläinen, Lea – Riionheimo, Helka – Kok, Maria (Eds.) Language Contacts at the Crossroads of Disciplines, 283 – 318. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin & Martin, Maisa 2015. Kuidas mõjutab emakeel keeltevahelise sarnasuse tunnetamist. – Emakeele Seltsi aastaraamat, 60, 74−100.
Kaivapalu, Annekatrin & Martin, Maisa 2017. Perceived similarity between written Estonian and Finnish: Strings of letters or morphological units? Nordic Journal of Linguistics 40 (2), 149–174.
Mark, Marta 2014. Eesti õpilaste soome üksiksõnade mõistmine. Bakalaureusetöö. Tallinna Ülikool, Eesti keele ja kultuuri instituut.
Martin, Maisa 2006. Suomi ja viro oppijan mielessä. Näkökulmia taivutusmuotojen prosessointiin. – Annekatrin Kaivapalu & Külvi Pruuli (toim.), Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 17. Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 53. Jyväskylä; Jyväskylän yliopisto, 43−60.
Martin, Maisa 2011. Finnish and Estonian in Second-Language Acquisition Research. – Ain Haas and Peter B. Brown (Eds.), Proceedings of the XIVth, XVth, and XVIth Conferences of the Finno-Ugric Studies Association of Canada, 137–148. Providence, Rhode Island, USA: Rhode Island College. https://jyx.jyu.fi/dspace/handle/123456789/38014
Martin, M. 2012. Multilingualism in Nordic cooperation – a view from the margin. – Sirpa Leppänen & Tiina Räisänen (toim.), Dangerous Multilingualism. UK: Palgrave, 310–340.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko & Heinonen, Maria 2012. Lumesadu – ‘tarina’ vai ‘lumikasa’ vai ei kumpikaan? Suomalaiset lukiolaiset viron sanoja tunnistamassa. Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 22, 157–187.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko 2013. Vironkielisen tekstin ymmärtäminen suomen kielen pohjalta. − Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 23, 210–237.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko 2014. Koteksti ja viron ymmärtäminen lähisukukielen pohjalta. − Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 24, 100–124.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko 2014. Co-text and receptive multilingualism – Finnish students comprehending Estonian. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics, 99–113.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko 2015. Tekstin semanttiset sidokset ja lähisukukielten ymmärrettävyys . Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 25, 191–216.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko 2016. Monitasoinen samankaltaisuus ja sukukielisen tekstin ymmärtäminen ‒ Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 26, 311−338.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko 2017. Lexical inferencing and the mutual intelligibility of Estonian and Finnish. Nordic Journal of Linguistics 40 (2), 201–223.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko & Riionheimo, Helka 2018. Livvinkarjalaisen tekstin ymmärtäminen suomen pohjalta. Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 28, 285‒315.
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko & Riionheimo, Helka 2019. Livvinkarjalan ymmärtämisen strategioita Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 29, 141‒170
Muikku-Werner, Pirkko & Jantunen, Jarmo (tulossa) 2020. Understanding Estonian phraseological units on the basis of Finnish: contributing and misleading factors. − Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 30.
Paajanen, Ilona 2012. KITSAS TEE –’LAIHA TEE’ VAI ’KAPEA TIE’? Suomen kielen opiskelijat ja viron ymmärtäminen testissä. Suomen kielen pro gradu -tutkielma. Itä-Suomen yliopisto.
Paajanen, Ilona & Muikku-Werner, Pirkko 2012. Tee on kitsas – onko ‘tee kitkerää’ vai oletteko ‘te saita’? Suomalaiset opiskelijat viroa ymmärtämässä. Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 22, 219–258.
Palokangas, Aleksi 2018. Viron yleisten sananmuotojen ymmärtäminen. Maisterintutkielma. Kieli- ja viestintätieteiden laitos, Jyväskylän yliopisto.
Pällin, Kristi & Kaivapalu, Annekatrin 2012. Suomen mennä ja lähteä vertailussa: lähtökohtana vironkielinen suomenoppija. Lähivõrdlusi. Lähivertailuja 22, 287–323.
Riionheimo, Helka, Kaivapalu, Annekatrin & Härmävaara, Hanna-Ilona 2017: Introduction: Receptive Multilingualism. Nordic Journal of Linguistics. 40 (2), 117-121.
Ringbom, Håkan 1987. The Role of the First Language in Foreign Language Learning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters 1987.
Ringbom, Håkan 2007. Cross-linguistic Similarity in Foreign Language Learning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Ringbom, Håkan & Jarvis, Scott 2009. The importance of cross-linguistic similarity in foreign language learning. – Michael H. Long & Catherine J. Doughty (eds.), The Handbook of Language Teaching. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 106–118.
Virtanen, Katja 2015. Maasika –’mansikka’, ’maasika’ vai ’maahanmuuttaja’? Koherentin vironkielisen tekstin ymmärtäminen suomen kielen pohjalta. Maisterintutkielma. Kielten laitos, Jyväskylän yliopisto.
Events
Events organized during the project are summarized below.
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VIRSU 20 years: jubilee conference: LANGUAGE IN LINGUISTICS, LINGUISTICS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
University of Tallinn, Estonia, October 5–6, 2017
Responsible contact person: Pirkko Muikku-Werner
University of Eastern Finland, pirkko.muikku-werner@uef.fi
When languages are closely related, one possible level of language comprehension is receptive multilingualism (RM). In its most interactive form, this means a situation where every conversation participant can use their own native tongue and be understood by the others. Recent research in closely related Finnish and Estonian has emphasised the effects of the similarity of vocabulary on intelligibility. Similarities have also been studied on the level of morphemes. In addition, mutual intelligibility has been discussed from the perspective of multilingual interaction. Some attention has been paid to collocations and other combinations, too.
Based on research of closely related Finno-Ugric languages, the REMU project seeks to provide new material for theory building in the area of mutual comprehensibility. The REMU Workshop in Tallinn consists of five papers with themes of mutual intelligibility between Estonian and Finnish and Olonets Karelian and Finnish, as well as the applicability of REMU research results. At the end of the workshop, one hour is reserved for general discussion about the REMU network’s future plans and goals.
Presenting authors:
MUTUAL INTELLIGIBILITY BETWEEN FINNISH AND ESTONIAN
Charlotte Gooskens, Hanna-Ilona Härmävaara and Jelena Golubovic
University of Groningen and University of Helsinki
EXPLORING UNCONSCIOUS PERCEPTIONS OF MORPHOLOGICAL SIMILARITY BETWEEN ESTONIAN AND FINNISH
Annekatrin Kaivapalu and Scott Jarvis
University of Tallinn and Ohio University
HOW RUSSIAN-SPEAKING ESTONIANS UNDERSTAND FINNISH WORDS AND SENTENCES WITHOUT PREVIOUS LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION?
Olga Kulak
University of Tartu
REMU RESULTS IN SERVICE OF BETTER COMMUNICATION
Maisa Martin
University of Jyväskylä
UNDERSTANDING OLONETS KARELIAN TEXT ON THE BASIS OF FINNISH
Pirkko Muikku-Werner and Helka Riionheimo
University of Eastern Finland
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The REMU 2015 conference was held at the University of Eastern Finland from 28 to 29 May, 2015.
Plenary speakers
The topics of the invited speakers were:
- Raphael Berthele: Who understands what, in what language, in what context? Empirical investigations into the linguistic, social, and individual determinants of receptive multilingualism
(University of Fribourg, Institute of Multilingualism, Switzerland) - Charlotte Gooskens: Mutual intelligibility of closely related languages in Europe (University of Groningen, Department of Applied Linguistics, the Netherlands)
- Anta Kursiša: Reading comprehension in a related foreign language. How to help learners start (University of Helsinki, Department of Modern Languages, Germanic Philology)
Conference publication
- Raphael Berthele: Who understands what, in what language, in what context? Empirical investigations into the linguistic, social, and individual determinants of receptive multilingualism
