Kalle Päätalon Iijoki-sarja kielielämäkertana

The Iijoki series is an autobiography consisting of 26 novels in which the author Kalle Päätalo depicts his life from the childhood until becoming a writer. Päätalo has documented his own regional dialect, the language he had grown up with, described other dialects, dialectal perceptions, attitudes and language ideologies. The Iijoki series can be recognised as the language biography of the protagonist. The turning points are linked by a specific thematic plot that carries the narrative through difficulties, contradictions, insights and adaptations towards the culmination of the novel series, where the protagonist has sufficient linguistic resources as a writer. In the study of the language biography the different trends in sociolinguistics cross over: studies in language variation, folk linguistics, and multilingualism studies. The focus of research is metalanguage. Two levels of metalanguage can be brought forth in the text: metalanguage 1, which depicts language and its phenomena, such as language patterns, features and speech, and metalanguage 2, which includes language-related values and language attitudes. The research has utilized the concepts and perspectives of literary research. The interdisciplinary approach is mainly visible at the level of interpretation. The research consists of four articles. In the first article, I demonstrate that the variation of speech places great importance in describing the most essential relationship in the novel series. In the second article, I specify protagonist's perceptions and attitudes of dialects and look at their functions as a medium of various human emotions. In the third article, I present the turning points of the protagonist’s language biography and point out how different language ideologies create tension around the most significant theme of the novel series. The fourth article looks at the linguistic stancetaking of the protagonist of the Iijoki series in relation to the changes in social status.