First generation Finnish speakers in Australia

Abstrakti

This article is based on a larger study on fi rst generation Australian Finns, their language and culture contacts and attitudes (Lammervo, 2007). The project investigated language use, skills and attitudes, culture maintenance and identity of fi rst generation Australian Finns in South-East Queensland. Data was collected from 31 informants who had migrated to Australia over twenty years before the time of the interviews. Although most of the informants in this sample came to Australia on an assisted passage or were recruited from Finland during the most active years of Finnish migration to Australia (peaks around 1958 and 1968), the sample also includes informants with different paths and arrival times. This distribution makes the sample well balanced with reference to the time of arrival of Finnish population in Australia. The focus in this article is on Finnish language maintenance among this group which is rapidly decreasing through natural attrition.