Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (born on July 6, 1940 in

Helsinki, Finland Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city' ...

) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. She is known for coining the term

linguicism Linguistic discrimination (also called glottophobia, linguicism and languagism) is unfair treatment of people which is based on their use of language and the characteristics of their speech, including their first language, their accent, the p ...

to refer to discrimination based on language.

Life

After receiving school education in Helsinki she worked for a short time at the teacher training college. In 1967 and 1968 she was in the United States, where she worked at the Department of Nordic Languages at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. After that she worked briefly as a teacher in Helsinki. Since 1970 she has worked as a scientist at universities in Finland and

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. In 1976 she obtained her first doctorate in Helsinki; The subject of her doctorate is

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

. From 1995 to 2000 she taught at

Roskilde University Roskilde University ( da, Roskilde Universitet, abbreviated RUC or RU) is a Danish public university founded in 1972 and located in Trekroner in the Eastern part of Roskilde. The university awards bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and PhD deg ...

, where she was a guest researcher from 1979 to 2007. Since then she has been

emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. The topic of her work is primarily the study of the conditions of bilingualism. At the beginning of the 1980s she developed the concept of

, with which she summarizes the discrimination of

minority languages A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...

. She criticizes the neglect of children who speak mother tongues that are foreign to the country where they live (for example

Turkish children Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) as well as the devaluation of bilingualism. Kangas defined linguicism as the "ideologies and structures which are used to legitimate, effectuate, and reproduce unequal division of power and resources (both material and non-material) between groups which are defined on the basis of language". In 2000 a book was published with the title "Rights to language: equity, power and education; celebrating the 60th birthday of Tove Skutnabb-Kangas" by Robert Phillipson. In 2003, she and Aina Moll won the

Linguapax Prize The International Linguapax Award is awarded annually on International Mother Language Day International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversit ...

, awarded by Linguapax International.

Works

* * * * (478 pages, Paperback). * * *

Bibliography

* *

References

External links

*
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove 1940 births Finnish educators Living people Pages with unreviewed translations Linguists from Finland Women linguists Finnish expatriates in Denmark Finnish expatriates in the United States