Dr Ossi Kokko

Special areas:

• linguistics
• dialects, especially the eastern dialects of Finland
• 19th century literary Finnish, especially the language of Aleksis Kivi

Ossi Kokko is a researcher in the Finnish Literature Society’s Edith – Critical Editions of Finnish Literature, where printed and digital scholarly editions of classic works of Finnish literature are edited.

The Edith unit is currently compiling an edition on Aleksis Kivi’s comedy Nummisuutarit from 1864. Kokko’s main areas of responsibility for the edition include issues relating to linguistics, such as the explanations of opaque words and questions relating to establishment. He is also participating in the preparatory stage of the Kullervo edition. Kokko is also a member of the editorial staff for the online publication of a Glossary of Textual Criticism.

Kokko is currently mainly researching the language of Aleksis Kivi and is especially interested in the diverse origins of Kivi’s language (i.e. dialects, literary language, Swedish, Russian). In addition, he is in the initial stages of a research project on modern dialects in south-east Finland.

Kokko’s academic background is in dialectology, and he has specialised in particular on eastern Finnish dialects and above all the dialects of Ingrian Finnish. In his doctoral dissertation (2007), he studied Ingrian Finnish of the 1990s and the Ingrian Finnish community through the disappearance of the language. He has also worked as a teacher of Finnish language in Finnish Language Department at the University of Joensuu. He has published a collection of texts on Ingrian Finnish as a joint publication and several smaller articles on particular questions concerning Ingrian Finnish. He is also one of the editors of the dictionary of Finnish phrases Suurella sydämellä ihan sikana (2008).

Key publications:

• Jyrki Nummi, Sakari Katajamäki, Ossi Kokko, Petri Lauerma: Nummisuutarit. Komedia viidessä näytöksessä. Kriittinen editio. [On-line.] Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 2011. Saatavissa: http://elias.finlit.fi/nummisuutarit/. URN: NBN:fi:sks-201105261000
• Jyrki Nummi, Sakari Katajamäki, Ossi Kokko, Petri Lauerma: Nummisuutarit. Komedia viidessä näytöksessä. Kriittinen editio. SKS, 2010.
• Kirjallisuudentutkimuksen aikakauslehti Avain 3/2010. Tekstuaalitieteet (erikoisnumero). Toim. Sakari Katajamäki ja Ossi Kokko (arvostelupalstan osalta Mika Hallila ja Samuli Hägg).
• Inkerinsuomen pirstaleisuus. Eräiden sijojen kehitys murteen yksilöllistymisen kuvastajana. Joensuun yliopiston humanistisia julkaisuja 48. Joensuu: Joensuun yliopisto 2007.
• Muikku-Werner, Jantunen & Kokko: Suurella sydämellä ihan sikana. Suomen kielen kuvaileva fraasisanakirja. Helsinki: Gummerus 2008.
• Kokko, I. Savijärvi & M. Savijärvi: Ennev vanhasii – Pohjois- ja Keski-Inkerin kieltä ja kohtaloita. Studia Carelica Humanistica 18. Joensuu: Joensuun yliopisto 2003.
• "Loss and Maintenance of Linguistic Features in Language Attrition." – Language Contact, Variation, and Change. Studies in Languages 32: Joensuu 1998, s. 151–172.
• "Nekotorye vyraženija daty v soveremennom ingermanlandskom finskom jazyke". – Jazyk i Narod - Sotsiolingvistitšeskaja Situatsija na Severo-Zapade Rossii. Sankt-Peterburg 2003, s. 47–55.

Academic activities and publications (in Finnish)