Från målspråk till källspråk - Vaasan yliopisto

320 ACTA WASAENSIA
Excerpting and collecting lexicographical material from various dialects, for instance, was one
of the most important lexicographical working methods during the 18 th and 19 th century, not
least in Lönnrot’s lexicographical endeavours. In doing so, lexicographers found themselves
at the forefront in pioneering changes in lexicology, lexicography, linguistics, terminology
and usage. When bilingual dictionaries began to be based on the normative monolingual
dictionaries, the working methods of lexicographers changed and involved observation,
excerption and editing with no creative lexicographical work in its own right. This means,
therefore, that my premise about the relationship of lexicographers to their working methods
was wrong. On the other hand, computers and other lexicographical tools are making the
work of lexicographers faster and simpler.
Bilingual Finnish-Swedish lexicography was mainly the pursuit of men up until the 1960s,
and this has affected the choice of lexicographical material where the selection of headwords
and the examples taken from specialist areas have not reflected women’s concerns to any
great extent.
The lexicographer who developed, laid the foundations for and influenced bilingual Finnish-
Swedish and Swedish-Finnish lexicography during the 20 th century was Knut Cannelin. The
dictionaries published in the latter half of the 20 th century have all, in one way or another,
been based on Cannelin’s earlier works. Cannelin’s dictionary material was extended,
developed and given greater lexicographical density in the revision of every new editions from
1889 until 1976.
After the death of Knut Cannelin in 1938, his work was taken over by his son, Aulis
Cannelin, who continued to publish his father’s dictionaries, in editions that had been revised
to some extent. After Aulis Cannelin’s death in 1960, the work was undertaken by Lauri
Hirvensalo (1882-1965) and since 1965 by Nils Hedlund. The last major revision of Suomiruotsi
suursanakirja / Finsk-svensk storordbok took place in connection with the publication
of the 3 rd edition in 1976.
From the beginning of the 20 th century until the mid-1960s, Cannelin’s dictionaries
predominated among the Finnish-Swedish and Swedish-Finnish dictionaries published in
Finland and Sweden. Between 1960-1997 there was a major rise in the number of
dictionaries published for use in schools. Competition to Cannelin came from Lea Lampén,
whose dictionaries were published in many new versions, ranging from pocket editions to
large reference works.