Correspondence in times of crisis. Proverbs in the letters “from here in somewhere” [täältä jostakin]

Abstract

<p>There have been and will be crises. Amid crises, communication with loved ones is felt to be meaningful. When everything is destroyed, what does a human carry with one is forced to flee or leave one’s country? If nothing else, your own language, with its familiar expressions, creates a sense of permanence.</p><p>During the Second World War (in Finland 1939‒1944) sent the Finnish solders in battlefront about 1,3 billion letters and postcards to their nearest ones in the home front. The delivery of the so-called field mail was arranged from and to the front. These letters were mainly written in language more like vernacular speech than with grammatical spelling in mind.</p><p>Proverbs, references to them, and as well as proverbial expressions are (were) part of everyday speech. No wonder they also settled on written speech in letters. I am interested in the proverbs used in letters. Based on my previous reviews, I know they were used in their letters. The material consists of letters that one soldier sent from the front to his mother over a period of five years, totalling more than one hundred letters.<br></p>