This article examines religious and patriotic languages in digitized letters written by ordinary Finnish people in the Second World War. We combine qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse how religious and patriotic languages were used throughout the war years. Our findings show that the frequency of religious and patriotic vocabulary fluctuated widely during the war. Religious words were most notably connected to the intensity of the warfare, peaking during the periods of heated combat and dropping in the period of stationary warfare. Patriotic words were likewise common during the early periods of combat, but their use waned in the later war years. The analysis of words occurring in close proximity to the religious and patriotic words suggests that this was due to the different functions of the two languages. Religious parlance was essentially a vehicle of private emotional coping, while patriotic style gave a collective meaning to the sacrifices of the war. Religion and patriotism diverged during the war because the collective meaning of the war vanished but the need for emotional comfort persisted until its end.

本文研究了二战期间普通芬兰人书写的数字化信件中的宗教和爱国语言。我们结合定性和定量方法来分析整个战争年代如何使用宗教和爱国语言。我们的研究结果表明，宗教和爱国词汇的频率在战争期间波动很大。宗教词汇与战争的激烈程度最为相关，在激烈的战斗时期达到顶峰，在静止战争时期下降。爱国词在战斗的早期同样很常见，但在战争后期它们的使用逐渐减少。对出现在宗教和爱国词附近的词的分析表明，这是由于两种语言的不同功能所致。宗教用语本质上是一种私人情感应对的工具，而爱国主义风格则赋予了战争牺牲的集体意义。宗教和爱国主义在战争期间出现分歧，因为战争的集体意义消失了，但对情感安慰的需求一直持续到战争结束。