User:Peter Isotalo

My name is Peter Isotalo. I was born in Moscow in 1980 and currently live in Bandhagen, a suburb of Stockholm. I have a bachelor's degree with a major in history. I've also studied Chinese, linguistics and ethnology, all at Stockholm University (SU). I have the equivalent of a Swedish master's degree in archival science from SU.

I mostly work on history-related articles, but have ventured into other areas within the humanities, with occasional forays into other topics.

I have been active on Wikipedia since January 2005.

Major contributions



 * Swedish language
 * Standard Swedish
 * Swedish phonology
 * Swedish Language Council
 * Reuben Sturman
 * Scandinavism (built up from a mere redirect to Scandinavia)
 * medieval cuisine
 * regional cuisines of medieval Europe
 * entremet
 * subtlety
 * potage
 * sop
 * whitedish (later merged with blancmange)
 * Aztec cuisine
 * early modern European cuisine
 * Ancient Egyptian cuisine
 * Andean cuisine
 * Valrhona
 * horse artillery
 * Vasa (ship)
 * smoking
 * Diderot Effect
 * Anna Maria Rückerschöld
 * Bartmann jug
 * Dalarö wreck
 * Dirty Diaries
 * Mary Rose
 * Anthony Roll
 * Mary Rose Trust
 * Kronan (ship)
 * battle of Öland
 * udema
 * hemmema
 * pojama
 * turuma
 * archipelago fleet
 * Fredrik Henrik af Chapman
 * galley (never-ending tinkering...)
 * oared vessel tactics
 * turtle ship
 * actuaria
 * vase (heraldry)

Minor contributions

 * meaningful amounts of new info added


 * avocado
 * actuaria
 * breast
 * Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies
 * cookbook
 * Dansk Sprognævn
 * Danish language
 * Finland-Swedish
 * Great Zimbabwe
 * fast food
 * gunboat
 * history of beer
 * Let the Right One In (film)
 * Norn language
 * piracy (the Med corsairs)
 * self-propelled artillery
 * Scanian (linguistics)
 * Skåneland
 * spices
 * Standard Mandarin
 * trireme
 * Vasa Museum
 * voiceless palatal-velar fricative
 * Älvsnabben

Copyediting, reviewing and advising

 * Battle of Oliwa
 * Battle of Shiloh
 * Bengali language
 * Chinese language
 * Dano-Swedish War (1658–1660)
 * Domenico Selvo
 * Estonian language
 * Dutch language
 * Elfdalian
 * French cuisine
 * cyberpunk
 * Habsburg Spain
 * harpsichord
 * history of Africa
 * Icelandic language
 * Italian cuisine
 * John Ajvide Lindqvist
 * Joseph Goebbels
 * Korean temple cuisine
 * Korean cuisine
 * language (a truly remarkable effort by Maunus)
 * Nafaanra
 * Nahuatl
 * Norwegian language
 * Portuguese language
 * Richard O'Connor
 * Romanian language
 * Sauvignon blanc
 * Slovene language
 * Turkish language

Articles started

 * Allmänna idrottsklubben
 * Ancient Egyptian cuisine
 * Anna Maria Rückerschöld
 * Aztec cuisine
 * Bananas!*
 * Bartmann jug
 * beakhead
 * Beate Uhse AG
 * Bermeja
 * Berth Milton, Jr.
 * Berth Milton, Sr.
 * Bruce Haack
 * Caryocar amygdaliferum
 * Dalarö wreck
 * Dagens Industri
 * Diderot Effect
 * Dirty Diaries
 * early modern European cuisine
 * entremet
 * Handling the Undead
 * Hans Basbøll
 * Hans Villius
 * hemmema
 * hen (pronoun)
 * Ida Gerhardt
 * Andean cuisine
 * Lennart Hyland
 * Lorentz Creutz the elder
 * Mary Rose Museum
 * Mary Rose Trust
 * medieval cuisine
 * New Swedish
 * Nouvelle Vague (band)
 * Ordbog over det danske Sprog
 * Obol Investment
 * Peter Ladefoged
 * Pimps Up, Ho's Down
 * quarter gallery
 * regional cuisines of medieval Europe
 * Sci-Fi Skane
 * Shona people
 * Siljan Ring
 * Snook (band)
 * Stockholm Public Library
 * Stålhammar
 * subtlety
 * Taba language
 * Tomas Gunnarsson (Genusfotografen)
 * Tukang Besi language
 * turuma
 * udema
 * UCLA Phonological Segment Inventory Database
 * Valrhona
 * vase (heraldry)
 * Västgötalagen
 * Waste Land (film) (first meaningful contributions)
 * Wilhelm Burgdorf
 * Älvsnabben
 * Äpplet

Did you know...

 * ... that Valrhona, a company based in the small town of Tain l'Hermitage in the Rhône Valley in France, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-quality chocolate? (27 September 2005)
 * ... that the most common food in medieval cuisine for all social classes was bread and that almond milk and verjuice were among the most common ingredients? (September 18 2006)
 * ... that a subtlety was an elaborate medieval dish that was supposed to entertain and surprise diners with extravagant decorations or by imitating other types of food? (October 2 2006)
 * ... that many regional cuisines of medieval Europe were heavily influenced by Arab cuisine through contact with Muslim Iberia and Sicily? (March 7 2007)
 * ... that maize was the staple of Aztec cuisine, and that maguey worms, spirulina and corn smut were popular Aztec foods? (April 30 2007)
 * ... that chocolate was the first non-alcoholic social beverage in early modern European cuisine? (May 2 2007)
 * ... that bread and beer were the two basic staples of Ancient Egyptian cuisine? (May 21 2007)
 * ... that pachamanca is a Peruvian dish which has its origins in Inca cuisine? (June 8 2007)
 * ... that smoking has a history that dates back at least 5,000 years and is one of the most widely practiced recreational activities in the world? (July 20 2007)
 * ... that Anna Maria Rückerschöld was an early Swedish cookbook author who also argued that middle class women should be entitled to an education in household matters? (April 12 2009)
 * ... that the cargo of the Dalarö wreck, sunk in the Baltic Sea, included coal and several Bartmann jugs? (September 3 2009)
 * ... that Dirty Diaries is a collection of Swedish pornographic feminist short films that sparked controversy because it was financed with tax money? (September 27 2009)
 * ... that 58 ships (one pictured) of the 16th-century navy of Henry VIII of England were illustrated in the Anthony Roll? (January 4 2010)
 * ... that the Mary Rose was a Tudor period warship that sank during the Battle of the Solent in 1545 and was salvaged (pictured) by maritime archaeologists 377 years later? (January 4 2010)
 * ... that the Mary Rose Trust, the charitable trust that salvaged the Mary Rose in 1982, played an important part in preserving historical shipwrecks in the UK from exploitation? (January 13 2010)
 * ... that the warship Kronan was one of the largest ships in the world when she foundered and exploded with the loss of 800 men at the battle of Öland (pictured) in 1676? (June 1 2010)
 * ... that the hemmema (pictured), turuma, pojama and udema, four types of warships designed by naval architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman for the Swedish archipelago fleet in the 18th century, were named after provinces in Finland? (November 8 2010)
 * ... that the Siljan Ring, a very large impact crater in central Sweden, has been the site for two attempts at commercial exploitation of natural gas and oil based on the theory of abiogenic petroleum? (July 17 2012)
 * ... that if somebody wants to employ a gender-neutral pronoun in Swedish, he/she can use hen? (July 30 2014)
 * ... that while language extinction has occurred many times throughout history, it has accelerated in the 20th and 21st centuries?29 September 2014 (piggybacking on Maunus' work)

Appreciation
  ships, language and cuisine in history

Thank you, Peter, for using your advanced language skills for quality articles on history, such as Kronan, Swedish language and Medieval cuisine, for fighting vandalism and raising understanding for the, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:57, 23 June 2014 (UTC)



Happy Saint Lucia's day!

"Good Morning" Peter Isotalo: Thanks for all of your contributions to improve Wikipedia! 13 December is the day when Swedes perplex the rest of the world by showing up way too early in the morning dressed in white tunics, candles in their hair, singing and bringing saffron buns and breakfast in bed to nice people. Hope you have a bright day! – w.carter -Talk  00:53, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

Useful links

 * Danish dialect samples at Statsbiblioteket
 * Norwegian dialect samples - of limited value due to not being normal conversation
 * University of Victoria IPA lab - plenty of sound samples
 * Linguistic Discovery