This is an accepted version of this page
95-602: Kokkola ( Finnish: [ˈkokːolɑ] ; Swedish : Karleby , Finland Swedish: [ˈkɑrleˌbyː] ) is a town in Finland and the regional capital of Central Ostrobothnia . It is located on the west coast of the country, on the Gulf of Bothnia . The population of Kokkola is approximately 48,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 54,000. It is the 22nd most populous municipality in Finland, and
190-445: A common gender with the definite suffix -en and the definite article den , in contrast with the neuter gender equivalents -et and det . The verb system was also more complex: it included subjunctive and imperative moods and verbs were conjugated according to person as well as number . By the 16th century, the case and gender systems of the colloquial spoken language and the profane literature had been largely reduced to
285-535: A dual vocational education and training. The Chydenius-Institution of Kokkola , a university consortium , carries out teaching and research under the auspices of the universities of Jyväskylä, Oulu and Vaasa. It is specialized in adult education. For Finnish and foreign students it arranges open university studies, further education for professionals in the fields of education , social services and health services and management . Centria University of Applied Sciences [Finnish name: Centria ammattikorkeakoulu ]
380-477: A guttural or "French R" pronunciation in the South Swedish dialects ; consequently, these dialects lack retroflex consonants . Swedish is a stress-timed language, where the time intervals between stressed syllables are equal. However, when casually spoken, it tends to be syllable-timed . Any stressed syllable carries one of two tones , which gives Swedish much of its characteristic sound. Prosody
475-410: A lighthouse island, is in the outer archipelago , about 18 km (11 mi) northwest from Kokkola. The island houses a lighthouse which is still in use today, a museum of seal-hunting, a bird-watching tower, a lot of nature trails and even accommodations for tourists. It is easy to reach the island by ferry m/s Jenny from Kokkola. The stone Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Kaarlela has been
570-512: A mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish. As English and Swedish - or Finnish for Swedish speakers - are compulsory school subjects, functional bilingualism or trilingualism acquired through language studies is not uncommon. Kokkola marks the northernmost settlement area of the Swedish-speakers (Fenno-Swedish) on the western coast of Finland. The Swedish-speaking inhabitants of Kokkola are spread unevenly around Kokkola: Whereas
665-537: A change from tauþr into tuþr . Moreover, the øy diphthong changed into a long, close ø , as in the Old Norse word for "island". By the end of the period, these innovations had affected most of the Runic Swedish-speaking area as well, with the exception of the dialects spoken north and east of Mälardalen where the diphthongs still exist in remote areas. Old Swedish (Swedish: fornsvenska )
760-528: A conversation. Due to the close relation between the Scandinavian languages, a considerable proportion of speakers of Danish and especially Norwegian are able to understand Swedish. There is considerable migration between the Nordic countries , but owing to the similarity between the cultures and languages (with the exception of Finnish ), expatriates generally assimilate quickly and do not stand out as
855-747: A group. According to the 2000 United States Census , some 67,000 people over the age of five were reported as Swedish speakers, though without any information on the degree of language proficiency. Similarly, there were 16,915 reported Swedish speakers in Canada from the 2001 census. Although there are no certain numbers, some 40,000 Swedes are estimated to live in the London area in the United Kingdom. Outside Sweden and Finland, there are about 40,000 active learners enrolled in Swedish language courses. In
950-460: A landmark since 1550 and is a popular venue for weddings and concerts. Next to the church, there is a local history museum at Kirkonmäki with an Ostrobothnian farmhouse, as well as an old smithy, a tannery, a wool-carding workshop, a threshing barn, a smoke sauna, a granary barn and a loft. K.H.Renlund Museum is devoted to Karl Herman Renlund , who donated his large art collection to the town of Kokkola. The museum houses some temporary exhibitions and
1045-574: A large proportion of the remaining 100,000 in the Scandinavian countries, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia. Over three million people speak Swedish as a second language, with about 2,410,000 of those in Finland. According to a survey by the European Commission , 44% of respondents from Finland who did not have Swedish as a native language considered themselves to be proficient enough in Swedish to hold
SECTION 10
#17327806603521140-477: A migrant background living in Kokkola, or 5.1% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 2,724, or 5.6% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Kokkola was 1,716. Most foreign-born citizens came from Sweden , the former Soviet Union , Thailand and China . The relative share of immigrants in Kokkola's population is below the national average. However,
1235-425: A more abstract sense, such as that set of fish; while fisken means "the fish". In certain cases, the definite form indicates possession, e. g., jag måste tvätta hår et ("I must wash my hair"). Adjectives are inflected in two declensions – indefinite and definite – and they must match the noun they modify in gender and number. The indefinite neuter and plural forms of an adjective are usually created by adding
1330-435: A noun. They can double as demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative determiners when used with adverbs such as här ("here") or där ("there") to form den/det här (can also be "denna/detta") ("this"), de här (can also be "dessa") ("these"), den/det där ("that"), and de där ("those"). For example, den där fisken means "that fish" and refers to a specific fish; den fisken is less definite and means "that fish" in
1425-689: A special branch of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland has official status as the regulatory body for Swedish in Finland. Among its highest priorities is to maintain intelligibility with the language spoken in Sweden. It has published Finlandssvensk ordbok , a dictionary about the differences between Swedish in Finland and Sweden. From the 13th to 20th century, there were Swedish-speaking communities in Estonia , particularly on
1520-442: A suffix ( -t or -a ) to the common form of the adjective, e. g., en grön stol (a green chair), ett grönt hus (a green house), and gröna stolar ("green chairs"). The definite form of an adjective is identical to the indefinite plural form, e. g., den gröna stolen ("the green chair"), det gröna huset ("the green house"), and de gröna stolarna ("the green chairs"). Swedish pronouns are similar to those of English. Besides
1615-624: A vessel from Nargen to Farosund. She was severely damaged and was sent back to England for repairs. In February 1859, she ran aground on the Barbary Coast . Vulture was refloated and escorted by HMS Perseverance to Malta , where she arrived on 21 February in a leaky condition. She was recommissioned again in December 1859 for service in the Mediterranean. The ship was paid off on 5 April 1860, and laid up at Portsmouth. She
1710-413: A village, Gammalsvenskby ("Old Swedish Village"). A few elderly people in the village still speak a Swedish dialect and observe the holidays of the Swedish calendar, although their dialect is most likely facing extinction. From 1918 to 1940, when Estonia was independent, the small Swedish community was well treated. Municipalities with a Swedish majority, mainly found along the coast, used Swedish as
1805-427: Is 483 kilometres (300 miles) to the south. Neighbouring cities and municipals are Kalajoki in the northern east, Kannus and Toholampi in the east, Halsua and Kaustinen in the southern east, Kronoby in the south and Larsmo in the southern west. The landscape of the region around Kokkola is flat, typical for the area of Ostrobothnia , with numerous river courses flowing through the land. The biggest river in
1900-419: Is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of 83% Finnish speakers, 12% Swedish speakers, and 5% speakers of other languages. In the oldest Swedish sources Kokkola is mentioned as Karlabi . The town was known in Swedish by the name Gamlakarleby until 1 January 1977 when the surrounding land municipality of Kaarlela ( Swedish : Karleby )
1995-495: Is also an american football team Karleby Goats , which plays in the third highest Finnish american football league ( Amerikkalaisen jalkapallon II-divisioona ). Kokkola has a lot of preschools , some of them offer children a bilingual education from an early age (mostly Finnish-English or Finnish-Swedish). There are 25 Finnish-speaking and 8 Swedish-speaking schools. Moreover, there are three secondary schools for Finnish-speaking pupils and one for Swedish-speaking. Some schools offer
SECTION 20
#17327806603522090-757: Is also situated in Kokkola having its other partition in Ylivieska and Jakobstad is an international institute offering three different bachelor's degree program in English language along with Finnish. Kokkola is twinned with 15 cities: Swedish language Swedish ( endonym : svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family , spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland . It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it
2185-463: Is based on the city seal issued in 1620 in connection with the founding of the city. The pattern is a symbol of tar burning and tar trade, which have played a significant part in the history of the city since its founding until the 19th century. The coat of arms was designed by Olof Eriksson and Into I. Suominen, and it was confirmed for use on December 17, 1956. The town of Kokkola was chartered in 1620 by King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden when Finland
2280-722: Is co- official language . Swedish was long spoken in parts of Estonia , although the current status of the Estonian Swedish speakers is almost extinct. It is also used in the Swedish diaspora , most notably in Oslo , Norway, with more than 50,000 Swedish residents. Swedish is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages . In the established classification, it belongs to
2375-481: Is generally seen as adding specific Central Swedish features to the new Bible. Though it might seem as if the Bible translation set a very powerful precedent for orthographic standards, spelling actually became more inconsistent during the remainder of the century. It was not until the 17th century that spelling began to be discussed, around the time when the first grammars were written. Capitalization during this time
2470-400: Is located in the center of Kokkola; about 2 million people visit at the shopping center every year. Kokkola is located on the coast of Gulf of Bothnia , and the coastal European route E8 (Finnish highway 8) goes through, connecting Oulu and Turku via Vaasa . Finnish highway 28 begins from Kokkola and runs to Kajaani . Finnish highway 13 begins from Kokkola and runs through Finland into
2565-538: Is marked primarily through suffixes (endings), complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles . The prosody features both stress and in most dialects tonal qualities. The language has a comparatively large vowel inventory. Swedish is also notable for the voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative , a highly variable consonant phoneme . Swedish nouns and adjectives are declined in genders as well as number . Nouns are of common gender ( en form) or neuter gender ( ett form). The gender determines
2660-513: Is often one of the most noticeable differences between dialects. The standard word order is, as in most Germanic languages , V2 , which means that the finite verb (V) appears in the second position (2) of a declarative main clause . Swedish morphology is similar to English; that is, words have comparatively few inflections . Swedish has two genders and is generally seen to have two grammatical cases – nominative and genitive (except for pronouns that, as in English, also are inflected in
2755-638: Is one of the official languages of the European Union , and one of the working languages of the Nordic Council . Under the Nordic Language Convention , citizens of the Nordic countries speaking Swedish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable for interpretation or translation costs. The Swedish Language Council ( Språkrådet )
2850-475: Is termed nusvenska (lit., "Now-Swedish") in linguistics, and started in the last decades of the 19th century. It saw a democratization of the language with a less formal written form that approached the spoken one. The growth of a public school system also led to the evolution of so-called boksvenska (literally, "book Swedish"), especially among the working classes, where spelling to some extent influenced pronunciation, particularly in official contexts. With
2945-527: Is the predominant language; in 19 municipalities , 16 of which are located in Åland , Swedish is the sole official language. Åland county is an autonomous region of Finland. According to a rough estimation, as of 2010 there were up to 300,000 Swedish-speakers living outside Sweden and Finland. The largest populations were in the United States (up to 100,000), the UK, Spain and Germany (c. 30,000 each) and
Kokkola - Misplaced Pages Continue
3040-455: Is the regulator of Swedish in Sweden but does not attempt to enforce control of the language, as for instance the Académie française does for French . However, many organizations and agencies require the use of the council's publication Svenska skrivregler in official contexts, with it otherwise being regarded as a de facto orthographic standard. Among the many organizations that make up
3135-407: Is the sole official language of Åland (an autonomous province under the sovereignty of Finland), where the vast majority of the 26,000 inhabitants speak Swedish as a first language. In Finland as a whole, Swedish is one of the two "national" languages, with the same official status as Finnish (spoken by the majority) at the state level and an official language in some municipalities . Swedish
3230-631: Is the term used for the medieval Swedish language. The start date is usually set to 1225 since this is the year that Västgötalagen ("the Västgöta Law") is believed to have been compiled for the first time. It is among the most important documents of the period written in Latin script and the oldest Swedish law codes . Old Swedish is divided into äldre fornsvenska (1225–1375) and yngre fornsvenska (1375–1526), "older" and "younger" Old Swedish. Important outside influences during this time came with
3325-465: The Gustav Vasa Bible , a translation deemed so successful and influential that, with revisions incorporated in successive editions, it remained the most common Bible translation until 1917. The main translators were Laurentius Andreæ and the brothers Laurentius and Olaus Petri . The Vasa Bible is often considered to be a reasonable compromise between old and new; while not adhering to
3420-679: The East Scandinavian languages , together with Danish , separating it from the West Scandinavian languages , consisting of Faroese , Icelandic , and Norwegian . However, more recent analyses divide the North Germanic languages into two groups: Insular Scandinavian (Faroese and Icelandic), and Continental Scandinavian (Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish), based on mutual intelligibility due to heavy influence of East Scandinavian (particularly Danish) on Norwegian during
3515-467: The French vous (see T-V distinction ). Ni wound up being used as a slightly less familiar form of du , the singular second person pronoun, used to address people of lower social status. With the liberalization and radicalization of Swedish society in the 1950s and 1960s, these class distinctions became less important, and du became the standard, even in formal and official contexts. Though
3610-633: The Nuijamaa border to Russia crossing via Jyväskylä and Mikkeli . The scenic '7 Bridges Archipelago Road' (road 749) runs along the coast between Kokkola and Jakobstad ( Finnish : Pietarsaari ). Kokkola-Pietarsaari Airport is situated 22 kilometres (14 mi) from Kokkola in Kronoby . The Kokkola railway station is a stop along the Seinäjoki–Oulu railway , with service between Helsinki and Kemijärvi via Tampere and Seinäjoki , where
3705-612: The Swedish Parliament for free foreign trade and further social reforms. In 1765 the Swedish Parliament granted the city of Kokkola the staple rights . Kokkola also became an important shipbuilding centre in Finland. As a result of tar trade and shipbuilding industry, Kokkola was for a time one of the richest towns in Finland. An interesting historical affair, known as the Skirmish of Halkokari , occurred at
3800-518: The United States , particularly during the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a significant Swedish-speaking immigrant population. This was notably true in states like Minnesota , where many Swedish immigrants settled. By 1940, approximately 6% of Minnesota's population spoke Swedish. Although the use of Swedish has significantly declined, it is not uncommon to find older generations and communities that still retain some use and knowledge of
3895-529: The fourth most spoken Germanic language , and the first among its type in the Nordic countries overall. Swedish, like the other Nordic languages , is a descendant of Old Norse , the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Age . It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish , although the degree of mutual intelligibility is dependent on
Kokkola - Misplaced Pages Continue
3990-581: The nationalist ideas that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the languages have separate orthographies , dictionaries, grammars, and regulatory bodies. Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are thus from a linguistic perspective more accurately described as a dialect continuum of Scandinavian (North Germanic), and some of the dialects, such as those on the border between Norway and Sweden, especially parts of Bohuslän , Dalsland , western Värmland , western Dalarna , Härjedalen , Jämtland , and Scania , could be described as intermediate dialects of
4085-410: The object form) – although it is debated if the genitive in Swedish should be seen as a genitive case or just the nominative plus the so-called genitive s , then seen as a clitic . Swedish has two grammatical numbers – plural and singular . Adjectives have discrete comparative and superlative forms and are also inflected according to gender, number and definiteness . The definiteness of nouns
4180-399: The 1950s, when their use was removed from all official recommendations. A very significant change in Swedish occurred in the late 1960s, with the so-called du-reformen . Previously, the proper way to address people of the same or higher social status had been by title and surname. The use of herr ("Mr." or "Sir"), fru ("Mrs." or "Ma'am") or fröken ("Miss") was considered
4275-413: The 20th most populous urban area in the country. Kokkola covers an area of 2,730.80 square kilometres (1,054.37 sq mi) of which 1,286.61 km (496.76 sq mi) is water. The population density is 33.45 inhabitants per square kilometre (86.6/sq mi). Neighbour municipalities are Halsua , Kalajoki , Kannus , Kaustinen , Kronoby , Lestijärvi , Larsmo and Toholampi . Kokkola
4370-485: The 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse , evolved into Old Norse. This language underwent more changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects: Old West Norse (Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). The dialects of Old East Norse spoken in Sweden are called Runic Swedish , while
4465-471: The Modern Swedish period were the gradual assimilation of several different consonant clusters into the fricative [ʃ] and later into [ɧ] . There was also the gradual softening of [ɡ] and [k] into [j] and the fricative [ɕ] before front vowels . The velar fricative [ɣ] was also transformed into the corresponding plosive [ɡ] . The period that includes Swedish as it is spoken today
4560-601: The Swedish Language Council, the Swedish Academy (established 1786) is arguably the most influential. Its primary instruments are the spelling dictionary Svenska Akademiens ordlista ( SAOL , currently in its 14th edition) and the dictionary Svenska Akademiens Ordbok , in addition to various books on grammar, spelling and manuals of style. Although the dictionaries have a prescriptive element, they mainly describe current usage. In Finland,
4655-502: The administrative language and Swedish-Estonian culture saw an upswing. However, most Swedish-speaking people fled to Sweden before the end of World War II , that is, before the invasion of Estonia by the Soviet army in 1944. Only a handful of speakers remain. Swedish dialects have either 17 or 18 vowel phonemes , 9 long and 9 short. As in the other Germanic languages, including English, most long vowels are phonetically paired with one of
4750-399: The area is Perhonjoki , which flows into Gulf of Bothnia , north of Kokkola. The annual post-glacial rebound at Kokkola is 8.8 mm. Thus large areas of present-day Kokkola were under water when the town was founded. The city of Kokkola has 48,372 inhabitants, making it the 22nd most populous municipality in Finland. The Kokkola region has a population of 53,632. In Kokkola, 5.1% of
4845-404: The centre of the city is bilingual, the majority of the villages around Kokkola mostly speak Swedish. The districts which were consolidated in 2009 are, however, pure Finnish-speaking areas. At least 30 different languages are spoken in Kokkola. The most common foreign languages are Russian (0.6%), Arabic (0.4%), English (0.4%) and Chinese (0.3%). As of 2023, there were 2,485 persons with
SECTION 50
#17327806603524940-494: The city's new residents are increasingly of foreign origin. This will increase the proportion of foreign residents in the coming years. In 2023, the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the largest religious group with 72.5% of the population of Kokkola. Other religious groups accounted for 2.1% of the population. 25.4% of the population had no religious affiliation. Kokkola is the capital and biggest city in
5035-499: The city, possibly named the town in honor of his father King Karl IX of Sweden. The Finnish name is possibly derived from Kokkolahti, a narrow bay located at the place of the town. According to a tale the sea eagles (in Finnish merikotka or kokko) used to live there. Another theory claims that the name comes from ancient signal fires (kokko), which were used to warn people about approaching enemy troops. The coat of arms of Kokkola
5130-504: The colloquial spoken language of its day, it was not overly conservative in its use of archaic forms. It was a major step towards a more consistent Swedish orthography . It established the use of the vowels "å", "ä", and "ö", and the spelling "ck" in place of "kk", distinguishing it clearly from the Danish Bible, perhaps intentionally, given the ongoing rivalry between the countries. All three translators came from central Sweden, which
5225-403: The declension of the adjectives . For example, the word fisk ("fish") is a noun of common gender ( en fisk ) and can have the following forms: The definite singular form of a noun is created by adding a suffix ( -en , -n , -et or -t ), depending on its gender and if the noun ends in a vowel or not. The definite articles den , det , and de are used for variations to the definitiveness of
5320-508: The dialect and accent of the speaker. Standard Swedish , spoken by most Swedes , is the national language that evolved from the Central Swedish dialects in the 19th century, and was well established by the beginning of the 20th century. While distinct regional varieties and rural dialects still exist, the written language is uniform and standardized . Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland where its status
5415-541: The dialects of Denmark are referred to as Runic Danish . The dialects are described as "runic" because the main body of text appears in the runic alphabet . Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, which had only 16 letters. Because the number of runes was limited, some runes were used for a range of phonemes , such as
5510-710: The fast Pendolino bullet train operates. There is no passenger ferry traffic from Kokkola. Results of the 2021 Finnish municipal elections in Kokkola: The city is the home of the world-renowned Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra , which was founded by the conductor Juha Kangas in 1972. The area of old wooden houses in the downtown area of Neristan has been the setting for the life and livelihood of its inhabitants for hundreds of years. Today these houses are offering restaurants, cafés, little shops and even accommodation for tourists. With its old charm it invites visitors to discover Neristan step by step. Tankar island,
5605-545: The firm establishment of the Christian church and various monastic orders, introducing many Greek and Latin loanwords. With the rise of Hanseatic power in the late 13th and early 14th century, Middle Low German became very influential. The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of Low German -speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their native languages into
5700-462: The hands of the defenders. As such, this boat was the only Royal Navy vessel still in foreign possession in 1914. The boat is still today a museum-object and can be seen in Kokkola's English Park. The town council has refused to return the boat despite several requests by the United Kingdom, most recently by John Stuttard , the Lord Mayor of London. The British Treasury annually pays a small sum to
5795-430: The industrialization and urbanization of Sweden well under way by the last decades of the 19th century, a new breed of authors made their mark on Swedish literature . Many scholars, politicians and other public figures had a great influence on the emerging national language, among them prolific authors like the poet Gustaf Fröding , Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf and radical writer and playwright August Strindberg . It
SECTION 60
#17327806603525890-614: The islands (e. g., Hiiumaa , Vormsi , Ruhnu ; in Swedish, known as Dagö , Ormsö , Runö , respectively) along the coast of the Baltic , communities that today have all disappeared. The Swedish-speaking minority was represented in parliament , and entitled to use their native language in parliamentary debates. After the loss of Estonia to the Russian Empire in the early 18th century, around 1,000 Estonian Swedish speakers were forced to march to southern Ukraine , where they founded
5985-484: The language, particularly in rural communities like Lindström and Scandia . Swedish is the official main language of Sweden. Swedish is also one of two official languages of Finland. In Sweden, it has long been used in local and state government, and most of the educational system, but remained only a de facto primary language with no official status in law until 2009. A bill was proposed in 2005 that would have made Swedish an official language, but failed to pass by
6080-490: The last millennium and divergence from both Faroese and Icelandic. By many general criteria of mutual intelligibility, the Continental Scandinavian languages could very well be considered dialects of a common Scandinavian language. However, because of several hundred years of sometimes quite intense rivalry between Denmark and Sweden, including a long series of wars from the 16th to 18th centuries, and
6175-548: The local church congregation for the maintenance of the graves of nine Royal Marines killed in action during the skirmish . Interesting contemporaneous accounts of the disastrous action can be found in the British Newspaper Archive, citing Gamla Carleby. The city had a Swedish-speaking majority until 1933. In 1977, the surrounding municipality of Kaarlela ( Swedish : Karleby ) was consolidated into Kokkola (Swedish until then: Gamlakarleby ). In 2009,
6270-534: The municipalities of Lohtaja , Kälviä and Ullava were consolidated with Kokkola. Kokkola is the capital of the Central Ostrobothnia region, it is located on the coast of Gulf of Bothnia , the northernmost part of the Baltic Sea . The next larger cities are Vaasa is 121 kilometres (75 miles) southwest, and Oulu is 198 kilometres (123 miles) northeast. The distance to the capital Helsinki
6365-556: The museum shop. Next to the museum is the Pedagogio, a school-house, which is Finland's oldest urban secular wooden building (built in 1696). In this quarter, there is also the Lassander House which offers a glimpse into a merchant home in the 18th century. During the winter time, Kokkola offers 20 skiing tracks with a total length of 150 km (93 mi). Kokkola is the home of the ice hockeyclub Hermes , which plays in
6460-577: The narrowest possible margin (145–147) due to a pairing-off failure. A proposal for a broader language law, designating Swedish as the main language of the country and bolstering the status of the minority languages, was submitted by an expert committee to the Swedish Ministry of Culture in March 2008. It was subsequently enacted by the Riksdag , and entered into effect on 1 July 2009. Swedish
6555-421: The national standard languages. Swedish pronunciations also vary greatly from one region to another, a legacy of the vast geographic distances and historical isolation. Even so, the vocabulary is standardized to a level that make dialects within Sweden virtually fully mutually intelligible. East Germanic languages West Germanic languages Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Danish Swedish In
6650-424: The north. An early change that separated Runic Danish from the other dialects of Old East Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong é , as in stæinn to sténn "stone". This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain and the later stin . There was also a change of au as in dauðr into a long open ø as in døðr "dead". This change is shown in runic inscriptions as
6745-441: The only acceptable way to begin conversation with strangers of unknown occupation, academic title or military rank. The fact that the listener should preferably be referred to in the third person tended to further complicate spoken communication between members of society. In the early 20th century, an unsuccessful attempt was made to replace the insistence on titles with ni —the standard second person plural pronoun)—analogous to
6840-402: The original Germanic three- gender system. Nouns , adjectives , pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases; besides the extant nominative , there were also the genitive (later possessive ), dative and accusative . The gender system resembled that of modern German , having masculine, feminine and neuter genders. The masculine and feminine genders were later merged into
6935-428: The population has a foreign background, which is below the national average. Population by mother tongue (2023) The city of Kokkola is officially bilingual , with both Finnish and Swedish as official languages. The majority of the population - 40,079 people or 83.0% - speak Finnish as their first language. In Kokkola, 5,816 people, or 12.0% of the population, speak Swedish . 5% of the population of Kokkola have
7030-480: The reform was not an act of any centralized political decree, but rather the result of sweeping change in social attitudes, it was completed in just a few years, from the late 1960s to early 1970s. The use of ni as a polite form of address is sometimes encountered today in both the written and spoken language, particularly among older speakers. Swedish is the sole official national language of Sweden , and one of two in Finland (alongside Finnish ). As of 2006, it
7125-491: The region of Central Ostrobothnia . The chemical industry is a major employer. An industrial area and the city's port are located in Ykspihlaja. OMG has a cobalt plant. The Freeport/Umicore refinery is the only large cobalt refinery outside China. Boliden has a zinc plant. Kemira , a chemical conglomerate, built an industrial park that is now divided among several corporations. In addition, industries represented in
7220-468: The rune for the vowel u , which was also used for the vowels o , ø and y , and the rune for i , also used for e . From 1200 onwards, the dialects in Denmark began to diverge from those of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark, creating a series of minor dialectal boundaries, or isoglosses , ranging from Zealand in the south to Norrland , Österbotten and northwestern Finland in
7315-545: The second highest Finnish league ( mestis ). Moreover, there are the soccer clubs Kokkolan Palloveikot (KPV), which plays in the second highest Finnish league ( Ykkönen ) and Gamlakarleby Bollklubb (GBK), which plays in the third highest Finnish league ( Kakkonen ). Kokkola's volleyball team Kokkolan Tiikerit is active in the highest Finnish volleyball league and current Finnish champions for men ( Lentopallon Mestaruusliiga ). Sailing clubs include Gamlakarleby Segelförening , Kokkolan Purjehtijat and Kokkolan venekerho . There
7410-444: The short /e/ (transcribed ⟨ ɛ ⟩ in the chart below). There are 18 consonant phonemes, two of which, / ɧ / and /r/ , vary considerably in pronunciation depending on the dialect and social status of the speaker. In many dialects, sequences of /r/ (pronounced alveolarly) with a dental consonant result in retroflex consonants ; alveolarity of the pronunciation of /r/ is a precondition for this retroflexion. /r/ has
7505-428: The short vowels, and the pairs are such that the two vowels are of similar quality , but with the short vowel being slightly lower and slightly centralized. In contrast to e.g. Danish, which has only tense vowels, the short vowels are slightly more lax, but the tense vs. lax contrast is not nearly as pronounced as in English, German or Dutch. In many dialects, the short vowel sound pronounced [ɛ] or [æ] has merged with
7600-604: The subject in a clause, a trait that is restricted to North Germanic languages: HMS Vulture (1843) HMS Vulture was one of three 6-gun, steam-powered Cyclops -class second-class paddle frigates built for the Royal Navy in the 1840s. She was initially deployed to the East Indies where she participated in actions against China and then played a minor role in the Crimean War of 1854–1855. The ship
7695-434: The town include metalworking, casting, textiles, plastics, food and carpentry. Largest employers are as follows (2011): The Port of Kokkola is located in Ykspihlaja, approximately 5 km (3 mi) from the city center, and it is one of the busiest ports in Finland. Oil, ore and limestone are imported, refined products and timber are exported, and iron ore is transited. The Chydenia Shopping Center , completed in 2006,
7790-431: The town on 7 June 1854 during the Åland War , part of the Crimean War . Royal Marines from HMS Vulture and HMS Odin tried to come ashore to deal with public property in the town "in accordance with the usages of war". The marines were repelled by local defenders armed with hunting rifles supported by troops, artillery and possibly Russian advisors and military. One of the 9 smaller British craft (a gunboat ) fell into
7885-534: The two cases and two genders of modern Swedish. A transitional change of the Latin script in the Nordic countries was to spell the letter combination "ae" as æ – and sometimes as a' – though it varied between persons and regions. The combination "ao" was similarly rendered a , and "oe" became o . These three were later to evolve into the separate letters ä , å and ö . The first time the new letters were used in print
7980-517: The two natural genders han and hon ("he" and "she"), there are also the two grammatical genders den and det , usually termed common and neuter . In recent years, a gender-neutral pronoun hen has been introduced, particularly in literary Swedish. Unlike the nouns, pronouns have an additional object form, derived from the old dative form. Hon , for example, has the following nominative, possessive, and object forms: Swedish also uses third-person possessive reflexive pronouns that refer to
8075-439: The vocabulary. Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare, trade and administration, general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported. The League also brought a certain measure of influence from Danish (at the time Swedish and Danish were much more similar than today). Early Old Swedish was markedly different from the modern language in that it had a more complex case structure and also retained
8170-583: Was launched on 21 September 1843 and was then fitted with Fairbairn engines in the East India Docks until 23 January 1844. She had cost £24,323 to build and £22,395 to fit out (including £21,429 for the 476 nhp engines). Vulture was first commissioned in February 1845 for the East Indies, and completed fitting for sea (for a further £9,173) at Sheerness Dockyard until 7 June 1845. She
8265-512: Was a part of the Swedish Empire and is one among the oldest towns in Finland. The king also decided that a tar barrel, with three burning flames coming from both the ends and the plug, should be used as the town seal, because of the tar trade at that time, for which Kokkola was founded as a shipping port. Anders Chydenius (1729-1803) who was one of the leading politicians of Sweden , was a keen supporter of economic freedom and fought in
8360-407: Was consolidated with Kokkola, and the town took over the Swedish name of Karleby . The word gamla means "old", karl (anglicanized Charles), is a Germanic males name, a name of many kings, meaning simply "man" and by means "village", so the town name is ambiguous meaning both "old village of Charles" or "old man village". The Latin name was Carolina Vetus . Gustav II Adolf , the founder of
8455-484: Was during the 20th century that a common, standardized national language became available to all Swedes. The orthography finally stabilized and became almost completely uniform, with some minor deviations, by the time of the spelling reform of 1906. With the exception of plural forms of verbs and a slightly different syntax, particularly in the written language, the language was the same as the Swedish of today. The plural verb forms appeared decreasingly in formal writing into
8550-537: Was fitted with a pair of steam engines rated at 476 nominal horsepower , that had two vertical cylinders of 80-inch (200 cm) diameter with 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) stroke, that used steam provided by four boilers. The paddle wheels were 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) diameter to the extremity of the floats, which were 8 ft 9 in (2.67 m) wide. Vulture carried six guns – two 8-inch guns of 95 cwt mounted on pivots at bow and stern, and four 8-inch guns of 65 cwt on broadside trucks. She
8645-656: Was in Aff dyäffwlsens frästilse ("By the Devil's temptation") published by Johan Gerson in 1495. Modern Swedish (Swedish: nysvenska ) begins with the advent of the printing press and the European Reformation . After assuming power, the new monarch Gustav Vasa ordered a Swedish translation of the Bible . The New Testament was published in 1526, followed by a full Bible translation in 1541, usually referred to as
8740-729: Was involved in the Expedition to Canton of 1847. She paid off on return from the East Indies that same year, and then underwent a small repair at Sheerness and Woolwich in 1848–1849 (for £17,334). She was recommissioned in November 1852 and was used in the Baltic theatre of the Crimean War in 1854. She was in action with the Russians on 7 June 1854, in the action at Gamla Carleby , Finland . On 27 August 1855, she ran aground off Hanko Head , Grand Duchy of Finland whilst towing
8835-523: Was not standardized. It depended on the authors and their background. Those influenced by German capitalized all nouns, while others capitalized more sparsely. It is also not always apparent which letters are capitalized owing to the Gothic or blackletter typeface that was used to print the Bible. This typeface was in use until the mid-18th century, when it was gradually replaced with a Latin typeface (often Antiqua ). Some important changes in sound during
8930-463: Was sold for scrap in 1863. Vulture had a length at the gun deck of 190 feet 1 inch (57.94 m) and 163 feet 6 inches (49.8 m) at the keel . She had a beam of 37 feet 6 inches (11.4 m), and a depth of hold of 23 feet (7.0 m). The ship's tonnage was 1,190 55 ⁄ 94 tons burthen and she displaced 1,960 long tons (1,990 t). Her crew numbered 175–195 officers and ratings . The ship
9025-537: Was the sole native language of 83% of Swedish residents. In 2007, around 5.5% (c. 290,000) of the population of Finland were native speakers of Swedish, partially due to a decline following the Russian annexation of Finland after the Finnish War 1808–1809. The Fenno-Swedish - speaking minority is concentrated in the coastal areas and archipelagos of southern and western Finland. In some of these areas, Swedish
#351648