132-519: The Finnish Air Force ( FAF or FiAF ; Finnish : Ilmavoimat , lit. 'Air forces'; Swedish : Flygvapnet , lit. 'Air arm') is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces . Its peacetime tasks are airspace surveillance, identification flights, and production of readiness formations for wartime conditions. The Finnish Air Force was founded on 6 March 1918. The Finnish Air Force, one of
264-652: A Thulin Typ D . Von Rosen, later one of the founding members of the Nationalsocialistiska Blocket (" National Socialist Bloc "), a Swedish National Socialist political party, and brother-in-law to Hermann Goering , had painted his personal good-luck charm on the Thulin Type ;D aircraft. This logo – a blue swastika , the ancient symbol of the sun and of good luck, which was back then still used with non-political connotations – gave rise to
396-473: A clear majority of Swedish speakers . As a result, the Swedish language maintains a strong position in the city, making it the most significant cultural center for Swedish-Finns . Vaasa is also home to Tropiclandia Water Park, located on Vaskiluoto Island adjacent to a local spa hotel . The now disassembled Wasalandia Amusement Park , which ceased operations in 2015 due to a small number of visitors,
528-819: A "j", e.g. vesj [vesʲ] "water", cf. standard vesi [vesi] . The first known written account in Helsinki slang is from the 1890 short story Hellaassa by young Santeri Ivalo (words that do not exist in, or deviate from, the standard spoken Finnish of its time are in bold): Kun minä eilen illalla palasin labbiksesta , tapasin Aasiksen kohdalla Supiksen , ja niin me laskeusimme tänne Espikselle , jossa oli mahoton hyvä piikis . Mutta me mentiin Studikselle suoraan Hudista tapaamaan, ja jäimme sinne pariksi tunniksi, kunnes ajoimme Kaisikseen . There are two main registers of Finnish used throughout
660-456: A careless visitor from Vörå fell asleep in Aurén's barn and dropped his pipe in the dry hay. The new town of Nikolaistad ( Finnish : Nikolainkaupunki ), named after the late Tsar Nicholas I , rose in 1862 about seven kilometres (4.3 miles) to the northwest from the old town. The town's coastal location offered good conditions for seafaring. The town plan was planned by Carl Axel Setterberg in
792-700: A consequence of the occupation of central places and arresting of politicians in Helsinki the Senate decided to move the senators to Vaasa, where the White Guards that supported the Senate had a strong position and the contacts to the West were good. The Senate of Finland began its work in Vaasa on 1 February 1918, and it had four members. The Senate held its sessions in the Town Hall. To express its gratitude to
924-473: A considerable influence upon the spoken word, because illiteracy is nonexistent and many Finns are avid readers. In fact, it is still not entirely uncommon to meet people who "talk book-ish" ( puhuvat kirjakieltä ); it may have connotations of pedantry, exaggeration, moderation, weaseling or sarcasm (somewhat like heavy use of Latinate words in English, or more old-fashioned or "pedantic" constructions: compare
1056-485: A diverse inventory of Soviet, British, Swedish, French and Finnish aircraft. After leading Finnish politicians held unofficial talks with their Swedish counterparts, Sweden began storing surplus Saab 35 Drakens , intended for transfer to Finland in the event of a war against the Soviet Union. This practice continued until the 1980s. On 22 September 1990, a week before the unification of Germany, Finland declared that
1188-657: A front-line squadron. Pilot training takes place at the Air Force Academy in Tikkakoski, with advanced conversion performed at squadron level. In 2023 the English name for the Air Commands was changed to Air Wing. The current Hornet fleet is set to begin being phased out from 2025, and to be completely decommissioned by 2030. The Finnish MoD initiated its Hornet replacement programme in June 2015, and named it
1320-409: A gunpowder storage and the buildings of the Vaasa provincial hospital (nowadays a psychiatric hospital) also survived the blaze. The ruins of the greystone church, the belfry , the town hall and the trivial school can still be found in their original places. Much of the archived material concerning Vaasa and its inhabitants was destroyed in the fire. According to popular belief, the fire got started when
1452-460: A language of administration, journalism, literature, and science in Finland, along with Swedish. In 1853 Daniel Europaeus published the first Swedish-Finnish dictionary, and between 1866 and 1880 Elias Lönnrot compiled the first Finnish-Swedish dictionary. In the same period, Antero Warelius conducted ethnographic research and, among other topics, he documented the geographic distribution of
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#17327870308161584-498: A later A-5 model in an attempt to stave off obsolescence. Various Russian designs also saw action when lightly damaged "kills" were repaired and made airworthy. Dornier Do 17s (received as a gift from Hermann Göring in 1942) and Junkers Ju 88s improved the bombing capability of the Finnish Air Force. The bomber force was also strengthened with a number of captured Soviet bombers, which had been taken in large numbers by
1716-473: A migrant background living in Vaasa, or 12.4% of the population. The number of residents who were born abroad was 8,564, or 12.4% of the population. The number of persons with foreign citizenship living in Vaasa was 5,886. Most foreign-born citizens came from the Sweden , former Soviet Union , Vietnam and Iraq . The relative share of immigrants in Vaasa's population is above the national average. Moreover,
1848-475: A more systematic writing system. Along the way, Finnish lost several fricative consonants in a process of sound change . The sounds [ð] and [θ(ː)] disappeared from the language, surviving only in a small rural region in Western Finland. In the standard language, however, the effect of the lost sounds is thus: Modern Finnish punctuation, along with that of Swedish, uses the colon (:) to separate
1980-445: A north–south split as well as an east–west split. The northern dialects of Proto-Finnic, from which Finnish developed, lacked the mid vowel [ ɤ ] . This vowel was found only in the southern dialects, which developed into Estonian , Livonian , and Votian . The northern variants used third person singular pronoun hän instead of southern tämä (Est. tema ). While the eastern dialects of Proto-Finnic (which developed in
2112-673: A result, and often resulted in interception of the attackers by the Finns as the Soviet bombers flew homeward. As the war progressed, the Finns tried desperately to purchase aircraft wherever they could. This policy resulted in a very diverse aircraft inventory, which caused some major logistical problems until the inventory became more standardized. The Finnish Air Force included numerous American, British, Czechoslovakian, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Soviet, and Swedish designs. Other countries, like South Africa and Denmark, sent aircraft to assist in
2244-401: A seasonal delay of spring and summer at the same time that autumn and winter are affected late. The average annual temperature is 4.7 °C (normal from 1991 to 2020). The low Ostrobothnia usually receives little snow but the contact of cold air with warmer and humid air can generate heavy snowfall. Early summer (as well as spring) tends to be drier and the wettest month does not coincide with
2376-555: A separate taxonomic " Finno-Samic " node is controversial. The Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , United States, classifies Finnish as a level III language (of four levels) in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers. Finnish is spoken by about five million people, most of whom reside in Finland. There are also notable Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia, Brazil, Canada, and
2508-493: A total amount of Finnish-speakers roughly between 7,200 and 15,600. In the latest census , around 1000 people in Russia claimed to speak Finnish natively; however, a larger amount of 14,000 claimed to be able to speak Finnish in total. There are also forms of Finnish spoken by diasporas outside Europe, such as American Finnish , spoken by Finnish Americans , and Siberian Finnish , spoken by Siberian Finns . Today, Finnish
2640-409: A victorious White soldier, was erected in the town square. The language conditions in the city shifted in the 1930s, and the majority became Finnish-speaking. Therefore, the primary name also changed from "Vasa" to "Vaasa", according to Finnish spelling. Post-war, Vaasa was industrialized, led by the electronics manufacturer Strömberg , later merged into ABB . In 2013 the municipality of Vähäkyrö
2772-522: Is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Ostrobothnia . It is located on the west coast of the country, on the Gulf of Bothnia . The population of Vaasa is approximately 70,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 111,000. It is the 14th most populous municipality in Finland, and the tenth most populous urban area in the country. Vaasa was granted its charter in 1606, during
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#17327870308162904-440: Is a university ( University of Vaasa ), faculties of Åbo Akademi and Hanken , and two universities of applied sciences in the town. Many workers commute from Korsholm , Laihia , and other municipalities nearby. The Vaskiluoto power stations complex is situated on the island of Vaskiluoto , supplying electricity to the national grid as well as district heat to the city. The multi-use cargo and passenger Port of Vaasa
3036-508: Is abbreviation of word-final vowels, and in many respects they resemble Estonian. The Tavastian dialects ( hämäläismurteet ) are spoken in Tavastia . They are closest to the standard language, but feature some slight vowel changes, such as the opening of diphthong-final vowels ( tie → tiä , miekka → miakka , kuolisi → kualis ), the change of d to l (mostly obsolete) or trilled r (widespread, nowadays disappearance of d
3168-484: Is also a relatively short distance from Sweden to Vaasa. The tourist route called Blue Highway also runs from the port of Vaasa and through the city. In 1962–1964, other Finnish cities introduced regional speed limits of 50 km/h, but in Vaasa the limit was 60 km/h for a long time. Vaasa Airport is located about nine kilometers southeast of the city center. Finnair and Scandinavian Airlines operate from Vaasa Airport, but Norwegian Air Shuttle terminated
3300-956: Is located in Vaskiluoto, connecting Vaasa with Umeå , Sweden, and destinations further afield. The film production company Future Film has its head office in Vaasa. Kotipizza has its head office in the Vaskiluodon Satamaterminaali . Main roads, including highway 3 ( E12 ) and highway 8 ( E8 ), connect Vaasa to Helsinki , Tampere , Oulu , Pori , Jyväskylä , Kokkola and Seinäjoki . There are 419 kilometres (260 mi) from Helsinki to Vaasa, 330 kilometres (210 mi) from Turku , 244 kilometres (152 mi) from Tampere, 319 kilometres (198 mi) from Oulu, 121 kilometres (75 mi) from Kokkola, 99 kilometres (62 mi) from Jakobstad , 193 kilometres (120 mi) from Pori, 83 kilometres (52 mi) from Lapua and 78 kilometres (48 mi) from Seinäjoki. It
3432-484: Is mutually intelligible with Finnish, is spoken in the Norwegian counties of Troms and Finnmark by a minority of Finnish descent. Finnish is typologically agglutinative and uses almost exclusively suffixal affixation . Nouns , adjectives , pronouns , numerals and verbs are inflected depending on their role in the sentence . Sentences are normally formed with subject–verb–object word order, although
3564-664: Is one of two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish), and has been an official language of the European Union since 1995. However, the Finnish language did not have an official status in the country during the period of Swedish rule , which ended in 1809. After the establishment of the Grand Duchy of Finland , and against the backdrop of the Fennoman movement , the language obtained its official status in
3696-746: Is popular) and the personal pronouns ( me: meitin ('we: our'), te: teitin ('you: your') and he: heitin ('they: their')). The South Ostrobothnian dialects ( eteläpohjalaismurteet ) are spoken in Southern Ostrobothnia . Their most notable feature is the pronunciation of "d" as a tapped or even fully trilled /r/ . The Central and North Ostrobothnian dialects ( keski- ja pohjoispohjalaismurteet ) are spoken in Central and Northern Ostrobothnia . The Lapland dialects ( lappilaismurteet ) are spoken in Lapland . The dialects spoken in
3828-613: The Allies from Russia, four had been gifts from Sweden and eight had been bought from Germany. The Winter War began on 30 November 1939, when the Soviet Air Force bombed 21 Finnish cities and municipalities. The Soviet Union had an estimated c. 5,000 aircraft in 1939, and of these, some 700 fighters and 800 medium bombers came to the Finnish front to support the Red Army 's operations. As with most aerial bombardments in
3960-605: The Empire style . In the master plan the disastrous consequences of the fire were considered. Main streets in the new town were five broad avenues which divided the town into sections. Each block was divided by alleys. The town was promptly renamed Vasa (Vaasa) after the Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown in 1917. During the Finnish Civil War , Vaasa was the capital of Finland from 29 January to 3 May 1918. As
4092-747: The Finnic branch of the Uralic language family ; as such, it is one of the few European languages that is not Indo-European . The Finnic branch also includes Estonian and a few minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea and in Russia's Republic of Karelia . The closest relative of Finnish is either Ingrian , or depending on the definition, Karelian . Finnic languages form a dialect continuum, where for instance Finnish and Estonian are not separated by any single isogloss that would separate dialects considered "Finnish" from those considered "Estonian", despite
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4224-615: The Finnish Diet of 1863. Finnish also enjoys the status of an official minority language in Sweden . Under the Nordic Language Convention , citizens of the Nordic countries speaking Finnish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs. However, concerns have been expressed about
4356-717: The Finnish Jägers , Lieutenant Bertil Månsson, had received pilot training in Imperial Germany , but he stayed behind in Germany, trying to secure further aircraft deals for Finland. During the Civil War the White Finnish Air Force consisted of: The air activity consisted mainly of reconnaissance sorties. The Germans brought several of their own aircraft, but they did not contribute much to
4488-536: The Hanken School of Economics headquartered in Helsinki . Unique to Vaasa is the Finland-Swedish teachers training school Vasa övningsskola , part of Åbo Akademi. The University of Helsinki also has a small unit, specialized in law studies, in the city centre. The city has two universities of applied sciences: Vaasa University of Applied Sciences (former Vaasa Polytechnic) , located right next to
4620-715: The Heavy Airlift Wing based in Hungary . Finnish language Finnish ( endonym : suomi [ˈsuo̯mi] or suomen kieli [ˈsuo̯meŋ ˈkie̯li] ) is a Finnic language of the Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland, alongside Swedish . In Sweden , both Finnish and Meänkieli (which has significant mutual intelligibility with Finnish ) are official minority languages . Kven , which like Meänkieli
4752-581: The Swiss Alps en route to Finland, killing all on-board (three Finns and one Italian). This day has since become the memorial day for fallen pilots. The Finnish Air Force assigns the matriculation numbers to its aircraft by assigning each type a two-letter code following by dash and an individual aircraft number. The two-letter code usually refers to the aircraft manufacturer or model, such as HN for F/A-18 H or n et, DK for Saab 35 D ra k en, VN for Valmet V i n ka etc. The Whites occupied most of
4884-521: The Treaty of Fredrikshamn (17 September 1809) Sweden lost the whole eastern part of its realm. Vaasa would now become a part of the newly formed Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire . The mainly wooden and densely built town was almost utterly destroyed in 1852. A fire started in a barn belonging to district court judge J. F. Aurén on the morning of 3 August. At noon the whole town
5016-532: The Ural Mountains region and/or the bend of the middle Volga . The strong case for Proto-Uralic is supported by common vocabulary with regularities in sound correspondences, as well as by the fact that the Uralic languages have many similarities in structure and grammar. Despite having overlapping geographical distributions, Finnic languages and Sami languages are not closely related, and the hypothesis of
5148-625: The Wehrmacht during Operation Barbarossa . The bomber units flew assorted missions with varying results, but a large part of their time was spent in training, waiting until the time came to use the aircraft. Thus the bomber squadrons of Flying Regiment 4 were ready for the summer battles of 1944, which included for example the Battle of Tali-Ihantala (June to July 1944). While the FAF was successful in its mission, conditions were not easy. Spare parts for
5280-513: The stem of a word and its grammatical ending in some cases, for example after acronyms , as in EU:ssa 'in the EU'. (This contrasts with some other alphabetic writing systems, which would use other symbols, such as e.g. apostrophe, hyphen.) Since suffixes play a prominent role in the language, this use of the colon is quite common. In the 19th century Johan Vilhelm Snellman and others began to stress
5412-418: The "HX Fighter Program". A working group was created and it identified suitable aircraft. The final decision for choosing the new Air Force jet is based on five key considerations, which are the multi-role fighter's military capability, security of supply, industrial cooperation solutions, procurement and life cycle costs, and security and defence policy implications. An extensive questionnaire had been sent out
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5544-514: The 1370s the building of the fortress at Korsholm , Crysseborgh, was undertaken, and served as an administrative centre of the Vasa County . King Charles IX of Sweden founded the town of Mustasaari/Mussor on 2 October 1606, around the oldest harbour and trade point around the Korsholm church approximately seven kilometres (4.3 miles) to the southeast from the present city. In 1611, the town
5676-493: The 14th most populous municipality in Finland. The Vaasa region has a population of 111,382. In Vaasa, 12.4% of the population has a foreign background, which is above the national average. Population by mother tongue (2023) The city of Vaasa is officially bilingual , with both Finnish and Swedish as official languages. The majority of the population - 44,621 people or 64.7% - speak Finnish as their first language. There are 16,017 Swedish speakers in Vaasa, or 23.2% of
5808-593: The American Brewster Buffalo was the FAF's main fighter until 1943. Results with this fighter were very good, even though the type was considered to be a failure in the US Navy and with British and Dutch Far East forces. In Finnish use, the Brewster had a victory rate of 32:1 – 459 kills to 15 losses. German Bf 109s replaced the Brewster as the primary front-line fighter of the FAF in 1943, though
5940-558: The BBC reported that the FAF had "quietly stopped" using the symbol in the emblem of the Air Force Command. The von Rosen aircraft received the designation F.1. Its pilot, Lieutenant Nils Kindberg, flew the aircraft to Vaasa on 6 March 1918, carrying von Rosen as a passenger. As this gift ran counter to the policy of the Swedish government, and no flight permit had been granted, Sweden fined Kindberg 100 Swedish crowns for leaving
6072-619: The Buffalos continued in secondary roles until the end of the fighting. Other types, including the Italian Fiat G.50 and Curtiss Hawk 75, also proved capable in the hands of well-trained Finnish pilots. The principle reconnaissance type was the German Arado Ar 196 , which had been purchased in 1943 and continued to serve throughout the war, though by mid-1944 the planes' pre-war roots were showing and were subsequently modified to
6204-561: The Continuation War against the Soviet Union started in 1941. It had been considerably strengthened and consisted of some 550 aircraft, though many were considered second-rate and thus "exportable" by their countries of origin. Finland purchased a large number of aircraft during the Winter War, but few of those had reached service during the short conflict. Politics had also played a role, since Hitler did not wish to antagonize
6336-552: The Continuation War. The end of World War II in 1945 and the Paris peace talks of 1947 brought about some limitations imposed on the FAF. For example, the Finnish Air Force could have: These revisions followed Soviet demands closely. When Britain, fearing that the provisions only augmented Soviet air defences, tried to vary some of the conditions, the Soviets opposed such proposals. The revisions were again revised in 1963, and Finland
6468-594: The FAF planes were scarce — parts from the US (Buffalo and Hawk), Britain (Hurricanes), and Italy (G.50) were unavailable for much of the war. Repairs took often a long time, and the State Aircraft Factory was burdened with restoration/repair of captured Soviet planes and of foreign aircraft with many hours of flight time, and with the development of indigenous Finnish fighter types. Also, one damaged bomber took up workshop space equalling three fighters. Finland
6600-456: The Finnish arsenal were British-designed and -built Bristol Blenheim bombers. The primary fighter aircraft, the Fokker D.XXI, featured a cheap but maneuverable design with fabric-covered fuselage and fixed landing-gear. On paper, the Finnish air assets should have been no match for the attacking Soviet Red Air Force . However, the Finnish Air Force had already adopted the finger-four formation in
6732-458: The Finnish dialects. The most important contributions to improving the status of Finnish were made by Elias Lönnrot . His impact on the development of modern vocabulary in Finnish was particularly significant. In addition to compiling the Kalevala , he acted as an arbiter in disputes about the development of standard Finnish between the proponents of western and eastern dialects, ensuring that
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#17327870308166864-516: The Finnish war effort . Many of these purchases and gifts did not arrive until the end of the hostilities, but would see action later during the Continuation and Lapland wars . To make up for its weaknesses (few and obsolete fighters) the FAF mainly focused on attacking enemy bombers from directions that were disadvantageous to the enemy. Soviet fighters were usually superior in firepower, speed and agility, and Finnish pilots avoided them unless
6996-476: The Fokker D.XXI and Gloster Gladiator , had been replaced with new aircraft in front-line combat units. The FAF's main mission was to achieve air superiority over Finnish-held territory and to prevent Soviet air power from reinforcing the Red Army's front lines. The fighter squadrons proved very successful in the Finnish offensive of 1941. A stripped-down, more manoeuvrable, and significantly lightened version of
7128-706: The Russian Empire. Soon after the Finnish declaration of independence of 6 December 1917, the Finnish Civil War of January to May 1918 broke out, in which the Soviets sided with the Reds – the socialist rebels with ties to Lenin 's Bolshevik Party . Finland's White Guard , the Whites , managed to seize a few aircraft from the Soviets, but were forced to rely on foreign pilots and aircraft. Sweden refused to send men and materiel , but individual Swedish citizens came to
7260-543: The Soviet Union by allowing aircraft exports through German-controlled territory during the Winter War. In addition to Fokker fighters and Bristol Blenheim bombers built under license, new aircraft types were in place by the time hostilities with Soviet Union resumed in 1941. Small numbers of Hawker Hurricanes arrived from the United Kingdom, Morane-Saulnier M.S.406s from France, Fiat G.50s from Italy, and one liaison aircraft . Numerous Brewster F2A Buffaloes from
7392-407: The Swedish colonel Johan Bergenstråhle was sent with 1,500 troops and four cannons to free Vaasa from the 1,700 Russian troops who were led by generalmajor Nikolay Demidov. The Battle of Vaasa started with the Swedish force disembarking north of Vaasa in Österhankmo and advancing all the way to the city where they attacked with 1,100 troops, as some had to be left behind to secure the flank. There
7524-694: The United States. The majority of the population of Finland (90.37% as of 2010 ) speak Finnish as their first language . The remainder speak Swedish (5.42%), one of the Sámi languages (for example Northern , Inari , or Skolt ), or another language as their first language. Finnish is spoken as a second language in Estonia by about 167,000 people. The Finnic varities found in Norway's Finnmark (namely Kven ) and in northern Sweden (namely Meänkieli ) have
7656-451: The Vaasa–Helsinki route on 10 January 2020. There is scheduled traffic from Vaasa Airport to Helsinki (flight time 45 min) and Stockholm (flight time 1 h 5 min). Vaasa has three universities. The largest one is the University of Vaasa , which is located in the neighbourhood of Palosaari. Palosaari is a peninsula near the center of Vaasa, connected to it by bridges. The other two universities are Åbo Akademi , headquartered in Turku , and
7788-456: The Whites during the war was flown over Lyly . It was a reconnaissance-gathering mission as the front-line moved south. As the line neared Tampere , the base moved first to Orivesi and then to Kaukajärvi near Tampere. The contribution of the White air force during the war was almost insignificant. From 10 March 1918, the Swedish Lt. John-Allan Hygerth led the Finnish Air Force. He was however replaced on 18 April 1918, due to his unsuitability for
7920-440: The aid of the Whites . The editor of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet , Valdemar Langlet , bought a N.A.B. Albatros aircraft from the Nordiska Aviatik A.B. factory with funds gathered by the Finlands vänner ( Swedish for 'Friends of Finland') organization. This aircraft, the first to arrive from Sweden, was flown via Haparanda on 25 February 1918 by Swedish pilot John-Allan Hygerth (who on 10 March became
8052-540: The airbases that the Russians left in Finland after the Russian pilots had returned to Russia. The Reds possessed a few airbases and a few Russian aircraft, mainly amphibious aircraft – they had 12 aircraft in all. The Reds did not have any pilots themselves, so they hired some of the Russian pilots who had stayed behind. On 24 February 1918 five aircraft arrived at Viipuri, and were quickly transferred to Riihimäki. The Reds established air units in Helsinki, Tampere, Kouvola, and Viipuri. There were no overall headquarters, but
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#17327870308168184-418: The aircraft were captured by the Whites, while the rest were destroyed. In January 1918, the Whites did not have a single aircraft, let alone pilots, so they asked the Swedes for help. Sweden, a neutral country, could not send any official help. Sweden also forbade its pilots to aid Finland. Despite this official stance, however, one Morane-Saulnier Parasol , and three N.A.B. Albatros arrived from Sweden by
8316-474: The border created between Sweden and Finland in 1809 when Russia annexed Finland. This caused the speakers of Meänkieli to be isolated from the developments of standard Finnish and instead be influenced by the Swedish language. However, it is still mutually integible with Finnish, and is thus sometimes considered a dialect of the Finnish language. The Kven language is spoken in Finnmark and Troms , in Norway. Its speakers are descendants of Finnish emigrants to
8448-497: 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 65.0% of the population of Vaasa. Other religious groups accounted for 2.4% of the population. 32.6% of the population had no religious affiliation. Vaasa is generally speaking an industrial town, with several industrial parks. Industry comprises one-fourth of jobs. There
8580-506: The colloquial language) ei kö teillä ole e(i) ks teil(lä) oo "don't you (pl.) have (it)?" (compare eiks to standard Estonian confirmatory interrogative eks ) Vaasa Vaasa ( Finnish: [ˈʋɑːsɑ] ; Swedish : Vasa , Finland Swedish: [ˈvɑːsɑ] , Sweden Swedish: [ˈvɑ̂ːsa] ), in the years 1855–1917 known as Nikolainkaupunki , ( Swedish : Nikolajstad ; lit. ' city of Nicholas ' )
8712-436: The country without permission. The F.1 aircraft is considered by some to be the first aircraft of the Finnish Air Force, which did not exist during the Civil War, while the Red side flew a few aircraft with the help of some Russian pilots. The F.1 aircraft was destroyed in an accident which killed its crew, not long after it had been handed over to the Finns. On 7 September 1920, two newly purchased Savoia flying boats crashed in
8844-404: The country. One is the "standard language" ( yleiskieli ), and the other is the " spoken language " ( puhekieli ). The standard language is used in formal situations like political speeches and newscasts. Its written form, the "book language" ( kirjakieli ), is used in nearly all written texts, not always excluding even the dialogue of common people in popular prose. The spoken language, on
8976-478: The difference between saying "There's no children I'll leave it to" and "There are no children to whom I shall leave it"). More common is the intrusion of typically literary constructions into a colloquial discourse, as a kind of quote from written Finnish. It is quite common to hear book-like and polished speech on radio or TV, and the constant exposure to such language tends to lead to the adoption of such constructions even in everyday language. A prominent example of
9108-403: The early stages of World War II , the damage to Finnish industry and railways was quite limited. At the beginning of the Winter War, the Finnish Air Force was equipped with only 18 Bristol Blenheim bombers and 46 fighters (32 modern Fokker D.XXIs and 14 obsolete Bristol Bulldogs ). There were also 58 liaison aircraft, but 20 of these were only used for messengers. The most modern aircraft in
9240-445: The effect of the standard language is the development of the consonant gradation form /ts : ts/ as in metsä : metsän , as this pattern was originally (1940) found natively only in the dialects of the southern Karelian isthmus and Ingria . It has been reinforced by the spelling "ts" for the dental fricative [θː] , used earlier in some western dialects. The spelling and the pronunciation this encourages however approximate
9372-433: The end of February 1918. Two of the Albatross aircraft were gifts from private citizens supporting the White Finnish cause, while the third was purchased. It was initially intended that the aircraft would support the air operations of the Whites, but the aircraft ultimately proved unsuitable. Along with aircraft shortages, the Whites also did not have any personnel, so all the pilots and mechanics also came from Sweden. One of
9504-453: The enemy was in a disadvantageous position. As a result of these tactics, the Finnish Air Force managed to shoot down 218 Soviet aircraft during the Winter War while losing only 47 to enemy fire. Finnish anti-aircraft guns also had 314 confirmed downed enemy planes. 30 Soviet planes were captured – these were "kills" that landed more or less intact within Finland and were quickly repaired. The Finnish Air Force found itself better prepared when
9636-459: The extensive use of inflection allows them to be ordered differently. Word order variations are often reserved for differences in information structure . Finnish orthography uses a Latin-script alphabet derived from the Swedish alphabet, and is phonemic to a great extent. Vowel length and consonant length are distinguished, and there are a range of diphthongs , although vowel harmony limits which diphthongs are possible. Finnish belongs to
9768-516: The final round. The cost for 64 aircraft was € 4.703 billion, and the initial weapons package ( € 754.6 million) and other associated costs (service equipment, reserve and replacement parts, training equipment and other systems and services were € 2.920 billion) bringing the package to € 8.378 billion. Additionally € 780 million are going to be used to upgrade facilities, and € 840 million are saved for later expenses, such as air-to-ground weapons, resulting in total expenses of € 9.998 billion, below
9900-586: The first commander of the Finnish Air Force) and Per Svanbäck. The aircraft made a stop at Kokkola and had to make a forced landing in Jakobstad when its engine broke down. It was later given the Finnish Air Force designation F.2 ("F" coming from the Swedish word " Flygmaskin ", meaning "aircraft"). Swedish count Eric von Rosen gave the Finnish White government its second aircraft,
10032-551: The formal. However, in signalling the former in writing, syncope and sandhi – especially internal – may occasionally amongst other characteristics be transcribed, e.g. menenpä → me(n)empä . This never occurs in the standard variety. he mene vät ne mene e "they go" loss of a number contrast on verbs in the 3rd person ( menee is 3rd person singular in the formal language) ( minä) o le n mä o o n "I am" or "I will be" and no pro-drop (i.e., personal pronouns are usually mandatory in
10164-446: The future status of Finnish in Sweden, for example, where reports produced for the Swedish government during 2017 show that minority language policies are not being respected, particularly for the 7% of Finns settled in the country. The Uralic family of languages, of which Finnish is a member, are hypothesized to derive from a single ancestor language termed Proto-Uralic , spoken sometime between 8,000 and 2,000 BCE (estimates vary) in
10296-807: The government of Finland stipulated a budget ceiling of € 10 billion for the HX fighter programme. In December 2015 the Finnish MoD sent a letter to Britain, France, Sweden and the US informing them that the fighter project had been launched in the Defence Forces. The request for information concerning the HX Fighter Program was sent in April 2016. Responses were received from all five participants in November 2016. The official Request for Quotation
10428-461: The grammatical and phonological changes also include the most common pronouns and suffixes, which amount to frequent but modest differences. Some sound changes have been left out of the formal language. For example, irregular verbs have developed in the spoken language as a result of the elision of sonorants in some verbs of the Type III class (with subsequent vowel assimilation ), but only when
10560-508: The individual units served under the commanders of the individual front lines. A flight school was set up in Helsinki, but no students were trained there before the fall of Helsinki. Two of the aircraft, one reconnaissance aircraft ( Nieuport 10 ) and one fighter aircraft ( Nieuport 17 ) that had arrived at Riihimäki were sent to Tampere, and three to Kouvola. Four Russian pilots and six mechanics also arrived at Tampere. The first war sortie
10692-696: The insignia of the Finnish Air Force. The white circular background originated when the Finns painted over the advertisement from the Thulin air academy. The swastika was officially taken into use after an order by Commander-in-Chief C. G. E. Mannerheim on 18 March 1918. The FAF changed its aircraft insignia, which resembled the swastika of the Third Reich , after 1944 due to an Allied Control Commission decree, which prohibited fascist organizations. It nevertheless continues to feature in some unit emblems, unit flags and decorations, including on uniforms. In 2020,
10824-451: The introduction of the aircraft. The air-to-ground package might consist of GBU-53/B SDB II bombs, GBU-31 JDAM bombs, JSM and AGM-158B-2 JASSM-ER missiles, which all were offered in the deal. The DSCA notification also mentioned BLU-117 , BLU-111 and BLU-109 bombs, as well as AGM-154C-1 Joint Stand Off Weapons (although the latter is unlikely as production ended in 2023). Note: Three C-17 Globemaster III 's are available through
10956-470: The language, which he based on Swedish, German, and Latin. The Finnish standard language still relies on his innovations with regard to spelling, though Agricola used less systematic spelling than is used today. Though Agricola's intention was that each phoneme (and allophone under qualitative consonant gradation ) should correspond to one letter, he failed to achieve this goal in various respects. For example, k , c , and q were all used for
11088-501: The latitude, similar to the south of Alaska , where continentality, proximity to the poles and moderation intersect. The Föhn wind , for example, passes over the Scandinavian Mountains and leaves a milder and drier weather in the lee of the mountains where Vaasa is found, affecting especially in the winter which explains sunny days even in the season of short solar duration. The location of some sea distance gives
11220-734: The limit of € 10 billion. Costs per aircraft frame is € 73.48 million. The aircraft are planned to be delivered between 2026 and 2030, and is expected to replace the F/A-18s during the period 2028–2030. The F-35s are intended to be in service until the 2070s. The FAF expects the annual operating costs not to exceed € 254 million, which are the current operating costs for the F/A-18 fleet. The first weapons package will include AIM-9X Block II+ Sidewinder and AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM missiles, and later on air-to-ground weaponry will be obtained when they reach sufficient maturity and will match their shelf life with
11352-762: The limiting treaties were no longer active and that all the provisions of the Paris Peace Treaties were nullified. In the 1990s, with the Cold War over, the Finnish Air Force ended its policy of purchasing Soviet/Russian aircraft and replaced the Saab Draken and MiG-21s in its fighter wing with US F/A-18C/D Hornets . As of 2021 the FAF is organized into three Air Commands, each assigned to one of Finland's three air-defence areas. The main Wing bases are at Rovaniemi , Tampere and Kuopio-Rissala , each with
11484-415: The main cultural and political centres. The standard language, however, has always been a consciously constructed medium for literature. It preserves grammatical patterns that have mostly vanished from the colloquial varieties and, as its main application is writing, it features complex syntactic patterns that are not easy to handle when used in speech. The colloquial language develops significantly faster, and
11616-514: The mid-1930s, which proved a much more effective formation than the Vic formation that many other militaries continued to use in 1939. To prevent their aircraft from being destroyed on the ground, the Finns distributed their aircraft to many different airfields and hid them in the nearby forests. The Finns constructed many decoys and built shrapnel-protection walls for the aircraft. Soviet air-raids on Finnish airfields usually caused little or no damage as
11748-411: The modern-day eastern Finnish dialects, Veps, Karelian, and Ingrian) formed genitive plural nouns via plural stems (e.g., eastern Finnish kalojen < * kaloi -ten ), the western dialects of Proto-Finnic (today's Estonian, Livonian and western Finnish varieties) used the non-plural stems (e.g., Est. kalade < * kala -ten ). Another defining characteristic of the east–west split
11880-624: The most part, the dialects operate on the same phonology and grammar. There are only marginal examples of sounds or grammatical constructions specific to some dialect and not found in standard Finnish. Two examples are the voiced dental fricative found in the Rauma dialect , and the Eastern exessive case . The Southwest Finnish dialects ( lounaissuomalaismurteet ) are spoken in Southwest Finland and Satakunta . Their typical feature
12012-483: The name of the surrounding mostly rural municipality, which since 1973 surrounds the city. The city was known as Vasa between 1606 and 1855, Nikolajstad (Swedish) and Nikolainkaupunki (Finnish) between 1855 and 1917, named after the then late Czar Nicholas I of Russia , Vasa (Swedish) and Vaasa (Finnish) after the February Revolution , with the Finnish spelling of the name being
12144-419: The need to improve the status of Finnish. Ever since the days of Mikael Agricola, written Finnish had been used almost exclusively in religious contexts, but now Snellman's Hegelian nationalistic ideas of Finnish as a fully-fledged national language gained considerable support. Concerted efforts were made to improve the status of the language and to modernize it, and by the end of the century Finnish had become
12276-623: The neutral USA strengthened the FAF. A few dozen Curtiss Hawk 75s captured by the Germans in France and Norway were sold to Finland when Germany began warming up its ties with Finland. Finns reconditioned captured Tupolev SBs , Ilyushin DB-3s , and Polikarpov I-153s for service. The FAF proved capable of holding its own in the upcoming battles with the Red Air Force. Older models, such as
12408-629: The oldest air forces of the world, pre-dates the British RAF (founded as an independent entity on 1 April 1918) and the Swedish Flygvapnet (founded on 1 July 1926). The first steps in the history of Finnish aviation involved Russian aircraft. The Russian military had a number of early designs stationed in the Grand Duchy of Finland , which until the Russian Revolution of 1917 formed an autonomous grand duchy under
12540-453: The original pronunciation, still reflected in e.g. Karelian /čč : č/ ( meččä : mečän ). In the spoken language, a fusion of Western /tt : tt/ ( mettä : mettän ) and Eastern /ht : t/ ( mehtä : metän ) has resulted in /tt : t/ ( mettä : metän ). Neither of these forms are identifiable as, or originate from, a specific dialect. The orthography of informal language follows that of
12672-616: The other hand, is the main variety of Finnish used in popular TV and radio shows and at workplaces, and may be preferred to a dialect in personal communication. Standard Finnish is prescribed by the Language Office of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland and is the language used in official communication. The Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish ( Nykysuomen sanakirja 1951–61), with 201,000 entries,
12804-452: The overall outcome of the war. The first air-force base of independent Finland was founded on a lake shore near Kolho . The base could operate three aircraft. The first aircraft arrived by rail on 7 March 1918, and on 17 March 1918 took off from the base for the first time. In 1918 the Finns took over nine Russian Stetinin M-9 aircraft that had been left behind. The first air operation of
12936-447: The phoneme / k / . Likewise, he alternated between dh and d to represent the allophonic [ ð ] (like th in English this ), between dh and z to represent / θː / (like th in thin , but longer in duration), and between gh and g to represent the allophonic [ ɣ ] . Agricola did not consistently represent vowel length in his orthography. Others revised Agricola's work later, striving for
13068-506: The population. 12.1% of the population of Vaasa have 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. At least 50 different languages are spoken in Vaasa. The most common foreign languages are Arabic (1.1%), Russian (0.9%), English (0.9%) and Ukrainian (0.7%). As of 2023 , there were 8,564 persons with
13200-512: The position and numerous accidents. The German Captain Carl Seber took over the role and commanded the air force from 28 April 1918 until 13 December 1918. By the end of the Civil War, the Finnish Air Force had 40 aircraft, of which 20 had been captured from the Reds (the Reds did not operate this many aircraft, but some had been found abandoned on Åland ). Five of the aircraft had been flown by
13332-404: The primary one from around 1930 when Finnish speakers became the majority in the city. The history of Korsholm and also of Vaasa begins in the 14th century, when seafarers from the coastal region in central Sweden disembarked at the present Old Vaasa, and the wasteland owners from Southwest Finland came to guard their land. In the middle of the century, Saint Mary's Church was built, and in
13464-426: The producers asking what their products can offer Finland in form of capabilities, cost, security of supply and the domestic industry's role, as well as security and defence policy impacts. The goal is to retain the numerical strength of the FAF fighter fleet, which means that the goal is to obtain some 64 aircraft. The MoD has estimated that the programme will cost somewhere between 7–10 billion Euros. In October 2019,
13596-746: The region in the 18th and 19th centuries. Kven is an official minority language in Norway. The Eastern dialects consist of the widespread Savonian dialects ( savolaismurteet ) spoken in Savo and nearby areas, and the South-Eastern dialects now spoken only in Finnish South Karelia . The South Karelian dialects ( eteläkarjalaismurteet ) were previously also spoken on the Karelian Isthmus and in Ingria . The Karelian Isthmus
13728-478: The region. On 30 June the Russian forces withdrew from Vaasa, and all officials that had pledged allegiance to Russia were discharged, and some were assaulted by locals. On 13 September the Russian forces returned and on the next day the decisive Battle of Oravais , which was won by Russia, was fought some 50 kilometres (30 mi) further north. By winter 1808, the Russian forces had overrun all of Finland, and in
13860-514: The reign of Charles IX of Sweden , and is named after the Royal House of Vasa . The city is renowned as a significant university and college city in Finland. Vaasa is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of 65% Finnish speakers, 23% Swedish speakers, and 12% speakers of other languages. The municipalities surrounding Ostrobothnia, such as Korsholm and Malax , have
13992-401: The second syllable of the word is short. The result is that some forms in the spoken language are shortened, e.g. tule-n → tuu-n ('I come'), while others remain identical to the standard language hän tulee "he comes", never * hän tuu ). However, the longer forms such as tule can be used in spoken language in other forms as well. The literary language certainly still exerts
14124-636: The status of official minority languages, and thus can be considered distinct languages from Finnish. However, since these languages are mutually intelligible , one may alternatively view them as dialects of the same language . No language census exists for Norway, neither for Kven, standard Finnish, or combined. As of 2023, 7,454 first- or second-generation immigrants from Finland were registered as having Norwegian residency, while as of 2021, 235 Finns were registered as foreigners studying at Norwegian higher education. Great Norwegian Encyclopedia estimates Kven speakers at 2,000-8,000. Altogether, this results in
14256-487: The town the Senate gave Vaasa the right to add the Cross of Freedom, independent Finland's oldest mark of honour designed by Akseli Gallen-Kallela , to its coat of arms , to the town's coat of arms. The coat of arms is unusual not only in this respect, but also because of its non-standard shape and a crown are included. Because of its role in the civil war, Vaasa became known as "The White City". A Statue of Freedom, depicting
14388-465: The travel journal, the words are those of a Finnish bishop whose name is unknown. The erroneous use of gelen (Modern Finnish kielen ) in the accusative case, rather than kieltä in the partitive, and the lack of the conjunction mutta are typical of foreign speakers of Finnish even today. At the time, most priests in Finland spoke Swedish . During the Middle Ages, when Finland
14520-422: The two standard languages being not mutually intelligible. Finnish demonstrates an affiliation with other Uralic languages (such as Hungarian and Sami languages ) in several respects including: Several theories exist as to the geographic origin of Finnish and the other Uralic languages. The most widely held view is that they originated as a Proto-Uralic language somewhere in the boreal forest belt around
14652-499: The use of Finnish through parish clerk schools, the use of Swedish in church, and by having Swedish-speaking servants and maids move to Finnish-speaking areas. The first comprehensive writing system for Finnish was created by Mikael Agricola , a Finnish bishop, in the 16th century. He based his writing system on the western dialects . Agricola's ultimate plan was to translate the Bible , but first he had to develop an orthography for
14784-492: The vicinity of the Ural Mountains . Over time, Proto-Uralic split into various daughter languages , which themselves continued to change and diverge, yielding yet more descendants. One of these descendants is the reconstructed Proto-Finnic , from which the Finnic languages developed. Current models assume that three or more Proto-Finnic dialects evolved during the first millennium BCE. These dialects were defined geographically, and were distinguished from one another along
14916-509: The warmer month. End of April is usually the growing season with 250–300 mm approximately. The maritime breeze explains the difference in temperature, distribution of precipitation and sunshine, different from the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Bothnia brings the sea wind in places further distant about 50 km from the coast. The city gets more sun than inland places, although current log are unavailable. The highest ever recorded temperature
15048-626: The western dialects preferred by Agricola retained their preeminent role, while many originally dialect words from Eastern Finland were introduced to the standard language, thus enriching it considerably. The first novel written in Finnish (and by a Finnish speaker) was Seven Brothers ( Seitsemän veljestä ), published by Aleksis Kivi in 1870. The dialects of Finnish are divided into two distinct groups, Western and Eastern. The dialects are largely mutually intelligible and are distinguished from each other by changes in vowels, diphthongs and rhythm, as well as in preferred grammatical constructions. For
15180-403: The western parts of Lapland are recognizable by retention of old "h" sounds in positions where they have disappeared from other dialects. One form of speech related to Northern dialects, Meänkieli , which is spoken on the Swedish side of the border is recognized in Sweden as its own distinct language, having its own standardized language separate from Finnish. This form of speech developed from
15312-492: Was 32.2 °C (89.6 °F), on 18 July 2018, although a record of 33.7 °C (92.7 °F) was recorded in the city center the same day, which in fact was the hottest day of Finland in 2018 by slightly edging a temperature recorded in Turku Artukainen of 33.6 °C (92.5 °F), also on 18 July 2018, making it the highest temperature ever recorded in Vaasa. The city of Vaasa has 70,382 inhabitants, making it
15444-496: Was a prescriptive dictionary that defined official language. An additional volume for words of foreign origin ( Nykysuomen sivistyssanakirja , 30,000 entries) was published in 1991. An updated dictionary, The New Dictionary of Modern Finnish ( Kielitoimiston sanakirja ) was published in an electronic form in 2004 and in print in 2006. A descriptive grammar (the Large grammar of Finnish , Iso suomen kielioppi , 1,600 pages)
15576-575: Was ablaze and the fire lasted for many hours. By evening, most of the town had burned to the ground. Out of 379 buildings only 24 privately owned buildings had survived, among them the Falander – Wasastjerna patrician house (built in 1780–1781) which now houses the Old Vaasa Museum. The Court of Appeal (built in 1775, nowadays the Church of Korsholm ), some Russian guard-houses along with
15708-538: Was allowed to buy guided missiles and a few bombers that were used as target-tugs. The FAF also used a loop-hole to strengthen its capabilities by purchasing large numbers of two-seater aircraft, which counted as trainer aircraft and were not included in the revisions. These aircraft could have secondary roles. During the Cold War years ( c. 1947 to c. 1991 ), Finland tried to balance its purchases between east, west and domestic producers. This led to
15840-463: Was chartered and renamed after the Royal House of Vasa . Thanks to the sea connections, ship building and trade, especially tar trade, Vaasa flourished in the 17th century and most of the inhabitants earned their living from it. In 1683, the three-subject or Trivial school moved from Nykarleby to Vaasa, and four years later a new schoolhouse was built in Vaasa. The first library in Finland
15972-464: Was evacuated during World War II and refugees were resettled all over Finland. Most Ingrian Finns were deported to various interior areas of the Soviet Union. Palatalization , a common feature of Uralic languages, had been lost in the Finnic branch, but it has been reacquired by most of these languages, including Eastern Finnish, but not Western Finnish. In Finnish orthography, this is denoted with
16104-413: Was flown on 1 March 1918 over Naistenlahti. It seems likely that the Reds also operated two aircraft over the Eastern front. The Reds mainly performed reconnaissance, bombing sorties, spreading of propaganda leaflets, and artillery spotting. The Reds' air activity was not particularly successful. Their air operations suffered from bad leadership , worn-out aircraft, and un-motivated Russian pilots. Some of
16236-480: Was founded in Vaasa in 1794. In 1793, Vaasa had 2,178 inhabitants, and in the year of the catastrophic town fire of 1852 the number had risen to 3,200. During the Finnish War , fought between Sweden and Russia in 1808–1809, Vaasa suffered more than any other city. In June 1808, Vaasa was occupied by the Russian forces, and some of the local officials pledged allegiance to the occupying force. On 25 June 1808
16368-443: Was heavy fighting in the streets and in the end the Swedish forces were repelled and forced to retreat back the way they came. Generalmajor Demidov suspected that the inhabitants of Vaasa had taken to arms and helped the Swedish forces, even though the provincial governor had confiscated all weapons that spring, and he took revenge by letting his men plunder the city for several days. During those days 17 civilians were killed, property
16500-459: Was located in the immediate vicinity of Tropiclandia. Over the years, Vaasa has changed its name several times, due to alternative spellings, political decisions and language condition changes. At first it was called Mustasaari or Mussor after the village where it was founded in 1606, but just a few years later the name was changed to Vasa to honor the royal Swedish lineage. Mustasaari (Finnish) or Korsholm (Swedish) remains as
16632-547: Was looted and destroyed, many were assaulted and several people were taken to the village of Salmi in Kuortane where they had to endure the physical punishment called running the gauntlet . The massacre in Vaasa was exceptional during the Finnish war as the Russian forces had avoided that kind of cruelty that far. It was probably a result of the frustration the Russians felt because of intensive guerilla activity against them in
16764-477: Was merged into Vaasa. It is currently an exclave area of the city, since it is surrounded by other municipalities. Near the Polar Circle , Vaasa falls in continental subarctic climate ( Köppen : Dfc ) with severe dry winters and almost warm summers. The prevailing direction of the winds, North Atlantic Current and the proximity of the Gulf of Bothnia give the climate a certainly livability in spite of
16896-545: Was published in 2004. There is also an etymological dictionary, Suomen sanojen alkuperä , published in 1992–2000, and a handbook of contemporary language ( Nykysuomen käsikirja ). Standard Finnish is used in official texts and is the form of language taught in schools. Its spoken form is used in political speech, newscasts, in courts, and in other formal situations. Nearly all publishing and printed works are in standard Finnish. The colloquial language has mostly developed naturally from earlier forms of Finnish, and spread from
17028-567: Was required to expel or intern remaining German forces as part of its peace agreement with the Soviets in September 1944. As a result, the Finns' fought their final air battles against retreating Luftwaffe units. The Finnish Air Force did not bomb any civilian targets during either war. Overflying Soviet towns and bases was also forbidden, as to avoid any unneeded provocations and to spare equipment. The Finnish Air Force shot down 1,621 Soviet aircraft while losing 210 of its own aircraft during
17160-605: Was sent in the spring of 2018. The goal is to start the fighter candidates’ environmental testing in Finland in 2019. The buying decision took place in 2021. On 10 December 2021, it was announced that Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II was the winner of the HX program. It was also revealed that neither the Dassault Rafale , Saab JAS 39 Gripen nor the Eurofighter Typhoon had gone through to
17292-543: Was the use of the reflexive suffix -(t)te , used only in the eastern dialects. The birch bark letter 292 from the early 13th century is the first known document in any Finnic language . The first known written example of Finnish itself is found in a German travel journal dating back to c. 1450 : Mÿnna tachton gernast spuho sommen gelen Emÿna daÿda (Modern Finnish: " Minä tahdon kernaasti puhua suomen kielen, [mutta] en minä taida; " English: "I want to speak Finnish, [but] I am not able to"). According to
17424-562: Was under Swedish rule , Finnish was only spoken . At the time, the language of international commerce was Middle Low German , the language of administration Swedish , and religious ceremonies were held in Latin . This meant that Finnish speakers could use their mother tongue only in everyday life. Finnish was considered inferior to Swedish, and Finnish speakers were second-class members of society because they could not use their language in any official situations. There were even efforts to reduce
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