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153-458: The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names—see below ; Swedish : finlandssvenskar ; Finnish : suomenruotsalaiset ) is a linguistic minority in Finland . They maintain a strong identity and are seen either as a separate cultural, ethnic or linguistic group or, occasionally, a distinct nationality . They speak Finland Swedish , which encompasses both
306-445: 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
459-477: 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
612-537: 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 )
765-498: A construct of eager promoters of the Finnish language from the higher strata of society, mainly with Swedish-speaking family backgrounds. A later development, especially at the beginning of the 20th century, was the adoption or translation or modification of Swedish surnames into Finnish ( fennicization ). This was generally done throughout the entire society. In upper-class families it was predominantly in cadet branches of families that
918-528: 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
1071-747: 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
1224-548: A high degree of functional bilingualism. Clerical families in the whole seem to have been more fluent in Finnish than the burghers as whole. In the Middle Ages , commerce in the Swedish realm, including Finland, was dominated by German merchants who immigrated in large numbers to the cities and towns of Sweden and Finland. As a result, the wealthier burghers in Sweden (and in cities as Turku (Åbo) and Vyborg (Viborg)) during
1377-464: A historical, cultural, and geographic region; it is often referred to in everyday language, e.g., in weather forecasts. Several related Norrland dialects form a distinct subset of dialects of the Swedish language separate from those to its south. Norrland consists of the majority of the Swedish landmass at about 60% of the land area, but only has about 12% of the country's population. Its largest city
1530-629: 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
1683-504: A letter to Erik Puke requesting assistance to conquer entire Norrland ( al norland vnte han honom wolla ). Ice hockey is generally regarded to be the most popular spectator sport in Norrland. Many of Sweden's most famous hockey players are natives of Norrland, including Peter Forsberg , Börje Salming , Markus Näslund , Henrik Lundqvist , Nicklas Bäckström , Elias Pettersson , and twin brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin . As of
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#17327913750421836-581: A matter of language and de-emphasising the "Swedish part" of Finland-Swedish identity, i.e. their relations to Sweden. Among Finnish Americans the term Swede-Finn became dominant before the independence of Finland in 1917, and the term has remained common to the present, despite later immigrants tending to use different terms such as Finland-Swede . The expressions Swedish-speaking Finns , Swedes of Finland , Finland Swedes , Finnish Swedes , and Swedish Finns are all used in academic literature. The first Swedish arrivals in Finland have often been linked to
1989-425: 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
2142-435: 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
2295-414: A small minority usually leads to functional bilingualism. Swedish-speaking Finns are more fluent in Finnish than Finnish-speakers are in Swedish due to the practical matter of living in a predominantly Finnish-speaking country. In big cities with a significant Swedish-speaking population such as Helsinki and Turku , most of them are fluent in both Swedish and Finnish. Although in some municipalities Swedish
2448-636: 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
2601-399: A standard language and distinct dialects that are mutually intelligible with the dialects spoken in Sweden and, to a lesser extent, other Scandinavian languages . According to Statistics Finland , Swedish is the mother tongue of about 260,000 people in mainland Finland and of about 26,000 people in Åland , a self-governing archipelago off the west coast of Finland, where Swedish
2754-442: 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
2907-413: 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
3060-461: Is Umeå , while the other four county seats are Gävle , Härnösand , Östersund and Luleå . The largest non-capitals are Sundsvall , Skellefteå and Örnsköldsvik while Kiruna is the largest town of the vast Lapland province in the far north. Sweden's highest mountain Kebnekaise and deepest lake of Hornavan are in Norrland. Plenty of long rivers originating in the mountains run through
3213-398: Is abundant, although it in many areas is very mild for that classification, especially in coastal regions. In the mountain ranges the tundra climate can be found with summer temperatures averaging below 10 °C (50 °F), but that is due to altitude and not in populated areas. All low-lying areas of Norrland are below the tree line because of the mild summers and so the boreal forest
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#17327913750423366-947: Is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages . In the established classification, it belongs to 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
3519-415: Is dominant. In older history, Norrland is one of the four lands of Sweden . To the west it represented the northern half of Sweden bounded to the south by Svealand and to the east it represented the northern half of Finland – which was then a part of Sweden – bounded to the south by Österland . In Svealand and Götaland, the land boundaries were of major juridical and administrative importance, but this
3672-481: 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
3825-652: Is made up of three north–south belts: the Scandinavian Mountains in the west, the Muddus Plains covering much of the inland, and the mixed relief of the eastern coast. Unlike the much more densely populated Svealand and Götaland , which are better known for big cities ( Stockholm , Gothenburg , Malmö ) with landmarks and tourist attractions, Norrland is known for its nature with wide forests, large rivers and untouched wilderness. Most inhabitants live in rural areas and small villages and along
3978-538: 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
4131-593: Is not widely understood and often not made. In literature regarding to international law and minority rights, a view that the Swedish-speakers in Finland not only constitute an ethnic minority but a distinct nationality has also been presented. Marriages between Swedish- and Finnish-speakers are nowadays very common. According to a study commissioned by the Swedish Assembly of Finland in 2005, 48.5% of all families with children where at least one of
4284-568: 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
4437-638: 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 )
4590-424: Is portrayed in movies and series such as Sällskapsresan 2 – Snowroller , The Hunters and Pistvakt – En vintersaga . Despite Norrland being the most diverse of the three lands of Sweden in terms of languages and cultures it is usually portrayed as one homogeneous region. Fiction usually portrays characters from Norrland as villagers from the wilderness even though the majority of the population live in and around
4743-515: Is sometimes portrayed slightly negatively in Swedish fiction, sometimes being a place of terror and dread. The thriller films The Hunters and False Trail ( The Hunters 2 ) show a highly negative portrait of Norrland, filled with racial prejudice and violence. The people of Norrland in their turn tend to have a fairly negative view of people from Stockholm and the rest of southern Sweden, for example by referring to Stockholm as fjollträsk , which loosely translated means "sissy town". This dynamic
Swedish-speaking population of Finland - Misplaced Pages Continue
4896-407: Is stable, and may even be increasing slightly in total numbers since more parents from bilingual families tend to register their children as Swedish speakers. It is estimated that 70% of bilingual families—that is, ones with one parent Finnish-speaking and the other Swedish-speaking—register their children as Swedish-speaking. The Swedish term finlandssvensk (literally 'Finland's-Swede'), which
5049-412: Is subdivided into Northern Norrland ( norra Norrland ) and Southern Norrland ( södra Norrland ). The northern part of the region typically covers the historical provinces of Norrbotten, Västerbotten and Lappland (the modern counties of Norrbotten and Västerbotten), while the southern part covers the remainder of the region. There is also the concept of Middle Norrland ( mellersta Norrland ), which
5202-475: 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
5355-549: Is the northern part of Southern Norrland. Middle Norrland has no clearly defined boundaries, but usually corresponds with the historical provinces Ångermanland, Medelpad, Jämtland and Härjedalen. Except for the coastal areas, Norrland is sparsely populated. Approximately 12 percent of Sweden's population lives in Norrland. Except for some coastal areas most of Norrland is made up by the Norrland terrain —hilly and mountainous land covered by boreal forests . More in detail Norrland
5508-423: Is the only official language, Finnish is the dominant language in most towns and at most employers in Finland. In areas with a Finnish-speaking majority, Finnish is most often used when interacting with strangers and known Finnish speakers. However, 50% of all Swedish speakers live in areas in which Swedish is the majority language and in which they can use Swedish in all or most contexts (see demographics below). Of
5661-527: 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
5814-455: 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
5967-416: Is the sole official language . Swedish-speakers comprise 5.2% of the total Finnish population or about 4.9% without Åland. The proportion has been steadily diminishing since the early 19th century, when Swedish was the mother tongue of approximately 15% of the population and considered a prestige language . According to a 2007 statistical analysis made by Fjalar Finnäs , the population of the minority group
6120-407: 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
6273-631: 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
Swedish-speaking population of Finland - Misplaced Pages Continue
6426-549: Is used by the group itself, does not have an established English translation. The Society of Swedish Authors in Finland and the main political institutions for the Swedish-speaking minority, such as the Swedish People's Party and Swedish Assembly of Finland , use the expression Swedish-speaking population of Finland , but Swedish-speaking NGOs often use the term Finland-Swedes . The Research Institute for
6579-465: 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
6732-545: The Finnish nobility consisting of about 6000 persons, of which about two thirds are Swedish-speakers. Still the majority of the Swedish-speaking Finns have traditionally been farmers and fishermen from the Finnish coastal municipalities and archipelago. Finland is a bilingual country according to its constitution . This means that members of the Swedish language minority have the right to communicate with
6885-467: 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
7038-585: The Indo-European language family , spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland . It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it 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
7191-478: The Swedish realm in the 13th century, at a time when that realm was still in the process of being formed . At the time of the Late Middle Ages , Latin was still the language of instruction from the secondary school upwards and in use among the educated class and priests. As Finland was part of Sweden proper for 550 years, Swedish was the language of the nobility, administration and education. Hence
7344-518: 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
7497-585: The Viking Age . It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish , although the degree of mutual intelligibility is dependent on 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,
7650-581: 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
7803-410: 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
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#17327913750427956-593: The tundra climate of the high mountains. In general, the most common climate is the subarctic type. The cold climate has led to winter sports being popular, with Norrland teams and athletes being especially successful in ice hockey , skiing and bandy . Norrland comprises the historical nine provinces ( landskap ): [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Historically, Jämtland and Härjedalen belonged to Norway until 1645, and are thus often considered outside of
8109-513: The 13th and 15th centuries, in parallel with events that resulted in Swedish expansion to Norrland and Estonia's coastal area . The origin of the Swedish-speaking population in the territory that today constitutes Finland was a subject of fierce debate in the early 20th century as a part of Finland's language strife . Some Finland-Swede scholars, such as Ralf Saxén [ fi ; sv ] , Knut Hugo Pipping [ fi ; sv ] and Tor Karsten , used place names in trying to prove that
8262-399: 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
8415-510: The 2023 season, no team from Norrland currently plays in Allsvenskan. However, teams such as GIF Sundsvall , Gefle IF and Östersunds FK have all in recent years played many seasons in Sweden's highest league, and the region has produced its share of famous footballers. Gunnar Nordahl , Tomas Brolin , Jesper Blomqvist and Mikael Lustig are all footballers who grew up in Norrland, and went on to become Swedish internationals. Norrland
8568-613: The 2023–24 season, four Norrland teams currently compete in the Swedish Hockey League : Luleå HF , Skellefteå AIK , MoDo Hockey and Timrå IK . Additionally, Brynäs IF and IF Björklöven are also two popular teams from Norrland with long traditions in Swedish ice hockey who currently compete in the second highest league Hockeyallsvenskan . Skiing, both alpine and nordic, is also a popular sport in Norrland. Two of Sweden's largest and most popular ski resorts, Åre and Hemavan , are located in Norrland. Famous skiers from
8721-485: 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
8874-521: The Helsinki area would choose to integrate in Swedish if they had the option. According to a report by Finland's Swedish think tank, Magma, there is a widespread perception among immigrants that they are more easily integrated in the Swedish-speaking community than in the majority society. However, some immigrants also question whether they ever will be fully accepted as Finland Swedes. Swedish-speaking immigrants also have their own association, Ifisk, and in
9027-403: The Languages of Finland proposes Swedish-speaking Finns , Swedish Finns , or Finland-Swedes , the first of which is the sole form used on the institute's website. Some debators insist for the use of the more traditional English-language form, Finland-Swedes , as they view the labelling of them as Swedish-speaking Finns as a way of depriving them their ethnic affiliation, reducing it to merely
9180-491: The Middle Ages on, the Swedish kings tried to colonize and Christianize the area. As a result of the changing relations to Finland, the northern borders of Norrland have shifted. While the word Finland originally meant only the southwestern part of what is now Finland ( Finland Proper ), the border of Norrland was drawn at the rivers Kaakamojoki or, later, Simojoki . This changed when the eastern half of Sweden (Finland)
9333-471: 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
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#17327913750429486-413: The Norrland forests, with major coastal towns frequently being on their estuaries. Their extensive drops in elevation also make Norrland a major producer of hydroelectricity from some of those rivers. Winters in Norrland are cold by Swedish standards but mild for the latitudes. The vastness of the region renders very different environments and climates, ranging from mild coastal climates of Gävleborg to
9639-601: 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,
9792-504: The Swedish authorities, as opposed to their Finnish counterpart, do not register languages. Another reason is that the natural increase of the Finnish-speakers has been somewhat faster than that of the Swedish-speakers until recent times, when the trend has reversed. During most of the 20th century, marriages across language borders tended to result in children becoming Finnish speakers, and knowledge of Swedish declined. During
9945-491: The Swedish language for those parts of the country where Swedish speakers made up the local majority. The Finnish-speaking parties and leadership studiously avoided self-government for Swedish speakers in the Finnish mainland. Of the broader wishes of the Swedish-speaking political movement only cultural concessions—most notably administrative autonomy for Swedish schools and a Swedish diocese —were realized, which nevertheless were sufficient to prevent more thorough conflict between
10098-424: The Swedish settlement in Finland dates back to prehistoric times. Their views were opposed mainly by Heikki Ojansuu [ fi ; sv ] in the 1920s. In 1966, the historian Hämäläinen (as referenced by McRae 1993) addressed the strong correlation between the scholar's mother-tongue and the views on the Scandinavian settlement history of Finland. "Whereas Finnish-speaking scholars tended to deny or minimize
10251-477: The Swedish settlements to Nyland (Uusimaa) . During the 14th century, the population expansion from Sweden proper increasingly took the form of organised mass migration: the new settlers came in large numbers in large ships from various parts of Sweden's Eastern coast, from Småland to Hälsingland. Their departure from Sweden proper to Finland was encouraged and organized by the Swedish authorities. The coast of Ostrobothnia received large-scale Swedish settlements during
10404-456: The Swedish-speakers in Finland, the Swedish People's Party , has defined the Swedish-speaking Finns as a people who express Finnish identity in the Swedish language. The issue is debated: an opposite view is still that the Swedish-speaking Finns are a sub-group of the ethnic Swedes, östsvenskar or "East Swedes". Despite these varying viewpoints, the Swedish-speaking population in Finland in general have their own identity distinct from that of
10557-511: The Swedish-speaking population of Finland, There is a small community of Swedish-speaking immigrants in Finland. Many of them come from Sweden, or have resided there (about 8,500 Swedish citizens live in Finland and around 30,000 residents in Finland were born in Sweden), while others have opted for Swedish because it is the main language in the city in which they live, or because their partners are Swedish-speaking. About one quarter of immigrants in
10710-471: The Swedish-speaking population. Finland-Swedish folklore along the coast has been traditionally maritime-influenced. The folklore themes are typical in the Nordic context. Stories and tales involving the evil water-spirit are central. The origins of some of the tales have been German and French from which they have been adapted to the Nordic milieu. (Finland)-Swedish folklore has also had a significant impact on
10863-461: The administration in Stockholm viewed Norrland essentially as a colony consisting of natural resources to be exploited. "In Norrland we have an India within our borders, if only we realize we should be taking advantage of it" ( I Norrland hava vi inom våra gränser ett Indien, blott vi förstå att bruka det ) is a quote attributed to Axel Oxenstierna that fairly well describes the attitude. In
11016-502: 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
11169-508: The archipelago became Swedish-speaking by assimilation. According to another view (e.g. Tarkiainen 2008) the two major areas of Swedish language speakers ( Nyland and Ostrobothnia ) were largely uninhabited at the time of the arrival of Swedes. According to an interpretation based on the results of recent (2008) genome-wide SNP scans and on church records from the early modern period, Swedish-speaking peasantry has been overwhelmingly endogamous . Historian Tarkiainen (2008) presents that from
11322-522: The area. A toponymical analysis from e.g. the Turunmaa archipelago—today largely Swedish-speaking—suggests the existence of a large population of native Finnish speakers up until the early modern age. Whether the Finnish settlements prior to the arrival of the Swedes have been permanent or seasonal is debated. According to another toponymic study, some Finnish villages and farms on the south-western coast and
11475-517: The beginning of the 19th century, attracted Finnish-speaking workers, civil servants and university students from other parts of Finland, as did other Swedish-speaking areas. As a result, the originally unilingual Swedish-speaking coastal regions in the province of Nyland were cut into two parts. There was a smaller migration in the opposite direction, and a few Swedish-speaking "islands" emerged in towns like Tampere , Oulu and Kotka . According to official statistics, Swedish speakers made up 12.9% of
11628-404: The capital region there is a publicly financed project named Delaktig aimed at facilitating integration of immigrants who know or wish to learn Swedish. Most if not all immigrants also wish to be fluent in Finnish due to the fact that it is the dominant language in Finnish society. Swedish speakers have migrated to many parts of the world. One study has shown they are more likely to emigrate than
11781-462: The challenges of small town living." The northern town is initially inhospitable to the main character as a boy, whose mother chooses to take him out of the town to escape bullying. He returns years later as an accomplished musician, only to find an insular town where bullying continues in several forms, including from the original classmates who troubled him as a youth. It is through his outside status—along with his music and desire share its joy—that
11934-496: The coast in cities. Towards the end of the 20th century, there was a noticeable increase of the population in Norrland, mainly from people moving from larger cities. The largest cities in Norrland, from north to south, are Luleå , Skellefteå , Umeå , Östersund , Sundsvall and Gävle . With the exception of Östersund, those cities are all near the coast. During the Industrial Revolution , which reached Sweden in
12087-456: The coastal cities. In the 2006 horror film Frostbite , the portrait is more balanced. Unlike most other Swedish films, it takes place in a larger community at the northern peak of Sweden, being filmed in Kalix and Kiruna . The people are shown to be pretty warm and welcoming towards outsiders. Rather than the people, the nature of Norrland is shown to be hostile. A constant darkness roams over
12240-504: 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
12393-481: The concept of minority has been increasingly applied to Swedish speakers, even within the Finland-Swedish political discourse. The Swedish nationality movement was effectively mobilized during the aftermath of Finnish independence and the civil war that shortly followed. The Swedish assembly of Finland was founded to protect the linguistic integrity of Swedish-speakers and seek fixed territorial guarantees for
12546-403: 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
12699-541: 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
12852-510: The earlier part the formation of the Lutheran Church (in its High Church form) was constituted most often of the wealthier strata of the peasantry with the closely linked medieval Finnish nobility and the rising burgher class in the expanding cities. The Church required fluency in Finnish from clergymen serving in predominantly or totally Finnish-speaking parishes (most of the country); consequently clerical families tended to maintain
13005-551: The equality of the Swedish nationality next to the Finnish-speaking nationality and the fact the national languages of Finland were the languages of the respective nationalities of the country, not the languages of the state itself. The concept of minority, although de facto the case for Swedish speakers, was perceived as being against the spirit of the constitution. However, gradually after the Second World War,
13158-422: The ethno-linguistic groups. The urbanization and industrialization that began in the late 19th century increased the interaction between people speaking different languages with each other, especially in the bigger towns. Helsinki ( Helsingfors in Swedish and predominantly used until the late 19th century), named after medieval settlers from the Swedish province of Hälsingland , still mainly Swedish-speaking in
13311-545: 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
13464-494: The five existing recognized groups: Sámi , Jews , Romani , Sweden Finns , and Tornedalians . The issue has been debated in the Swedish Parliament ( Riksdag ) several times, with the 2017 attempt failing due to the ethnic group not being established in the country prior to 1900. Swedish language Swedish ( endonym : svenska [ˈsvɛ̂nːska] ) is a North Germanic language from
13617-557: The folklore of Finnish speakers. Finland-Swedish literature has a rich legacy. Under the lead of Edith Södergran , who also captivated audiences in the English-speaking world, Gunnar Björling and Elmer Diktonius , the Finland-Swedish modernists of the early 20th century had a significant impact on the whole of Scandinavian modernism. Tove Jansson is perhaps the most renowned example of Finland-Swedish prose. Her Moomin books have fascinated children and adults throughout
13770-399: The form partial self-determination and fixed protection for Swedish language in Swedish-speaking municipalities have been proposed in Finland's Swedish-speaking media. Following an educational reform in the 1970s, both Swedish and Finnish became compulsory school subjects . The school subjects are not called Finnish or Swedish ; the primary language in which lessons are taught depends upon
13923-466: The historical Norrland. On the other hand, Finland belonged to Sweden until 1809, and during that time, Norrland was extended into Northern Finland. Administratively, Sweden is not divided into provinces but into counties ( län ). Although Norrland is defined in terms of the historical provinces and not the counties, it roughly comprises the modern counties of Gävleborg , Jämtland , Norrbotten , Västerbotten and Västernorrland . Sometimes, Norrland
14076-430: 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
14229-614: 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
14382-484: 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
14535-447: The last decades the trend has been reversed: many bilingual families chose to register their children as Swedish speakers and put their children in Swedish schools. One motive is the language skills needed during their professional lives. Population statistics do not recognize bilingualism. The Finnish substrate toponyms (place names) within today's Swedish-speaking areas have been interpreted as indicative of earlier Finnish settlements in
14688-490: 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
14841-480: The late Middle Ages onwards until relatively recent times, Swedish-speaking peasants tended to select their marriage partners from the same parish, often from the same village as themselves. This tends to be the rule among traditional peasant communities everywhere. As tightly knit peasant communities tend to assimilate potential newcomers very quickly, this has meant that most marriages within the Swedish-speaking peasantry during this period were contracted with members of
14994-399: The late Middle Ages tended to be of German origin. In the 19th century, a new wave of immigration came from German-speaking countries predominantly connected to commercial activities, which has formed a notable part of the grand bourgeoisie in Finland to this day. After the Finnish war , Sweden lost Finland to Russia. During the period of Russian sovereignty (1809–1917) the Finnish language
15147-438: The lead of Senator E. N. Setälä who played a major role in the drafting the language act (1922) and the language paragraphs (1919) in the Finnish constitution, interpreted the language provisions so that they are not supposed to suggest the existence of two nationalities. According to this view Finland has two national languages but only one nationality. This view was never shared in the Swedish-speaking political circles and paved
15300-470: The linguistic and cultural revival of 19th century Lithuania where many former Polish speakers expressed their affiliation with the Lithuanian nation by adopting Lithuanian as their spoken language. As the educated class in Finland was almost entirely Swedish-speaking, the first generation of the Finnish nationalists and Fennomans came predominantly from a Swedish-speaking background. The language issue
15453-443: The linguistic rights of Swedish-speaking Finns in practice. The criticism was partly legitimized by the report (2008) conducted by Finnish government which showed severe problems in the practical implementation of the language act. The recent administrative reforms in Finland have caused harsh criticism in the Swedish-speaking media and created fear over the survival of Swedish as an administrative language in Finland. A special status in
15606-483: The majority, and they wish to be recognized as such. In speaking Swedish, Swedish-speaking Finns predominantly use the Swedish word finländare (approximately translatable as Finlanders ) when referring to all Finnish nationals. The purpose is to use a term that includes both themselves and Finnish-speaking Finns because the Swedish word finnar , in Finland-Swedish usage, implies a Finnish-speaking Finn. In Sweden, this distinction between finländare and finnar
15759-531: The mid-19th century, Norrland became the source for the important wood and pulp industry. All but four of the major Norrland rivers have been exploited for water power . The rivers in Norrland account for the bulk of hydroelectric power in Sweden, which is in many countries a limited energy source, but Sweden has hydroelectrical power account for approximately 40 percent of its total production of electricity . Mines for producing precious metals have also been located in Norrland. In older history and still today,
15912-429: The municipality becomes monolingual. In bilingual municipalities, all civil servants must have satisfactory language skill in either Finnish or Swedish (in addition to native-level skill in the other language). Both languages can be used in all communications with the civil servants in such a town. Public signs (such as street and traffic signs, as illustrated) are in both languages in bilingual towns and municipalities with
16065-599: The name in the majority language being on the top. The Swedish-speaking areas in Finnish Mainland do not have fixed territorial protection, unlike the languages of several national minorities in Central Europe such as German in Belgium and North Italy . This has caused a heated debate among Swedish-speaking Finns. The current language act of Finland has been criticized as inadequate instrument to protect
16218-436: The name translations took place. Opposition to the Swedish language was partly based around historical prejudices and conflicts that had sprung up during the 19th century. The intensified language strife and the aspiration to raise the Finnish language and Finnic culture from peasant status to the position of a national language and a national culture gave rise to negative portrayals of Swedish speakers as foreign oppressors of
16371-577: 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
16524-421: 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
16677-518: The neighbouring, adjacent Finnish-speaking populations but formed a genetic cluster with the Swedes According to a 2008 Y-DNA study, a Swedish-speaking reference group from Larsmo , Ostrobothnia, differed significantly from the Finnish-speaking sub-populations in the country in terms of Y-STR variation. This study however was comparing one small Swedish-speaking municipality of 4652 inhabitants to Finnish-speaking provinces and only tells about
16830-424: 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
16983-552: The northern parts of present-day Finland were counted as part of Norrland ). When the Grand Duchy of Finland was formed and Karelia was reunited with Finland, the share of Swedish speakers was 15% of the population. During the 19th century a national awakening occurred in Finland. It was supported by the Russian central administration for practical reasons, as a security measure to weaken Swedish influence in Finland. This trend
17136-471: The official history of Sweden, not much is written about the northern parts of the country. Kebnekaise , Sweden's tallest mountain at 2,111 metres (6,926 feet), is located in Lappland in the north of Norrland. Norrland has a highly variable climate depending on altitude, latitude and distance to water. The southern coastal areas have a humid continental climate , but further north, the subarctic climate
17289-441: 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
17442-420: The origin of two different Y-DNA haplotypes. According to a sociological study published in 1981, the Swedish-speaking Finns meet the four major criteria for a separate ethnic group: self-identification of ethnicity, language, social structure, and ancestry. However, not all Swedish-speaking Finns are willing to self-identify as representatives of a distinct ethnicity. The major political organisation representing
17595-402: 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
17748-426: The parents was Swedish-speaking were bilingual in the sense of one parent being Swedish- and the other Finnish-speaking (only families living in those municipalities where Swedish was at least a co-official language were included in this study). 67.7% of the children from these bilingual families were registered as Swedish-speaking. The proportion of those who attended schools where Swedish was the language of instruction
17901-428: The peaceful Finnish-speaking peasant. Even though the proportional distribution of Swedish-speakers among different social strata closely reflects that of the general population, there is still a lingering conception of Swedish as a language of the historical upper class culture of Finland. This is reinforced by the fact that Swedish-speakers are statistically overrepresented among " old money " families as well as within
18054-498: The population—both Swedish and Finnish speakers—were farmers, fishermen and other workers. The farmers lived mainly in unilingual areas, while the other workers lived in bilingual areas such as Helsinki. This co-existence gave birth to Helsinki slang —a Finnish slang with novel slang words of Finnish, local and common Swedish and Russian origin. Helsinki was primarily Swedish-speaking until the late 19th century, see further: Fennicization of Helsinki . The Finnish-speaking parties, under
18207-411: The presence of Swedish-speakers before the historically documented Swedish expeditions starting from the 12th century, Swedish-speaking scholars have found archeological and philological evidence for a continuous and Swedish or Germanic presence in Finland from pre-historic times." Since the late 20th century, several Swedish-speaking philologists, archaeologists and historians from Finland have criticized
18360-466: The pupil's mother tongue. This language of instruction is officially and in general practice called the mother tongue ( äidinkieli in Finnish, modersmål in Swedish). The secondary language, as a school subject, is called the other domestic language ( toinen kotimainen kieli in Finnish, andra inhemska språket in Swedish). Lessons in the "other domestic language" usually start in
18513-516: The putative First Swedish Crusade (ca. 1150) which, if it took place, served to expand Christianity and annex Finnish territories to the kingdom of Sweden. Simultaneously the growth of population in Sweden, together with lack of land, resulted in Swedish settlements in Southern and Western coastal areas of Finland. The Second Swedish Crusade against the Tavastians in the 13th century extended
18666-480: 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
18819-435: The region include Ingemar Stenmark , Anja Pärson and Per Elofsson . Football is also popular in Norrland, but teams from the region have rarely been on the same competitive level as the big city clubs in southern Sweden. To date, no Norrland team has ever won Allsvenskan , Sweden's highest-level football league, and Sandvikens IF is the only Norrland team that has ever finished in the top four (last time in 1956). As of
18972-610: The rest of the Finnish population. It is estimated that between the early 1870s and late 1920s, approximately 70,000 Swedish-speaking Finns emigrated to North America. In Minnesota, a number settled on the Iron Range , in Minneapolis-Saint Paul , and in the northeastern part of the state including Duluth and along the North Shore of Lake Superior . Larsmont , Minnesota, a town named after Larsmo , Finland,
19125-468: 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
19278-428: The same language group. During the time of early immigration by Swedes to the coastal regions (approximately between 1150 and 1350), the situation was different and according to a study from the 1970s (as referenced by Tarkiainen, 2008) the intermarriage rate between local Finns and Swedish newcomers was considerable. According to Tarkiainen, in the areas of initial Swedish immigration, the local Finns were assimilated into
19431-444: 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
19584-428: 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
19737-415: The state authorities in their mother tongue. On the municipal level, this right is legally restricted to municipalities with a certain minimum of speakers of the minority language. All Finnish communities and towns are classified as either monolingual or bilingual. When the proportion of the minority language increases to 8% (or 3000), then the municipality is defined as bilingual, and when it falls below 6%,
19890-488: The subject in a clause, a trait that is restricted to North Germanic languages: Norrland Norrland ( Swedish: [ˈnɔ̌rːland] , "Northland", originally Norrlanden or "the Northlands") is the northernmost, largest and least populated of the three traditional lands of Sweden , consisting of nine provinces . Although Norrland does not serve any administrative purposes, it continues to exist as
20043-519: The theories of Germanic / Scandinavian continuity in Finland. Current research has established that the Swedish-speaking population and Swedish place names in Finland date to the Swedish colonisation of Nyland and Ostrobothnia coastal regions of Finland in the 12th and 13th centuries. The proportion of Swedish speakers in Finland has declined since the 18th century, when almost 20% spoke Swedish (these 18th-century statistics excluded Karelia and Kexholm County , which were ceded to Russia in 1743, and
20196-456: The third, fifth or seventh form of comprehensive school and are a part of the curriculum in all secondary education. In polytechnics and universities , all students are required to pass an examination in the "other domestic language" on a level that enables them to be employed as civil servants in bilingual offices and communities. The actual linguistic abilities of those who have passed the various examinations however vary considerably. Being
20349-573: The total population of Finland of 2.6 million in 1900. By 1950 their proportion had fallen to 8.6% of a total of 4 million people, and by 1990 they formed 5.9% of the country's 5 million people. This sharp decline has since levelled off to more modest annual declines. An important contribution to the decline of Swedish speakers in Finland during the second half of the 20th century was that many Swedish speakers emigrated to Sweden. An estimated 30–50% of all Finnish citizens who moved to Sweden were Swedish-speaking Finns. Reliable statistics are not available, as
20502-507: The town and there is extreme cold. Vampires have been shown taking a liking to the land and hunt the towns people in the arctic night. The film is notorious for having the actors speak without the district Norrland accent, even the actors in the film who are native to Norrland. A mixed portrait of the region is found in As It Is in Heaven (2004), which "vividly conveys both the delights and
20655-481: The town finds redemption. The plot of the well-known thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo shifts back and forth between Stockholm and the fictional Norrland town of Hedestad. A constantly repeated theme in the book's background are the social, cultural and physical differences between these two locations: Norrland is more sedate, conservative and slow-moving in comparison with the cosmopolitan Stockholm;
20808-481: 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
20961-488: The two highest estates of the realm , i.e. nobles and priests , had Swedish as their language. In the two minor estates, burghers and peasants , Swedish also held sway, but in a more varying degree depending on regional differences. Most noble families of the medieval period arrived directly from Sweden. A significant minority of the nobility had foreign origins (predominantly German ), but their descendants normally adopted Swedish as their first language. The clergy in
21114-517: 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
21267-439: 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
21420-458: The way for a linguistic conflict. Contrary to the Finnish-speaking view the leaders of the Swedish nationality movement ( Axel Lille and others) maintained that the Swedish population of Finland constituted a nationality of its own and the provisions of the constitution act were seen to support the view. The Finnish-speaking political circles denoted the cultural rights of Finland-Swedes as minority rights. The Finland-Swedish political view emphasized
21573-549: The world. On 6 November, Finnish Swedish Heritage Day , a general flag flying day , is celebrated in Finland; the day celebrates the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, their culture, and the bilinguality of Finland. In a 2008 study a joint analysis was performed for the first time on Swedish and Finnish autosomal genotypes. Swedish-speakers from Ostrobothnia (reference population of the study representing 40% of all Swedish-speakers in Finland) did not differ significantly from
21726-530: The written language is uniform and standardized . Swedish is the most widely spoken second language in Finland where its status 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
21879-484: 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
22032-481: Was even higher. The Finnish authorities classify a person as a Swedish- or Finnish-speaker based only upon that person's (or parent's) own choice, which can be changed at any time. It is only possible to be registered either as Swedish- or Finnish-speaking, not both as in Canada, for example. It is significantly more common nowadays than it used to be for children from bilingual families to be registered as Swedish-speaking. Areas of modern-day Finland were integrated into
22185-914: Was founded by Swedish-speaking Finns in the early 1900s. For a number of reasons, including geographical and linguistic reasons, Sweden has traditionally been the number one destination for Swedish-speaking emigrants. In one study covering the period 2000–2015, over half of the 26,000 Swedish-speaking Finns who had moved abroad moved to Sweden. There are about 200,000 Swedish-speaking Finns living in Sweden ( Sverigefinlandssvenskar ), according to Finnish broadcaster Yle . Due to noticeable differences between Finland Swedish and Swedish as spoken in Sweden, Swedish-speaking Finns have been mistaken for non-native speakers and have been required to take language courses. Groups, particularly Finlandssvenskarnas riksförbund i Sverige [ sv ] (Fris), an interest group, have campaigned for decades in Sweden for recognition as an official national minority group, in addition to
22338-656: 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
22491-464: Was lost to Russia in 1809, and the new border was drawn at Torne River . The southern border was originally everything north of the Gästrikland province (until the 14th or 15th century a part of Uppland ), but since the mid 17th century, Gästrikland is also considered a part of Norrland. The name can be first traced from Karl's Chronicle , explaining how Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson in 1433 sent
22644-449: Was not primarily an issue of ethnicity, but an ideological and philosophical issue as to what language policy would best preserve Finland as a nation. This also explains why so many academically educated Swedish speakers changed to Finnish: it was motivated by ideology. Both parties had the same patriotic objectives, but their methods were completely the opposite. The language strife would continue up until World War II . The majority of
22797-523: 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
22950-515: Was not the case with Norrland. The name Norrland just gradually became a denomination of everything north of Svealand. Up to the Middle Ages, the northern part of Norrland ( Norrbotten and Lappland ) was sparsely populated by Sami , Kvens and different tribes/people related to the Finns . In the southern part of Norrland, Swedish and Norwegian settlers lived side by side with the Sami population. From
23103-409: Was promoted by the Russian authorities as a way to sever the cultural and emotional ties with Sweden and to counter the threat of a reunion with Sweden. Consequently, the Finnish language began to replace Swedish in the administrative and cultural sphere during the later part of the 19th century. The rise of the Finnish language to an increasingly prevalent position in society was, at the outset, mainly
23256-564: Was reinforced by the general wave of nationalism in Europe in the mid-19th century. As a result, under the influence of the German idea of one national language, a strong movement arose that promoted the use of the Finnish language in education, research and administration. Many influential Swedish-speaking families learned Finnish, fennicized their names and changed their everyday language to Finnish. This linguistic change had many similarities with
23409-482: 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
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