Finnish Language
Finnish is a Finno-Ugrian language and one of the official languages of Finland, spoken by approximately six million people, primarily in Finland. The language is distinct from Indo-European languages, lacking gender and articles, and is characterized by its agglutinative nature, allowing for long compound words. Finnish shares close ties with Estonian and Karelian and is distantly related to Hungarian. The language evolved from Proto-Uralic around 4,500 years ago, with the Finns migrating from the Ural Mountains to the Gulf of Finland region.
Historically, Finnish was predominantly a spoken language until the sixteenth century, when Mikael Agricola translated the New Testament into Finnish, marking its literary emergence. Finland's complex history influenced the language's development, particularly during periods of Swedish and Russian rule, which impacted its status and usage. Today, Finnish has both a standard form used in formal contexts and a spoken form shaped by regional dialects, with significant influences from Germanic, Scandinavian, and increasingly, English vocabulary. Literature remains a vital part of Finnish culture, with a strong emphasis on reading and writing.
Finnish Language
The Finnish language is an official language of Finland, a Scandinavian country that is the fifth largest in Western Europe. About six million people speak Finnish, most in Finland. Finland was part of Sweden for more than six hundred years. Because of this, Finland became a bilingual country—its inhabitants speak both Finnish and Swedish, which is also an official language. Finnish is spoken in other countries including Sweden, where it is a minority language, Estonia, Norway, Canada, and the United States.
Finnish is a Finno-Ugrian language and is therefore different from Indo-European languages such as Latin. Finnish words do not have a gender and the language does not use articles. Case endings are added to words to indicate time and place. Finnish is agglutinative, meaning words can be added together so that a sentence's worth of information is condensed into one word, which often creates unwieldy and lengthy words. Finnish is closely related to Karelian and Estonian and distantly related to Hungarian.
The Finnish language has two main dialect groups, Western and Eastern Finnish, which are mostly mutually intelligible. Dialects within the Western group resemble Estonian, the language spoken in nearby Estonia. Dialects within the Eastern group include Savonian, the dialect spoken by those living in the town of Savonlinna.
History and Classification
The Finnish language is classified as Finno-Ugrian or Uralic and is a member of the Baltic-Finnic subgroup of languages. Other Uralic languages are Hungarian, Estonian, and Sami. Despite the geographical gap between Finland and Finno-Ugrian-speaking nations, several linguistic factors determine its classification: the absence of gender (the Finnish pronoun hän stands for both he and she), the absence of articles (a and the in English), long words due to agglutination, numerous grammatical cases, the use of suffixes to express personal possession, and no equivalent for the infinitive to have.
The Finnish language descended from the Proto-Uralic ancestral language. The Finns broke away from this language about 4,500 years ago. Historians believe they migrated from the Ural mountains to south of the Gulf of Finland. There, they split into two groups. One group settled into what is now Estonia while the other settled into what is now Finland. The language they spoke evolved into two distinct languages: Finnish and Estonian. At first, Finnish was only a spoken language commonly used by peasants. Finnish did not become a written language until the sixteenth century when Mikael Agricola, a Lutheran bishop, translated the New Testament into Finnish.
Finland's tumultuous history significantly affected its language. In the twelfth century, Finland was absorbed by Sweden during the Northern Crusades. Finland remained a province of Sweden until a war with Russia in the eighteenth century placed it under Russian control. Swedish remained the official language of Finland until 1809 when Russia granted Finland the special status of "Grand Duchy," permitting the Finns to maintain their language, Lutheran religion, and constitutional laws. This led to a widespread sentiment of nationalism and Finnish pride even though the ruler of Finland was the Emperor of Russia. By the end of the nineteenth century and with the onset of the Russian Revolution, a policy of "Russification" was enforced that oppressed the Finnish language and culture. This lasted until Finland declared its independence in 1917. However, even in the twenty-first century, the Finnish are bilingual and list both Finnish and Swedish as official languages.
Beginning in the nineteenth century, national literature became important to the Finns as they sought to preserve their history and culture. Elias Lӧnnrot collected and edited epic folk poems from Finland that had endured as an oral tradition for two thousand years. His compilation, known as the Kalevala, became known as the national epic and was published in 1835.
In the twenty-first century, literature remains a central aspect of Finland's economy and culture. Finns are avid readers and writers—the country publishes more than thirteen thousand books a year. Poetry continues to be a cultural tradition, with a long-running television series called Runoraati providing a public forum for new works to be judged and analyzed.
Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage
The Finnish language has a standard language (yleiskieli) and a spoken language (puhekieli). The standard language is considered more formal and used in political speeches and newscasts. The standard language is related to the written "book" language (kirjakieli) and both preserve grammatical patterns that have become obsolete in the spoken language. The spoken language developed naturally, spiraling out from major cultural and political centers. Modern Standard Finnish developed in the nineteenth century as a blend of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciations from the country's regional dialects.
The majority of loan words in modern Finnish come from Germanic and Scandinavian languages; however, English has become a major source of new vocabulary in the twenty-first century. The English influences arrive through cultural exposure to films, music, literature, and the Internet.
Bibliography
Asplund, Anneli and Sirkka-Liisa Mettomäki. "Kalevala: The Finnish National Epic." This is Finland. Finland Primitive Board. Oct. 2000. Web. 3 Aug. 2015. URL: http://finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=160078&nodeid=44499&culture=en-US
Branch, Hannele. "Where does Finnish come from?" This is Finland. –Finland Primitive Board. Web. 3 Aug. 2015. URL: http://finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=160056
Dalby, Andrew. "Finnish." Dictionary of Languages. London, UK: A&C Black, 2004. 193-105. Print.
"Finnish 101." 101Languages.net. 101 Languages. Web. 3 Aug, 2015. URL: http://www.101languages.net/finnish/dialects.html
Paavolainen, Nina. "Finnish contemporary literature: A wealth of voices." This is Finland. Finland Primitive Board. March 2011. Web. 3 Aug. 2015. URL: http://finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=160076&nodeid=44499&culture=en-US
Viires, Ants, Ph.D. "The Karelians." Eki.ee. The Peoples of the Red Book. 20 Aug. 1993. Web. 3 Aug. 2015. URL: http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/karelians.shtml