Finnish Language History

Finnish is a member of the Baltic-Finnic language subgroup. This subgroup is part of the larger language group Finno-Ugric. About six million people speak Finnish, most of them in Finland. Finnish is also recognized as a minority language in Sweden. Finland is bilingual, with residents speaking both of the official languages — Finnish and Swedish.

Early Finnish

Finnish derives from the Proto-Finnic language around 1500-1000 BCE, after the Proto-Finnic language separated from Sami. Baltic-Finnic languages separated from the language group around the 1st century. Eastern Finnish dialects have a strong Eastern Proto-Finnic influence while Estonian influenced Southwestern Finnish dialects.

Medieval Finnish

During the Middle Ages, Finland was annexed to Sweden. It was at this point that Finnish was written down for the first time. The oldest written Finnish dates back to 1450. Finnish bishop Mikael Agricola created the first comprehensive Finnish writing system in the 16th century. He based the Finnish written system on his knowledge of Latin, Swedish and German. Agricola initially wanted to translate the Bible but instead created Finnish language rules. He brought words like “righteous” and “grace” into the Finnish language.

Modern Finnish

In the 19th century, Finnish moved towards becoming the national language of Finland as a result of a Finnish nationalist movement. Prior to this, Finnish had only been used in religious services. The first novel written in Finnish was published in 1870. In 1892 Finnish was adopted as an official language of Finland.

Finnish has borrowed words from many languages. Early on in its evolution Finnish took from Indo-European languages. Finnish speakers take words directly from Germanic languages, Swedish and English.

Finnish also has adopted many governmental words from Swedish. The words that Finnish incorporated from Russian are very old, and come from the trading partners relationship that Russia and Finland had from the 9th century onwards.

English words that have merged into Finnish are mostly cultural words, as English reaches Finland through the media. Because English is the global business language, some non-English companies have chosen to use English as their operating language. This includes the Finnish company Nokia.

Spoken Finnish

Standard Finnish has traditionally been used for literature. It contains complex syntactical constructions that are unwieldy in everyday speech. Written Finnish greatly influences spoken Finnish, and on television it is common to hear people speaking polished Standard Finnish.

The Western and Eastern Finnish Dialects

The Western and Eastern Finnish dialects are mutually intelligible. The Western dialects resemble Estonian with its shortened vowels at the end of words. One Western dialect, Meankeili, which is spoken on the Swedish side of the Finnish/Swedish border, causes controversy in Finland. Meankeili speakers were annexed to Russia in 1809 and were thus separated from other Finnish speakers. Meankieli is currently classified as its own language, though Finns see only political, and not linguistic, reasons for it.

Eastern dialects include the Southern and South-Eastern dialects. The South-Eastern dialects are spoken in South Karelia.

Modern Day Finnish-Speaking Countries

• Finland
• Sweden
• Estonia
• Republic of Karelia
• Torne Valley
• Ingria
• Norway

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