Swedish-speaking Finns 206208 226012743 2008-07-16T13:04:52Z 212.213.160.2 /* History */ [[Image:Svenskfinland municipalities 2008.png|thumb|200px|right| {{legend|white|Officially monolingual Finnish-speaking municipalities (Sami bilingual municipalities not shown)}} {{legend|lightblue|Bilingual municipalities with Finnish as the majority language}} {{legend|blue|Bilingual municipalities with Swedish as the majority language}} {{legend|darkblue|Monolingual Swedish-speaking municipalities (including Åland)}} More than 17,000 Swedish Finns live in officially monolingual Finnish municipalities, and are thus not represented on the map.]] '''[[Swedish language|Swedish]]-speaking Finns''' (often called '''Finland Swedes''', '''Finnish Swedes''' or '''Swedish Finns''', see below) ([[Swedish language|Swedish]]: ''finlandssvenskar'' or sometimes in Finland Swedish usage just ''svenskar'', [[Finnish language|Finnish]]: ''suomenruotsalaiset'') constitute a linguistic and cultural minority in [[Finland]]. They speak a [[dialect]] group and a standard language that are both called [[Finland Swedish]] and that are mostly [[mutually intelligible]] with the dialects spoken in [[Sweden]], as well as with other [[Scandinavian languages]]{{Fact|date=February 2008}}. Swedish is the [[first language|mother tongue]] of about 265,000 people in [[mainland Finland]] and of about 25,000 people in [[Åland]], together representing about 5.5% of the total population (according to official statistics for 2005 <sup>[http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html 1]</sup>) or about 5.1% 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 (estimate for 1815<sup>[http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/finnswedes.html 2]</sup>). However, according to a statistical report made by Fjalar Finnäs, the situation of the minority group is today stable<ref>[http://internytt.yle.fi/sok.php?id=99747&sokvariant=arkivet&lookfor=finlandssvenskarna&advanced=yes&starttid=&sluttid=&antal=10 YLE Internytt: Tvåspråkigheten på frammarsch]</ref><ref>[http://www.folktinget.fi/pdf/publikationer/finlanssv2005.pdf Svenska Finlands folkting: Finlandssvenskarna 2005 - en statistik rapport]</ref>. ==History== The Swedish speaking population of Finland dates back a long time. For how long is a disputed issue. Some archaeologists claim that an uninterrupted settlement can be proven from the Iron Age onwards in [[Ostrobothnia]] and [[Åland]].<ref>http://sydaby.eget.net/swe/ark.html Page describing research at Umeå University (in Swedish)</ref> The issue is debated. Whether people talked Swedish, Finnish or Sámi can not be shown by archaeological excavations, but an uninterrupted settlement on a place where Swedish was spoken in the 16th century has been seen as an indication.<ref> [[Eirik Hornborg]] in ''Vår svenska stam på utländsk mark,'' Lindquists förlag, Stockholm 1952</ref> On the other hand, according to a philologist Lars Huldén, the place-names in Ostrobothnia suggest that the region originally had a Finnish-speaking population. Archaeological culture in Ostrobothnia shows similarities both with Central Sweden and SW Finland. It has been documented that christian settlers moved from Sweden to Finland on a large scale beginning in the 12th and 13th centuries. These population movements were part of Central-Swedish expansion which extended Swedish population to [[Norrland]] and the coastal areas of Finland..<ref>Kari Tarkiainen: Sveriges Österland. Från forntiden till Gustav Vasa.</ref> The relative share of Swedish speakers in Finland has dropped since the 18th century, when almost 20 % spoke Swedish (these 18th century statistics disregarded [[Karelia]] and [[Kexholm County]], that were ceded to Russia in 1743, and the northern parts of Finland were counted as a part of northern Sweden). 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 got more power from the general wave of nationalism in Europe in the mid-19th century. As a result under the influence of German ideas of one national language, a strong movement that promoted the Finnish language for use in education, research and administration arose. The idea that the state would be administered in a language that was foreign to almost 90 % of the population was archaic. Many influential Swedish speaking families learned Finnish, fennicized their names and changed their daily language to Finnish, a sometimes not very easy task. Some thought the Swedish language in Finland would eventually die out. The Swedish-minded feared that a change of language would weaken Finland’s bonds with Western civilization and Western Christianity and that the aggressive Russian nationalism would eventually russify the country. A slogan was: “Swedish today – Finnish tomorrow – Russian the day after tomorrow”. Because of these fears the Swedish-minded saw as their patriotic duty to defend the Swedish language in Finland. They had already recognized that keeping Swedish as the sole language of administration was unrealistic and therefore fought for a maximum of official bilingualism. The Finnish-minded elite, led by [[Johan Vilhelm Snellman]], thought that the best idea was to have one national language and recognize Swedish as a regional minority language. {| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 15%; font-size: 95%; float: right;" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" !style="font-size: 95%" colspan="2"|''Swedish Finns as a percentage of Finland's population'' <sup>[http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/finnswedes.html 2]</sup><br> [http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html#structure 3] |- !style="background: #ececec; width:50%"|Year !style="background: #ececec; width:50%"|Percent |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1610 |17.5% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1749 |16.3% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1815 |14.6% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1880 |14.3% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1900 |12.9% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1920 |11.0% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1940 |9.5% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1960 |7.4% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|1980 |6.3% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|2003 |5.6% |- !style="background: #ececec;"|2005 |5.5% |- |} The language issue was not primarily an issue of ethnicity, but an ideological and philosophical issue on 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 with ideology. Both parties had the same patriotic objectives, but the methods were completely opposite. The language strife would continue up until [[WWII]], especially within the Finnish speaking elite. The majority of the population – both Swedish and Finnish speakers – were farmers, fishermen and workers. The farmers lived mainly in unilingual areas, while the workers lived side by side, e.g. in Helsinki. This co-existance gave birth to the [[Helsinki slang]] – a mixture of Finnish, Swedish and Russian. Helsinki was primarily Swedish speaking until the late 19th century. The urbanization and industrialization that begun in the late-19th century exposed the language groups to each other, at least in bigger towns. In the beginning many workers were Swedish speakers that moved from rural areas on the coast. Helsinki attracted workers and civil servants from all over Finland, which resulted that the unilingually Swedish [[Uusimaa]] province was cut in two parts. A smaller migration movement went the other way around, and a few Swedish “islands” emerged in towns like [[Tampere]], [[Oulu]] and [[Kotka]]. According to official statistics Swedish speakers made up 12.89 % of the total population of Finland of 2.6 million in 1900. By 1950 the share had fallen to 8.64 % of a total of 4 million people. By 1990 the share was 5.94 % of 5 million people. The sharp decline has then evened out to a decline of 0.03 – 0.02 % units per year. An important reason for 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 that moved to Sweden were Swedish speaking Finns. Reliable statistics are not available, since Swedish authorities, as opposite their Finnish counterpart, don’t register languages. Another reason is that Finnish speakers have grown in number somewhat faster than the Swedish speakers. During the majority of the 20th century marriages across language borders resulted in children becoming Finnish speakers and knowledge of Swedish vanished. During the last decades the trend has been opposite: many bilingual families chose to register their children as Swedish speakers and put their children in Swedish schools. One motive is language skills needed during their professional lives. Population statistics don’t recognize bilingualism. ==Biological origin== Studies covering the genetics of Finland-Swedes are very limited.{{Fact|date=July 2008}} In a superficial{{Fact|date=July 2008}} analysis covering 20 blood markers, researchers Nevanlinna and Virtanen-Knowles estimated that Finland-Swedes, or the sampled individuals identifying themselves as Finland-Swedes, to be somewhere in between Finnish and Swedish populations..<ref>Finnish Admixture in Swedish speakers of Finland Virtaranta-Knowles K, Sistonen P, Nevanlinna HR.</ref>. Bi-lingual marriages between the language groups have been on a rapid increase in past few decades. Additional studies which have required proven ancestry extending to all four greatparents have found "significant" differencies between Finland-Swedes and Finns. <ref> Adenosine deaminase polymorphism in Finland (Swedes, Finns, and Lapps), the Mari republic (Cheremisses), and Greenland (Eskimos). "Table 1 shows the distibution ADA (Adenosine deamiase) phenotypes in three samples each from Finland-Swedes (population 1, 2, 3,) and Finns (4,5,6). Brief preliminary reports of these data have been presented elsewhere. The ADA2 gene frequency is about 0.6 in the Swedish population investigated in Finland and 0.10 in the Finns"......The difference between the distribution of ADA phenotypes in the Finland-Swedes and in Finns is significant" . http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pag...geindex=2#page </ref>. Medical study on ABH secretion polymorphism discovered that Åland-islanders and "Swedes on Finnish mainland" had values similar to Swedes but differing "considerably" from Finns..<ref>ABH secretion polymorphism in Icelanders, Aland Islanders, Finns, Finnish Lapps, Komi and Greenland Eskimos: a review and new data. Among Alanders and Swedes on the Finnish mainland the frequency (around 20%) was comparable to Swedish values but considerably higher than among Finns (13-14%).http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3752918</ref>. In a recent study (2008) a joint analysis was performed for the first time on Swedish and Finnish autosomal genotypes, individuals from the Swedish-speaking part of Ostrobothnia (Finland´s Swedish-speaking reference population of the study) stuck out from the Finnish-speaking populations of the country and formed genetic cluster together with Sweden..<ref>Population Genetic Association and Zygosity testing on preamplified Dna.Ulf Hannelius </ref> ==Identity== [[Image:Flag of Swedish-speaking Finns.svg|thumb|right|150px|[[Flag of the Swedish-speaking Finns|Unofficial flag of Swedish-speaking Finns]].]] The Swedish-speaking Finns meet the four major criteria of a separate ethnic group: self-identification of ethnicity, language, social structure, and ancestry.<ref>Finland has generally been regarded as an example of a monocultural and egalitarian society. However, Finland has a Swedish-speaking minority that meets the four major criteria of ethnicity, i.e. self-identification of ethnicity, language, social structure and ancestry (Allardt and Starck, 1981; Bhopal, 1997). [http://her.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/18/6/770 Markku T. Hyyppä and Juhani Mäki: Social participation and health in a community rich in stock of social capital]</ref> In general, Swedish speaking Finns have their own identity distinct from that of the majority, and they wish to be recognized as such.<ref>"The identity of the Swedish[-speaking] minority is however clearly Finnish (Allardt 1997:110). But their identity is twofold: They are both Finland Swedes and Finns (Ivars 1987)." (Die Identität der schwedischen Minderheit ist jedoch eindeutig finnisch (Allardt 1997:110). Ihre Identität ist aber doppelt: sie sind sowohl Finnlandschweden als auch Finnen (Ivars 1987).) [http://www.linguistik-online.de/3_00/saari.html Saari, Mirja: Schwedisch als die zweite Nationalsprache Finnlands] (retrieved 10 December 2006)</ref> In speaking Swedish, Swedish Finns predominantly use the Swedish word ''finländare'' 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'' is not widely understood and often not made. Interaction between the language groups is nowdays very common, and a family may freely choose to send their children to schools of either language. In families where the parents come from different language groups, they often decide to speak both languages with the children such that each parent consistently speaks only Swedish or Finnish, whereby the children become totally [[bilingual]]. 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. ==Bilingualism== [[Image:Oikokatu.JPG|thumb|left|150px|A Finnish/Swedish street sign in Helsinki.]] [[Image:Helsinki bus stop sign.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Many geographical places in Finland have two names]] Finland is a [[bilingual]] country according to its [[Constitution of Finland|constitution]]. This means that members of the Swedish language minority have the right to communicate with 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%, the municipality becomes monolingual. In bilingual municipalities, all civil servants must have satisfactory language skills in either Finnish or Swedish (in addition to native speaker skills in the other language). Both languages can be used in all communications with the civil servants in such a town. Following an educational reform in the 1970s, both Swedish and Finnish became [[Mandatory Swedish|compulsory school subjects]]. The school subjects are not called ''Finnish'' or ''Swedish''; the primary language in which lessons are taught depends upon the pupil's mother tongue. This language of instruction is officially and in general practice called the ''mother tongue'' (''modersmål'' in Swedish, ''äidinkieli'' in Finnish). The secondary language, as a school subject, is called the ''other domestic language'' (''andra inhemska språket'' in Swedish, ''toinen kotimainen kieli'' in Finnish). Lessons in the "other domestic language" usually start in the third, fifth or seventh form of [[comprehensive school]] and are a part of the curriculum in all secondary education. In [[polytechnic]]s and [[University|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 a small minority necessarily leads to functional bilingualism.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Although in some towns and municipalities it is possible to speak only Swedish, Finnish is the dominant language in most towns and at most employers in Finland. Many find it more convenient to use Finnish 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). ==Demographics== Of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, *9% live in [[Åland]] *6% live in officially monolingual Swedish-speaking municipalities of mainland Finland ([[Korsnäs]], [[Närpes]], [[Larsmo]]) *35% live in officially bilingual towns and municipalities where Swedish dominates *44% live in officially bilingual towns and municipalities where Finnish dominates *6% live in officially monolingual Finnish-speaking towns and municipalities ==Other terms== Traditionally, immigrants were described in English and most other languages by an adjective indicating the new country of residence and a noun indicating their country of origin or their [[ethnic group]]. This gave rise to expressions such as "Finland Swedes" and "Finnish Swedes", which correspond to the expressions still commonly used for immigrants in the United Kingdom and the expressions commonly used in Swedish and Finnish. Immigrants to the USA have however always been designated the "other way around" by an adjective indicating the ethnic or national origin and a noun indicating the new country of residence, for example "Swedish Americans" (never "American Swedes"). For example, British citizens who migrated (not immigrated) from India (or whose ancestors did) are usually called {{PDFlink|[http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about/ethnic_group_statistics/downloads/ethnic_group_statistics.pdf "British Indians"]|402&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]]<!-- application/pdf, 412525 bytes -->}} (in both UK and US English), whereas Indian immigrants in the USA are called "Indian Americans" (in both UK and US English). Due to the great quantitative difference in Swedish immigration to the UK and USA, the expression "British Swedes" is much less well known than "[[Swedish Americans]]", but they correspond to these different naming patterns. Interestingly, British government documents{{PDFlink|[http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about/ethnic_group_statistics/downloads/ethnic_group_statistics.pdf]|402&nbsp;[[Kibibyte|KiB]]<!-- application/pdf, 412525 bytes -->}} today often simultaneously use both "British Asian" and "Asian British" and similar expressions as synonyms. This does not usually cause confusion because British immigration is mostly still in one direction, but it does cause an increasing amount of confusion in today's rapidly globalising world. More specifically, it has always been problematic in situations with close cultural ties and extensive reciprocal migration between two countries such as between Finland and Sweden (cf. also the confusion around the ambiguous terms "German Russian" and "Russian German"). The modern trend in most countries and languages is towards the naming method used to describe US immigrants because it emphasises the status as full and equal citizens of the new country while providing information about cultural roots. This system is also more appropriate to the situation of immigrants who have been living in the new country for a long time, especially when they stop using the original language. In any case, the self-designation of all population groups is nowadays however considered more important than any other criteria. Swedish-speaking inhabitants of Finland whose ancestors have lived there for centuries almost exclusively consider themselves Finns in the English sense of the word, so it is best to call them "Swedish-speaking Finns" in English. "Swedish-speaking Finns" is also the term preferred by the most representative organisation of Swedish Finns, the [[Swedish Assembly of Finland]], and the [[Society of Swedish Authors in Finland]]. Many Finns and Swedes are unaware that the English word "Finn" usually means "a native or inhabitant of Finland" ([http://www.bartleby.com/61/17/F0131700.html], [http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/finn?view=uk], [http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861611591]) and only sometimes ''also'' has the meaning "a member of a people speaking Finnish or a Finnic language" or has this as its primary but not exclusive meaning.[http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=Finn] More specifically, due to the extremely small number of immigrants in Finland, Finns still have a hard time understanding that the normal English expression for a naturalised Finnish citizen who immigrated from Vietnam, for example, is a Vietnamese Finn. These same linguistic problems were encountered in France, Germany, and many other countries before the native population became used to foreigners many decades ago. According to normal English usage (e.g. "French-speaking Canadians"), "Swedish-speaking Finns" means "Finnish citizens that speak Swedish as their mother tongue" and does not include people who have learned it as a foreign language. According to normal English usage, this can be abbreviated to '''Swedish Finns''' and '''Swedish speakers''', and these less cumbersome expressions are preferable even when addressing people in Nordic countries in English, as for example in this article, as long as the meaning has been explained. The reason an explanation of the normal meaning of the English expression ''Swedish Finns'' is necessary in Scandinavia is because this is often confusingly used in English translations in Sweden and Finland to refer to Finns that have moved to Sweden and to the Finnish ethnic minority that has lived there for a long time. These people should instead be called "Finnish immigrants" and "Finnish Swedes" (or "Finnish ethnic minority in Sweden") respectively according to modern, unambiguous English usage. The reason they are often still called "Swedish Finns" or "Sweden Finns" is the old usage that emphasised the ethnic origin of immigrants instead of their status as citizens of the new country, but this usage is confusing and diminishing, as explained above. ==Notable Swedish-speaking Finns== {{main|List of Swedish-speaking Finns}} * [[Tove Jansson]], writer, creator of [[Moomin]] characters * [[Gustaf Mannerheim]], Marshal and President of Finland, commander-in-chief during the [[Winter War]] * [[Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld]], Arctic explorer, first to conquer the [[Northeast passage]] and circumnavigate Eurasia * [[Johan Ludvig Runeberg]], romantic writer and Finland's national poet * [[Jean Sibelius]], classical composer * [[Edith Södergran]], modernist poet * [[Linus Torvalds]], software engineer, creator of [[Linux kernel]] * [[Georg Henrik von Wright]], philosopher ==See also== *[[Diocese of Borgå]] *[[Finlands Svenska Television|Swedish unit of the Finnish Broadcasting Company]] *[[List of Swedish-speaking Finns]] *[[List of Swedish-speaking and bilingual municipalities of Finland]] *[[Finnish people]] *[[Swedish people]] *[[Swedish Assembly of Finland]] *[[Sweden Finns]] ==External links== *[http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/finnswedes.html Swedish in Finland] *[http://www.sls.fi/ Society of Swedish Literature in Finland] *[http://www.kotus.fi/svenska/ Swedish Department of Research Institute for the Languages of Finland] *[http://www.carlonordling.se/finlandssvenskar/intro.html A collection of essays] by [[Carl O. Nordling]] *[http://www.finlander.eget.net/ The Finlander Forum] *[http://sfhs.eget.net/welcome.html The Swedish-Finn Historical Society] *[http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=26471 National Minorities of Finland, The Swedish-speaking Finns] *[http://terkepek.adatbank.transindex.ro/kepek/netre/154.gif Map of the areas populated by Swedish-speaking Finns] *[http://www.toti.eu.com/nordic.municipalities/finlandsvenskar.asp Demographical statistics of Swedish-speaking Finns] == References == {{reflist}} {{SwedishDiaspora}} [[Category:Swedish-speaking Finns|*]] [[Category:Swedish minorities|Finland]] [[Category:Finnish society]] [[Category:Ethnic minorities in Finland]] [[ca:Suecs de Finlàndia]] [[da:Finlandssvenskere]] [[de:Finnlandschweden]] [[fr:Suédois en Finlande]] [[ko:스웨덴계 핀란드인]] [[id:Orang Finlandia berbahasa Swedia]] [[he:פינים-שבדיים]] [[hu:Finnországi svédek]] [[nl:Finland-Zweden]] [[ja:スウェーデン系フィンランド人]] [[no:Finlandssvensk]] [[nn:Finlandssvenskar]] [[ru:Финские шведы]] [[fi:Suomenruotsalaiset]] [[sv:Finlandssvenskar]]