Everything about Swedish-speaking Finns totally explained
Swedish-speaking Finns (often called
Finland Swedes,
Finnish Swedes or
Swedish Finns, see below) (
Swedish:
finlandssvenskar or sometimes in Finland Swedish usage just
svenskar,
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.
Swedish is the
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
1
) 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
18152). However, according to a statistical report made by Fjalar Finnäs, the situation of the minority group is today stable.
History
The Swedish-speaking minority of Finland descends chiefly from the following:
- The Norse inhabitants of the Åland Islands, who probably lived there already in the Iron Age or at latest 12th century.
- Peasants and fishermen who settled in coastal areas and on islands in the current territory of Finland some time between 1000 and 1250 CE.
- Settlers who arrived together with Christian clerics and administrators in the Middle Ages of Finland (13th to 15th century).
- Settlers from Sweden throughout the period of close connections with Sweden, ca 15th to 19th century.
- Finnish farmers and fishers living in or near Swedish-dominated regions.
- Socially ambitious Finnish families who switched to Swedish or raised their children in Swedish. (Finnish became a written language only in the late 16th century. Throughout the era of Swedish rule over Finland, Swedish was the only official language and the only or main language of administration and high culture. This ultimately led to the elites having only limited knowledge of the majority language, Finnish.) For example, some Swedish-speaking noble families such as Carpelan (Karppalainen), Tawaststjerna, and Kurck (Kurki) have Finnish origins.
- Foreign immigrants. Many immigrants, particularly merchants and civil servants, chose to learn and adopt Swedish instead of Finnish. Many Swedish-speaking families have Dutch, German and Baltic German roots. The Jews that immigrated from Russia to Helsinki soon adopted Swedish and a proportionally large number remains Swedish speaking even today.
- In the past decade or two, many refugees and immigrants from third world countries have settled in Swedish dominated areas and learned Swedish. Some have learned Swedish in Sweden before. There are also cases of families from Sweden coming for work and settling among Swedish speaking Finns to facilitate schooling of their children. Some cases are returnees of Finnish descent.
About 60,000 Swedish speakers are estimated to have
emigrated to Sweden during the second half of the
20th century (compared to a total of about 540,000 Finnish emigrants to Sweden during the same period).
The number of Swedish speakers in Finland reached its maximum of 354,286 people in 1940.
Identity
The Swedish-speaking Finns meet the four major criteria of a separate ethnic group: self-identification of ethnicity, language, social structure, and ancestry.
In general, Swedish speaking Finns have their own identity distinct from that of the majority, and they wish to be recognized as such. 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 isn't widely understood and often not made.
Interaction between the language groups is 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
Finland is a
bilingual country according to its
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
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
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 a small minority necessarily leads to functional bilingualism. Although in some towns and municipalities it's 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,
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 (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 today often simultaneously use both "British Asian" and "Asian British" and similar expressions as synonyms. This doesn't 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's 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" ((External Link), (External Link), (External Link)) 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.(External Link) 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 (for example "French-speaking Canadians"), "Swedish-speaking Finns" means "Finnish citizens that speak Swedish as their mother tongue" and doesn't 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're 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
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, philosopherFurther Information
Get more info on 'Swedish-speaking Finns'.
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