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More than 17,000 Swedish-speaking Finns live in officially monolingual Finnish municipalities, and are thus not represented on the map.]]
More than 17,000 Swedish-speaking Finns live in officially monolingual Finnish municipalities, and are thus not represented on the map.]]


'''Swedish-speaking Finns''' (often referred '''Finland-Swedes''', '''Swedes in Finland'''<ref>Rystad, Göran. 1994. Redefining a Minority Role: The Case of the Swedes in Finland</ref><ref>Among Alanders and Swedes on the Finnish mainland the frequency (around 20%) was comparable to Swedish values but considerably higher than among Finns". ABH secretion polymorphism in Icelanders, Aland Islanders, Finns, Finnish Lapps, Komi and Greenland Eskimos.</ref> or '''Swedish Finns''', see below) ([[Swedish language|Swedish]]: ''finlandssvenskar'' or sometimes just ''svenskar'', [[Finnish language|Finnish]]: ''suomenruotsalaiset'') constitute a linguistic minority in [[Finland]]. They maintain a strong identity and are often seen as a distinct [[ethnic group|ethnic]] and cultural group. <ref>"... 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))</ref> They speak distinct [[dialect]]s and a standard language that are both called [[Finland Swedish]] and are [[mutually intelligible]] with the dialects spoken in [[Sweden]], as well as with other [[Scandinavian languages]].
'''Swedish-speaking Finns''' (often referred '''Finland-Swedes''', '''Swedes in Finland'''<ref>Rystad, Göran. 1994. Redefining a Minority Role: The Case of the Swedes in Finland</ref><ref>Among Alanders and Swedes on the Finnish mainland the frequency (around 20%) was comparable to Swedish values but considerably higher than among Finns". ABH secretion polymorphism in Icelanders, Aland Islanders, Finns, Finnish Lapps, Komi and Greenland Eskimos.</ref> or '''Swedish Finns''', see below) ([[Swedish language|Swedish]]: ''finlandssvenskar'' or sometimes just ''svenskar'', [[Finnish language|Finnish]]: ''suomenruotsalaiset'') constitute a linguistic minority in [[Finland]]. They maintain a strong identity and are seen as a distinct [[ethnic group|ethnic]] and cultural group buy some. <ref>"... 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))</ref> They speak distinct [[dialect]]s and a standard language that are both called [[Finland Swedish]] and are [[mutually intelligible]] with the dialects spoken in [[Sweden]], as well as with other [[Scandinavian languages]].


Swedish is the [[first language|mother tongue]] of about 275,000 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>.
Swedish is the [[first language|mother tongue]] of about 275,000 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>.

Revision as of 10:49, 28 February 2009

  Officially monolingual Finnish-speaking municipalities (Sami bilingual municipalities not shown)
  Bilingual municipalities with Finnish as the majority language
  Bilingual municipalities with Swedish as the majority language
  Monolingual Swedish-speaking municipalities (including Åland)
More than 17,000 Swedish-speaking Finns live in officially monolingual Finnish municipalities, and are thus not represented on the map.

Swedish-speaking Finns (often referred Finland-Swedes, Swedes in Finland[1][2] or Swedish Finns, see below) (Swedish: finlandssvenskar or sometimes just svenskar, Finnish: suomenruotsalaiset) constitute a linguistic minority in Finland. They maintain a strong identity and are seen as a distinct ethnic and cultural group buy some. [3] They speak distinct dialects and a standard language that are both called Finland Swedish and are mutually intelligible with the dialects spoken in Sweden, as well as with other Scandinavian languages.

Swedish is the mother tongue of about 275,000 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[4][5].

Definition problem

The Swedish term finlandssvensk, which is used by the group itself, does not have a settled English translation. The Research Institute for the Languages of Finland proposes either Swedish Finns, Finland-Swedes or Swedish-speaking Finns, the last of which is the sole form used on the Institute's website. 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 Finn, whereas Swedish-speaking NGO's often denote themselves with the term Finland-Swede[6] Expressions Swedish-speaking Finn, Finland Swede, Swedes in Finland and Swedish Finns are all used in the academic literature.

It has been presented that the Swedish expression finlandssvensk/ar often has an ethno-cultural connotation which exceeds the language. From this perspective criticism has been raised that expressions such as "Swedish-speaking" or "Swedish-speaking Finn" restrict the peculiar character of Swedish-speaking minority entirely as a linguistic phenomenon[7][8][9].

History

Debate of the origins

The debate on the origins of Germanic-speaking population in Finland has been subjected to fierce debate. In 1966, the historian Hamalainen (as referenced by McRae 1993) addressed the strong correlation between the scholars mother-tongue and the views on the age and continuity of the Scandinavian settlement history of Finland. "Whereas Finnish-speaking scholars tended to deny or minimize 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" (McRae, 1993).[10] However, during the recent decades several Swedish-speaking philologists, archaeologists and historians from Finland have criticized the theories of Germanic/Scandinavian continuity in Finland.[11][12][13][14] The present-day scholarly consensus in Finland stresses the lack of Germanic/Scandinavian continuity before the 12th or 13th centuries AD, although this view has been repeatedly challenged by Swedish-speaking amateur researchers[15] and, regarding the settlement continuity in the Åland Islands and Southern Ostrobothnia, by some Swedish archaeologists as well.[citation needed]

According to the archaeological evidence, the Åland Islands shared the Viking Age Scandinavian culture. However, according to some researchers the islands were deserted during the 11th century, and then resettled by Swedes after a brief phase of limited Finnish colonisation induced from place-name evidence. In Southern Ostrobothnia, the language of the Iron Age culture prevailing during 300 - 800 AD is unknown, although the character of the culture is similar to the one prevailing in South Finland.[16] In both cases, arguments of continuity in settlement reaching to the historical Swedish-speaking population have been presented, but the issue is still under debate.

Onomastic arguments

A few Roman Iron Age cemeteries in Finland Proper have characteristics shared with those on the Scandinavian peninsula and Gotland and may suggest early Germanic speaking groups. However, according to Thors, (1953) and Alhbäck (1954) the place names of Finland's coastal areas do not support a linguistic continuity from presumed early Germanic speaking immigrants to the present-day Swedish-speakers, as there are neither Proto-Germanic nor Proto-North-Germanic types among the current Swedish place names there. [17][18]

Medieval colonisation

The first Swedish arrivals in Finland have often been linked to the putative First Swedish Crusade (ca. 1150) which, if it actually happened, served to expand Christianity and annex Finnish territories to the newly born 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. [19] [20] The Second Swedish Crusade against the Tavastians in 13th century extended the Swedish settlements to Uusimaa.[21] During the 14th century the population expansion from Sweden increasingly took the form of organised mass arrivals: 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 to Finland was encouraged and organized by the Swedish authorities.[22] The coast of Ostrobothnia received large scale Swedish settlements between the 13th and 15th centuries, in parallel with events which resulted in Swedish expansion to Norrland. [23]

Nationalism and language strifes

The proportion of Swedish speakers in Finland has dropped 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 the northern parts of Finland were counted as 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 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. The idea that the state would be administered in a language not spoken by almost 90% of the population was archaic. Many influential Swedish-speaking families learned Finnish, fennicized their names and changed their everyday language to Finnish, sometimes not a very easy task. As the educated class was almost entirely Swedish-speaking, the first generation of the Finnish nationalists and Fennomans came predominantly from a Swedish-speaking background, although in many cases from families which originally had been Finnish-speaking, a very common phenomenon especially among the Lutheran clergy.

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 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 it 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 to recognize Swedish as a regional minority language.

Swedish Finns as a percentage of Finland's population 2
3
Year Percent
1610 17.5%
1749 16.3%
1815 14.6%
1880 14.3%
1900 12.9%
1920 11.0%
1940 9.5%
1960 7.4%
1980 6.3%
2003 5.6%
2005 5.5%

The language issue 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 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.

Developments since the late 19th century

The urbanization and industrialization that begun in the late 19th century increased the interaction between people speaking different languages with each other, especially in the bigger towns. Helsinki, named after medieval settlers from the Swedish province of Hälsingland, and still close to 100% Swedish-speaking in the 19th century, attracted Finnish-speaking workers, civil servants and university students from inland parts of Finland, as did other Swedish-speaking areas[24]. As a result, the originally unilingual Swedish province of Uusimaa was cut into two parts. There was a smaller migration in the opposite direction, 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. This sharp decline has since levelled off to a decline of 0.02% or 0.03% per year.

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 that moved to Sweden were Swedish-speaking Finns. Reliable statistics are not available, as the Swedish authorities, as opposed to their Finnish counterpart, do not register languages. Another reason is that the natural increase of the Finnish-speakers have been somewhat faster than that of the Swedish-speakers.

During most of the 20th century, marriages across language borders tended to result in children becoming Finnish speakers, and knowledge of Swedish declined. During 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.

Swedish settlers and the Finnish-speaking population

Even today, there are differing opinions about the nature, history and relationship between Finland's current population components.

The Finnish substrate toponyms (place names) within today's Swedish speaking areas have been interpreted as indicative of earlier permanent Finnish settlements in the area.[25][26] 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.[27]According to another toponymic study, some Finnish villages and farms on the south-western coast and the archipelago became Swedish-speaking by assimilation.[28]

According to another view (e.g. Tarkiainen 2008) the two major areas of Swedish language speakers (Uusimaa and Ostrobothnia) were largely uninhabited at the time of the arrival of Swedes.[29]

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 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 eventual newcomers very quickly, this has meant that most marriages within the Swedish-speaking peasantry during this period were contracted with members of the same language group. During the time of early immigration by Swedes to the coastal regions (approximatively between 1150 and 1350), the situation was different and according to a study from the 1970´s (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 the Swedish-speaking population.[30]

Genetics

In a recent study (2008) 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 50% of all Swedish-speakers in Finland) differed from the Finnish-speaking populations of the country and formed a genetic cluster with the Swedes[31] Moreover, according to a recent Y-DNA study (2008), 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. [32]

Identity

Unofficial flag of Swedish-speaking Finns.
Letterstamp issued by the Swedish People`s party in 1922

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.[33] However, not all Swedish-speaking Finns are willing to self-identify as representatives of a distinct ethnicity. The major political organisation representing 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 that the Swedish-speaking Finns are a sub-group of the ethnic Swedes, östsvenskar or "East Swedes".

Despite these varying viewpoints, the Swedish-speaking Finns in general have their own identity distinct from that of the majority, and they wish to be recognized as such.[34] In speaking Swedish, Swedish-speaking 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.

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.[35]

Marriages between Swedish- and Finnish-speakers are nowadays very common. According to a study commissioned by the Swedish Assembly of Finland in 2005[3], 48.5% of all families with children where at least one of 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 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- of 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.

Historical predominance of the Swedish language among the gentry

Finnish 17th century nobleman Gustaf Horn.
Finnish 17th century clergyman Johannes Gezelius the elder.

Finland was integrated into the Swedish realm in the 13th century, at a time when that realm was still in the process of being formed. As Finland was an integral part of Sweden for 700 years, Swedish, as the language of the state, became the language of administration and, from the 18th century onwards, education (until then, Latin was the language of instruction from the secondary school upwards). Among the nobility, a very large proportion of the families had German, Scottish and other foreign origins, but their descendants normally adopted Swedish as their first language, as did the members of those noble families which were of Finnish-speaking origin. As the Church needed large numbers of clergymen who spoke fluent Finnish, a large proportion of the Lutheran clergy in Finland were recruited from Finnish-speaking families, most often from the wealthier strata of the peasantry or from Finnish-speaking burgher families. Their descendants usually adopted Swedish as their first language, but, as the Church required fluency in Finnish from clergymen serving in predominantly or totally Finnish-speaking parishes (most of the country), they tended to maintain a high degree of functional bilingualism. In the middle ages, commerce in the Swedish realm, incuding 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 Finland during the late middle ages tended to be of German origin. Most of their descendants gradually became Swedish-speakers, although a small German-speaking minority still exists in Finland, served by a German-medium school and a German-speaking parish, both of which are located in Helsinki. A very large proportion of "old money" families in Sweden and in Finland still have German family names. Among the burghers and the peasantry, Swedish was common as well, but in a more varying degree depending on regional differences.

In the Middle Ages celibacy in the Catholic Church was a natural barrier to the formation of an hereditary priestly class. After compulsory celibacy was abolished in Sweden during the Reformation, the formation of an hereditary priestly class became possible, whereby wealth and clerical positions were frequently inheritable. Hence the bishops and the vicars, who formed the clerical upper class, would frequently have manors similar to those of the nobility.


The intermingling and intermarriages between the noble class and the clerical upper crust was a distinctive element in several Nordic countries after the Reformation. As a result, the gentry in Finland was constituted by nobles, clerical and some burgher families. In the 19th century, immigration of merchants, especially from German speaking countries, introduced new merchant families into the gentry.

After the Finnish war, Sweden lost the province of Finland to Russia. During the period of Russian sovereignty (1809–1917) the Finnish language 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 a construct of eager promoters of the Finnish language from the higher strata of society, with mostly Swedish-speaking family backgrounds. A later development, especially at the beginning of the 20th century, was the adoption or translation of Swedish family names into Finnish. This was generally done throughout the entire society. In upper class families it was predominantly in cadet branches of families that the name translations took place.[36]

The opposition to the Swedish language was partly based around historical prejudices and conflicts that had sprung up during the 19th century. The intensified the 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 oppressers of the peaceful Finnish-speaking peasant. However, a significant number of the older Finnish gentry were of Finnish descent, and had adopted the Swedish language. Finnish descent was especially common in families belonging to the clergy.

Even though the proportional distribution of Swedish-speakers among different social strata closely reflects that of the general population, there is still a lingering stereotype, perceived as a a source of embarrassment and irritation by Swedish-speakers, of Swedish as a language of the historical upper class culture in Finland. This stereotype is reenforced by the fact that Swedish-speakers are statistically overrepresented among "old money" families as well as within the Finnish nobility consisting of about 6000 persons, of which about two thirds are Swedish-speakers.

Bilingualism

A Finnish/Swedish street sign in Helsinki.
Many geographical places in Finland have two names

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 usually leads to functional bilingualism. Although in some municipalities Swedish 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).

Demographics

Of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland[citation needed],

  • 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 Template:PDFlink (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 documentsTemplate:PDFlink 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" ([4], [5], [6]) 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.[7] 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 article: List of Swedish-speaking Finns

Old Swedish-speaking *gentry of Finnish origin (This list includes names which resided the country before the church's records was kept, it includes both Swedish and Finnish derivived families * ( - 1650)

Old Swedish-speaking gentry of non-Finnish origin (Includes the list of names which have originated outside of Finland at the time when church recors were kept) ( - 1650)

Swedish-speaking Families historically involved with Industry and Commerce

  • Ahlström (1800 - )
  • Alftan and Alfthan (1600 - )
  • Bruun (1600 - )
  • Borgström (1700 - )
  • Donner (1600 - ) Germany
  • Fazer (1800 - ) Scotland
  • Frenckell (1700 - ) Germany
  • Hackman (1600 - ) Germany
  • Jaenisch (1700 - 1900)
  • Paulig (1800 - ) Germany
  • Stockmann (1800 - ) Germany
  • von Rettig Germany
  • Rosenlew (1600 - )[15] Germany
  • Thesleff (1500 - )

[16]

  • Families mentioned in Suomen Kansallisbiografia (the Finnish National Biography)
  • The years inside the brackets indicates the time of adoption of the current family name or the establishment of the family in Finland
  • The definition used in this article for the word gentry refers to people of high social class, especially in the past. Cambridge Dictionary [17]

See also

References

  1. ^ Rystad, Göran. 1994. Redefining a Minority Role: The Case of the Swedes in Finland
  2. ^ Among Alanders and Swedes on the Finnish mainland the frequency (around 20%) was comparable to Swedish values but considerably higher than among Finns". ABH secretion polymorphism in Icelanders, Aland Islanders, Finns, Finnish Lapps, Komi and Greenland Eskimos.
  3. ^ "... 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))
  4. ^ YLE Internytt: Tvåspråkigheten på frammarsch
  5. ^ Svenska Finlands folkting: Finlandssvenskarna 2005 - en statistik rapport
  6. ^ See, Finland-Swedish Think Tank Magma and Finland-Swedish Association
  7. ^ "In Finland this question (Swedish nationality) has been subjected to much discussion. The Finnish majority tries to deny the existence of a Swedish nationality. An example of this is the fact that the statutes always use the concept "Swedish-speaking" instead of Swedish", "The wording of the Finnish Constitution (Art. 14.1): "Finnish and Swedish shall be the national languages of the republic" has been interpreted by linguist and constitution-writing politician E.N. Setälä and others as meaning that these languages are the State languages of Finland in stead of the languages of the both nationalities of Finland","It is not correct to call a nationality a linguistic group or minority, if it has developed culture of its own. If there is not only a community of language, but also of other characteristics such as folklore, poetry and literature, folk music, theater, behavior.etc". Tore Modeen,The cultural rights of the Swedish ethnic group in Finland(Europa Ethnica, 3-4 1999,jg.56)
  8. ^ "Less well known internationally is the 6 percent minority of ethnic Swedes in Finland. While we never hear of "Sami speaking Norwegians", "Hebrew speaking Palestinians" etc., one often stumbles on the term "Swedish speaking Finns" to denote a certain group of ethnic Swedes. This is a way of denying the group their ethnic identity. Admittedly, something similar is practised in Turkey, where the Kurds are called "Mountain Turks" in official quarters".Carl O Nordling,Introducing essays about a number of notable Finland-Swedes and about their importance in history.http://www.carlonordling.se/finlandssvenskar/intro.html
  9. ^ "McRae distinguishes a gap in Finland between the formal ´linguistic peace´ and the practical ´linguistic instability´ which put the Finland-Swedes in a ´sosiological, psychological and political´ minority position. Consistent with this, Allardt(2000:35) claims that the most serious contemporary problem for the Finland Swedes is the members of the group themselves: their ´submissiviness´and willingness to ´conceal their Finland-Swedishness´ in the face of the majority. Furthermore, the Finland-Swedes relations to Sweden are considered a sensitive issue in Finland. Höckerstedt (2000:8-9) argues that an emphasis on the ´Swedish´part of the Finland-Swedish identity is ´taboo-laden´ and regarded as unpatriotic". Hedberg, C. 2004.The Finland-Swedissh wheel of migration. Identity, networks and integration 1976-2000. Geographiska regionstudier 61.87pp.Uppsala. ISBN 91-506-1788-5>
  10. ^ McRae 1993, Conflict and Compromise in Multilingual Society, case Finland. "Many scholars were drawn into this debate, and a later writer notes `a correlation between the scholar´s mother-tongue and his view on the age and continuity of Scandinavian settlements of the country` (Hamalainen, 1966), whereas Finnish writers tended to deny or minimize the presence of Swedish-speakers before the historically documented expeditions of the twelth century, Swedish-speaking scholars have found archeological and philological evidence for a continuous and Swedish or Germanic presence in Finland from pre-historic times."
  11. ^ Lars Huldén: Finlandssvenska bebyggelsenamn. 2001
  12. ^ Elias Orrman. Where source criticism fails. Fennoscandia archaeologica X. 1993.
  13. ^ Anna Wickholm: Pörnullbacken – ett brandgravfält eller brandgropgravar? Muinaistutkija 4/2003
  14. ^ C. F. Meinander: Om svenskarnes inflyttningar till Finland. Historisk tidskrift för Finland 3/1983.
  15. ^ Anna Wickholm: Järnåldersbosättningen i Österbotten samt fyndtomheten i ljuset av runstensdebatten. Arkeologi som ett försök att legitimera sin identitet. Extremt Österbotten. 2000
  16. ^ C. F. Meinander: Etelä-Pohjanmaan historia I. 1950
  17. ^ G.-E. Thors, Studier över finlandssvenska ortnamnstyper, 1953
  18. ^ Olav Ahlbäck, Den finlandssvenska bosättningens älder och ursprung, Finsk Tidskrift 1954
  19. ^ Kari Tarkianen, 2008. Sveriges Österland- från forntiden til Gustav Vasa." Den svenska kolonisationen av Finland och områdets införlivande med Sverige hör till detta sammanhang. Sveriges jord räckte inte under denna expansiva tid till för befolkningen i Sverige. Skaror av svenskar sökte sig nytt land i Finlands kustområden, och fann där nya boplatser. För första gången smalt de inte samman med den infödda befolkningen, eftersom det svenska storsamhället verkade för svenskarnas nationella och språkliga fortbestånd i landet".
  20. ^ Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland @ Virtual Finland [1]: "The Swedish area in Finland comprises Uusimaa, Turunmaa and Ostrobothnia (coastal areas of mainland Finland) and the Åland Islands. The extent of the area has remained largely unchanged since the 12th and 13th centuries; during this period in the Middle Ages a great expansion of settlement from Sweden proper brought Swedish settlers to the uninhabited coastal areas of Finland."
  21. ^ Kari Tarkiainen, 2008. Sveriges Österland. "Den svenska kolonisationen av västra Nyland skedde etappvis. De första invandrarna torde ha kommit till Egentliga Finland under missionstiden, när ett antal svenskar slog sig ner i Karisnejdens kustland, där vissa åldriga ortnamn med början på rots (t.ex. Rådsböle) vittnar om deras bosättning. Dessa namn syftar på Roslagen. Den andra vågen, som sökte sig till central bygden vid Pojovikens vattensystem, kom troligen under andra korståget på 1200-talet. Den förde sig inflyttare fråm flera håll in Sverige och ägde rum i skuggan av en militäroperation mot Tavastland.
  22. ^ Kari Tarkiainen, 2008. Sveriges Österland. "Den svenska kolonisationen hade en uppenbar masskaraktär och var styrd uppifrån, främst av kronan, vilket framgår av att hemmanen var kronohemman. Folk kom inte längre i allmogefarkoster utan skeppades över på större fraktfartyg, och tydligen från alla håll inom Sveariket - Åtminstone från Uppland, Småland, Gästrikland och Hälsingland.)
  23. ^ Kari Tarkiainen, 2008 Sveriges Österland. "Från Sideby i söder till Karleby i norr, en sträcka på omkring 300 kilometerm går en obruten kedja av svenska hemman, byar och samhällen och detta kustland sträcker sig som en circa 30 kilometer bred zon inåt landet". "Österbottens bosättningshistoria har sin parallell i kolonisationen av Norrlandskusten under samma epok".
  24. ^ "In towns, however, the linguistic balance started to change in the 20th century. The most significant changes have taken place in the past few decades, when new native speakers of Finnish moved into the towns in large numbers. The capital region of Helsinki has been affected the most by this development. Gradually, what were formerly profoundly Swedish-speaking parishes in the countryside have become densely populated towns with a majority of Finnish-speaking inhabitants". Borrowing of Place Names in the Uralian Languages, edited by Ritva Liisa Pitkänen and Janne Saarikivi
  25. ^ Borrowing of Place Names in the Uralian Languages, edited by Ritva Liisa Pitkänen and Janne Saarikivi [2] "However, this does not mean that Swedes would have inhabited only settled areas that were completely unpopulated. Indeed, it is probable that no such areas were available. We can assume that the rest of the coastal area was inhabited by Finns at the time when the Swedish settlers arrived in the country. Our assumption is based on place names: the Swedish place names on the coast include numerous Finnish substrate names— incontrovertible proof of early Finnish settlement."
  26. ^ "Ibid. "Another indication of older Finnish settlement is evidenced by the fact that native speakers of Finnish named so many different types of places in the area that the substrate nomenclature seems to consist of names referring to village settlement rather than to names of natural features."
  27. ^ Ibid. "This seems to support our conception that there was a large population of native speakers of Finnish in the archipelago and that it remained Finnish-speaking for a longer period than was previously believed."
  28. ^ "The Swedish colonization primarily focused on coastal areas and the archipelago, but eventually expanded as farms and villages that had previously been Finnish became Swedish-speaking". A study by Lars Huldén, Professor of Scandinavian Philology (2001), referred in the doctoral dissertation by Felicia Markus Living on the Other Shore. Stockholm University 2004.
  29. ^ "Östra Nyland var vid 1200-talets mitt ett ännu jungfruligt område än västra Nyland. Landskapet hade karaktären av en ofantlig, nästan obebudd ödemark med en havskust som endast sporadiskt, vid tiden för strömnings och laxfiske, besöktest av finnar från Tavastland samnt troligen även av samer". (Kari Tarkiainen, 2008). "Efter kolonisationen fick kusten nästan helsvensk bosättning; bynamnen är till 70-100% av svensk ursprung. Enligt beräkningar av Saulo Kepsu (Kepsu, Saulo, Uuteen Maahan, Helsinki 2005) är bynamnen mest svenskdominerade i väster (Pojo-Karistrakten) och i öster (Borgå-Pernå) med en svacka i mellersta Nyland)". (Kari Tarkiainen, 2008) "Finska ortnamn är ovanligt få inom Sibbo, vilket tyder på att området var praktiskt taget folktomt när svenskarna kom" (Christer Kuvaja & Arja Rantanen, Sibbo sockens historia fram till år 1868, 1998)
  30. ^ Kari Tarkiainen, 2008. Sveriges Österland. "Från senare tid vet man genom släktforskning att den svenska kustbefolkningen har varit starkt endogam i sin fortplantning, på så sätt att äkta makar kom från familjer som levde nära varandra, ofta i samma by. Så var fallet överallt bland allmogen, även den finska, och man gissar att antalet blandäktenskap mellan kontrahenter från olika språkgrupper under den tid som kyrkoböcker har förts har hållit sig stadigt under en procentenhet. När befolkningstalet har uppnått en viss storlek och näringslivet stabiliserats är det lätt att finna sin äktenskapliga partner på nära håll. Invandringstiden tycks däremot ha varit en tid då ett stort antal blandäktenskap ingicks mellan svenskar och finnar i de kustnära bygderna. Förhållandena måste ha varit mycket rörliga och den manliga övervikten bland inflyttarna stor. Forskarna har räknat ut att om blandningsprocenten var ca 20 procent - d.v.s. om bara vart femte äktenskap var ett blandäktenskap - skulle det ha tagit fyra till fem generationer innan de gemensamma dragen utgjorde 60 procent av de två gruppernas totala genuppsättning. Om blandningsprocenten däremot var endast 10 procent - bara vart tionde äktenskap var svensk-finskt - skulle det ha tagit åtta till nio generationer att uppnå samma resultat. Med tanke på att kolonisationstiden varade ungefär från 1150 till 1300, eller kanske 1350, och generationerna var kortare än i dag, är båda alternativen möjliga. Mest troligt är det att blandäktenskap var mycket vanliga i kolonisationens tidigaste fas. Det stora upptagandet av finska ortnamn tyder på detta, liksom också den finskpåverkade satsintonation som de finlandssvenska dialekterna uppvisar. Man får sålunda sannolikt räkna med en hög andel finnar, inte bara in särskilda byar eller "finnbölen", utan också i de svenska bosättningarna som familjemedlemmar och tjänstefolk. Språksituationen kan sålunda under den tidiga kolonisationsfasen och tiderna därefter betraktas som blandspråkig. Först så småningom smälter det finska inslaget ihop med det svenska och det exogama samhället sluter sig och blir endogamt ".
  31. ^ Population Genetic Association and Zygosity testing on preamplified Dna. 2008. Ulf Hannelius. "Clear East-West duality was observed when the Finnish individuals were clustering using Geneland. Individuals from the Swedish-speaking part of Ostrobotnia clustered with Sweden when a joint analysis was performed on Swedish and Finnish autosomal genotypes".
  32. ^ Jukka U. Palo et al. 2008. The effect of number of loci on geographical structuring and forensic applicability of Y-STR data in Finland. Int J Legal Med (2008)122:449-456. ""The subpopulation LMO (Larsmo, Swedish-speaking) differed significantly from all the other populations". "The geographical substructure among the Finnish males was notable when measured with the ΦST values, reaching values as high as ΦST=0.227 in the Yfiler data. This is rather extreme, given that, e.g., subpopulations Larsmo and Kymi are separated by mere 400 km, with no apparent physical dispersal barriers between them".
  33. ^ 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). Markku T. Hyyppä and Juhani Mäki: Social participation and health in a community rich in stock of social capital
  34. ^ "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).) Saari, Mirja: Schwedisch als die zweite Nationalsprache Finnlands (retrieved 10 December 2006)
  35. ^ "In Finland this question (Swedish nationality) has been subjected to much discussion. The Finnish majority tries to deny the existence of a Swedish nationality. An example of this is the fact that the statutes always use the concept "Swedish-speaking" instead of Swedish", "The wording of the Finnish Constitution (Art. 14.1): "Finnish and Swedish shall be the national languages of the republic" has been interpreted by linguist and constitution-writing politician E.N. Setälä and others as meaning that these languages are the State languages of Finland in stead of the languages of the both nationalities of Finland","It is not correct to call a nationality a linguistic group or minority, if it has developed culture of its own. If there is not only a community of language, but also of other characteristics such as folklore, poetry and literature, folk music, theater, behavior.etc". Tore Modeen, The cultural rights of the Swedish ethnic group in Finland (Europa Ethnica, 3-4 1999,jg.56)
  36. ^ See List of Finnish noble families
  37. ^ Mannerheimin suku onkin lähtöisin Saksasta. MTV3. 1 March 2007. Retrieved 4 August 2008.
    According to the source, the founder of the family, Hinric Marhein, was baptized in Hamburg. His son, Augustin Marhein, became the first noble member of the family: "Kommissarien och godsarrendatorn Augustin Marhein från Gävle adlades och introducerades 1693 under nr 1260". http://www.riddarhuset.fi/index.php?id=3&sukunro=F018
  38. ^ Släkt från Uppland. Äldste kände stamfader är underofficeren vid Upplands regemente Erik Matsson Nordberg (död 1700) i Nordanåker i Tierp socken. Hans sonsöner, generalkvartermästarlöjtnanten vid Fortifikationen, sedermera landshövdingen i Nylands och Tavastehus län Anders Johan Nordenberg (1696-1763), och dennes broder majoren vid Fortifikationen, sedermera översten Carl Friedric Nordenberg (1702-1779), adlades 1751 21/11 på Stockholms Slott av Konung Adolf Fredrik med namnet Nordenskiöld, och introducerades 1752 8/6 tillsammans under nummer 1912, sedermera 1912 B. Ätten har 1797 utgrenats i kommendörsätten Nordenskjöld, nr 1912 A, se dito. Med huvudmannagrenen sammanhör sedan 1841 friherrliga ätten Nordensköld nr 394, se dito. Ättens första och andra yngre gren immatrikulerades på Finlands Riddarhus 1818 5/2 under nr 127 bland adelsmän, men är genom upprepade överflyttningar till Sverige 1860, 1908 och 1928 inte längre företrädda där. Med den första grenen sammanhör sedan 1880 friherrliga ätten Nordenskiöld nr 405, se dito. Ättens tredje yngre gren upptogs 1894 5/3 i preussiskt adligt stånd under namnet von Nordenskjöld. Originalsköldebrevet är sedan 1995 deponerat i Riddarhuset. Valspråk: Deus clypeus meus »Gud min sköld«.
  39. ^ "Häradshövdingen i Jönsåkers härad (Södermanland) Per Hansson adlades 1574. Ätten introducerades 1627 under nr 145 och immatrikulerades i Finland 1818. Den är en frälsesläkt från 1400-talet i Dalarna.".http://www.riddarhuset.fi/index.php?id=3&sukunro=A007
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