Finland Languages

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Finland Genealogical Word Lists

Finnish Swedish Latin

Cultural Groups

Cultural Groups Sami Peoples

Local Research Resources

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Finland

Languages

Description

Finnish and Swedish are the two main official languages of Finland. There are also several official minority languages:

• Three variants of Sami
  • Northern Sami
  • Inari Sami
  • Skolt Sami
• Romani or Finnish Kalo
• Finnish Sign Language
• Karelian
  

English is spoken by most Finns as a second language. Official statistics from 2012 show that at least 70% of Finnish people can speak English.

Russian is the most spoken immigrant language in Finland but has no official minority language status. It served as the third co-official language with Finnish and Swedish for a very short period between 1900 and 1917.

Since Finnish was not an official language in Finland until 1863, most records were written in Swedish. To do research in these records, you will need to know some Swedish and Finnish key words and phrases. Also, be aware that Orthodox church records were written in Russian until after Finnish independence. The Finnish language is spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns elsewhere.

Word Lists

• Finnish Genealogical Word List
• Swedish Genealogical Word List
• Russian Genealogical Word List
• German Genealogical Word List

Finnish

• Basic greetings and phrases (Wikipedia)
• Useful Finnish phrases (Omniglot)
• Finnish phrasebook (Wikitravel)
• Finnish phrase book & dictionary. New York: Berlitz Publishing, 2018. Available at: WorldCat.
• Kataja, Ville. Finnish dictionary & phrasebook : Finnish-English, English-Finnish. New York: Hippocrene Books, 2002. Available at: WorldCat.

Swedish

• Useful Swedish phrases (Omniglot)
• Swedish phrasebook (Wikitravel)
• Rough guides phrasebook Swedish. London: Rough Guides, 2019. Available at: WorldCat.

Romani or Finnish Kalo

• Useful phrases in Romani (Omniglot)

Alphabet and Pronunciation

When you are looking up names or words in Finnish dictionaries or indexes, it is important to know that the Finnish alphabet consists of 29 letters which follow the letter z: å, ä, and ö. The letter å does not occur in native Finnish words, but many personal and geographical names of Swedish origin use this letter.
Finnish

• Finnish phonology (Wikipedia)
• Finnish grammar (Wikipedia)
• Finnish orthography (Wikipedia)
• Finnish Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)
• Finnish Grammar and Languages Basics (MyLanguages)
• Finnish Grammar (Uusi kielemme)

Swedish

• Swedish phonology (Wikipedia)
• Swedish grammar (Wikipedia)
• Swedish Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)
• Swedish Grammar and Languages Basics (MyLanguages)

Romani or Finnish Kalo

• Finnish Kalo Phonology (Wikipedia)
• Finnish Kalo (Wikipedia)
• Finnish Kalo Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)
• Romani Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)

Sounds

Vowels
There are eight vowels in Finnish, a, e, i, o, u, y, ä, ö, and å which is found in Swedish words. Finnish has 16 diphthongs of two types. In the first type there is more stress on the first vowel, and in the second, slightly more stress on the second vowel.

• First group: au, ou, iu, eu, äy, öy. äi, öi, yi, ui, ei, ai, oi
• Second group: uo, yö, ie

A double vowel is twice as long as a single vowel. Double vowel combinations are: aa, ää, ee, ii, oo, öö, uu, and yy.

Consonants
Double consonants are pronounced separately. The first is the final letter of one syllable and the second is the initial letter of the next syllable.

Accent
The stress always falls on the first syllable, even with words of foreign origin.

• Helsinki (HEL-sin-ki)
• Sibelius (SI-be-lius)
• Räikkönen (RÄIK-könen)

Grammar

Parts of Speech
Unlike English, Finnish does not have indefinite or definite articles (a/an/the). Finnish uses the following parts of speech:

1. Nouns
2. Pronouns
3. Adjectives
4. Verbs
5. Adverbs
6. Preposiitons
7. Conjunctions
8. Interjections

Language Aids and Dictionaries

Finnish

• English to Finnish Dictionary (Glosbe)
• Finnish dictionary (Lexilogos)
• Arminen, K.V. English and Finnish dictionary. Hancock, Mich.: Finnish Lutheran Book, 1914. Available at: WorldCat.
• Finnish (MustGo)
• Dictionary of Old Finnish (Kaino.Kotus)
• English-Finnish dictionary (Bab.la)
• Finland Letter Writing Guide

Swedish

• English to Swedish Dictionary (Glosbe)
• Swedish dictionary (Lexilogos)
• Swedish dictionary : English-Swedish, Swedish-English. London: Routledge, 1995. Available at: WorldCat.
• Swedish (MustGo)

Romani or Finnish Kalo

• English to Kalo Finnish Romani Dictionary (Glosbe)

Additional Resources

• Finland (Britannica)
• Finland (Wikitravel)