Editing Finland Swedish

{{Short description|Dialects of Swedish spoken in Finland}}{{Distinguish|text=[[Sweden Finnish]]. For the people, see [[Swedish-speaking population of Finland]]}}
{{infobox language
| name             = Finland Swedish
| altname          = Fenno-Swedish
| nativename       = {{lang|sv|finlandssvenska}}
| region           = Western and southern coast of [[Finland]], [[Åland]]
| speakers         = 
| date             = 
| ref              = 
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3             = [[North Germanic languages|North Germanic]]
| fam4             = East Scandinavian
| fam5             = [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
| fam6             = East Swedish
| agency           = [[Institute for the Languages of Finland]]
| isoexception     = dialect
| glotto           = east2303
| glottorefname    = Finnish Swedish
| image            = Flag of the Finland Swedes.svg
| imagecaption     = Unofficial [[flag of the Swedish-speaking Finns]]
| ethnicity        = [[Finland Swedes]]
| ietf             = sv-FI
}}

'''Finland Swedish''' or '''Fenno-Swedish'''<ref>{{Cite web | title=Professor Catherine O. Ringen | work=The University of Iowa | date=May 11, 2011 | url=http://clas.uiowa.edu/linguistics/people/catherine-o-ringen | access-date=27 October 2014 | archive-date=26 October 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026155417/http://clas.uiowa.edu/linguistics/people/catherine-o-ringen | url-status=dead }}</ref> ({{langx|sv|finlandssvenska}}; {{langx|fi|suomenruotsi}}) is a [[Variety (linguistics)|variety]] of the [[Swedish language]] and a closely related group of [[Swedish dialects]] spoken in [[Finland]] by the [[Swedish-speaking population of Finland|Swedish-speaking population]], commonly also referred to as [[Swedish-speaking population of Finland|Finland Swedes]], as their [[first language]].

For the most part, these dialects and the dialects spoken in Sweden are [[mutually intelligible]], although some [[Swedish dialects in Ostrobothnia|archaic dialects]] in [[Ostrobothnia (administrative region)|Ostrobothnia]] are practically unintelligible to Swedish-speaking people in southern Finland (and in Sweden). Most Swedish-speaking Finns emphasize that Finland Swedish is not a separate language from the Swedish of Sweden. The Swedish dialects in Finland are considered varieties of Swedish, and the norm for written [[Standard Swedish]] is completely applicable also for Finland Swedish. Today, Swedish dialects are spoken in four different regions in Finland: [[Ostrobothnia (administrative region)|Ostrobothnia]], [[Åland]], [[Southwest Finland]] and [[Uusimaa]].

Swedish as spoken in Finland is regulated by the Swedish Department of the [[Institute for the Languages of Finland]]. This regulation includes the officially stated aim of keeping Finland Swedish close to the Swedish as spoken in Sweden and strongly phrased advice against [[loanword]]s and [[calque]]s from [[Finnish language|Finnish]], which are usually incomprehensible to Swedes.

In the spoken vernacular, especially among young people in Finnish-dominated areas, Finnish [[loanword]]s as well as [[calque]]s from Finnish are frequently incorporated into Finland Swedish. There are also some words in Finland Swedish that would be considered slightly archaic in Sweden. Some government and public service terms that have been created in recent centuries also differ. The same is true of other new words, notably loanwords from [[English language|English]].

A common misconception among many [[Sweden|Swedes]] is that Finland Swedish is simply Swedish spoken with a [[Finnish language|Finnish]] accent, something that can be a considerable source of frustration to most native Swedish-speakers in Finland.{{weasel-word|date=January 2019}}{{citation-needed|date=January 2019}} Any language adopts features, especially pronunciation habits, from dominant languages it comes in touch with, but many of the traits of Finland Swedish exist also in monolingual areas and some are in fact preserved features of Old Swedish, as with [[Scots language|Scots]] in comparison with [[English language|English]] or [[Afrikaans]] in comparison with [[Dutch language|Dutch]].

==History==
{{Main|Swedish-speaking Finns#History|l1=History of Swedish-speaking Finns}}
[[File:Languages of Finnish municipalities (2016).svg|thumb|right|
More than 17,000 Swedish-speaking Finns live in officially monolingual Finnish municipalities, and are thus not represented on the map.
{{legend|#EEEEC1|Officially monolingual Finnish-speaking municipalities}}
{{legend|#37ABC8|Bilingual municipalities with Finnish as the majority language}}
{{legend|#0055D4|Bilingual municipalities with Swedish as the majority language}}
{{legend|#000080|Monolingual Swedish-speaking municipalities (Åland)}}
{{legend|#800033|[[Sami languages|Sami]] bilingual municipalities}}
|348x348px]]Finland Swedish was a result of [[Swedish colonisation of Finland]] during the [[Northern Crusades]] in the 12th to 14th centuries. Colonisation focused on the [[Finnish archipelago]] and some of its coastal regions. This colonisation  led to the beginning of the [[Swedish-speaking population of Finland]].<ref name="Georg 2015">{{Cite book|first1=Georg |last1=Haggren |first2=Petri |last2=Halinen |first3=Mika |last3=Lavento |first4=Sami |last4=Raninen |first5=Anna |last5=Wessman |title=Muinaisuutemme jäljet |publisher=Gaudeamus |year=2015 |isbn=9789524953634 |location=Helsinki |pages=420–421}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Era of Swedish Rule, 1150-1809|url=http://motherearthtravel.com/history/finland/history-3.htm|access-date=June 1, 2019|publisher=History of Finland|archive-date=June 22, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622184223/http://motherearthtravel.com/history/finland/history-3.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

From the 16th century, Swedish was the main language of jurisdiction, administration and higher education in [[Finland]] (which was then a part of [[Sweden]]), but the majority of the population in the Finnish inland spoke [[Finnish language|Finnish]] outside of these sectors of society, i.e. in normal, daily life. In 1809, when Finland was conquered by the [[Russian Empire]] and became an autonomous [[Grand Duchy of Finland|Grand Duchy]], Swedish remained the only official language. In 1863, both Finnish and Swedish became [[official language]]s with equal status, and by the time of [[Finnish Declaration of Independence|Finland's independence]] in 1917, after a [[Finnicization]] campaign by the [[Fennoman movement]], Finnish clearly dominated in government and society. See further: [[Finland's language strife]].

Finland has since then been a [[bilingual]] country with a Swedish-speaking [[minority language|minority]] (5.2% of [[mainland Finland]]'s population in December 2019) living mostly in the coastal areas of southern, south-western, and western Finland. During the 20th century, the [[urbanization]] following the [[Industrial Revolution]] has led to large majorities of Finnish speakers in all major cities. The capital [[Helsinki]] (in Swedish Helsingfors) became predominantly Finnish-speaking as recently as around 1900. A large and important part of the Swedish-speaking population nevertheless lives in the capital.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

The autonomous island province of [[Åland]] is an exception, being monolingually Swedish-speaking according to international treaties. It is a matter of definition whether the [[Åland Swedish|Swedish dialects spoken on Åland]] are to be considered a kind of Finland Swedish or not. Most Swedish-speaking Finns and linguists consider them to be closer to some of the dialects spoken in nearby parts of Sweden.

== Official status ==
{{Further|Languages of Finland}}

Swedish is one of the two official and national languages of the Republic of Finland, the other being Finnish. These two languages have formally equal status in nearly all legislation, though the status of Swedish in Finland has long been a subject of sociopolitical debate.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hult |first1=F. M. |last2=Pietikäinen |first2=S. |year=2014 |title=Shaping discourses of multilingualism through a language ideological debate: The case of Swedish in Finland |journal=Journal of Language and Politics |volume=13 |pages=1–20|doi=10.1075/jlp.13.1.01hul }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Kolu  |editor-first1=Jaana |editor-last2=Kuronen  |editor-first2=Mikko |editor-last3=Palviainen |editor-first3=Åsa  |year=2016 |title=Svenskan i Finland 16 |series=Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities |volume=298 |publisher= University of Jyväskylä |isbn=978-951-39-6828-1 |url=https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/52296/978-951-39-6828-1.pdf}}</ref> The other minority languages (such as [[Sami languages|Sami]]) are regulated separately.
[[File:Ingå-Sjundeå gräns juni 2021 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Border between bilingual municipalities of [[Siuntio]] and [[Ingå]]: traffic signs are both in Finnish and Swedish. In Siuntio, where the majority of people speak Finnish, the signs are written first in Finnish. In Ingå, the majority language is Swedish, which is reflected in the traffic signs being written in Swedish first.]]
Finland Swedish is regulated by the [[Institute for the Languages of Finland]]. Official Swedish is not supposed to be very different from Swedish as found in Sweden. There are however e.g. words regarded as archaic in Sweden, but commonly used in Finland, and terms that differ from their counterparts in Sweden, often because of slight differences in the related legislation.<ref>{{cite book | author1=Hällström-Reijonen, Charlotta af | author2=Reuter, Mikael | title=Finlandssvensk ordbok | location=Helsingfors | publisher=Schildt & Forskningscentralen för de inhemska språken | year=2008 | isbn=978-951-50-1749-9 | language=sv-FI}}</ref>

Bilingualism of municipalities is regulated by the Language Act of 2003.<ref>Kielilaki 6.6.2003/423 [Language Act of 2003.]</ref> If the minority has increased into at least 3,000 persons or 8% of inhabitants, then the municipality must become bilingual. If the minority has fallen below 3,000 persons and 6% of inhabitants, then the municipality becomes monolingual, unless it decides to keep its bilingual status. At present, only one such municipality has done so, namely [[Lohja]] ({{lang|sv|Lojo}} in Swedish). The status is reviewed once in a decade, and enacted by a government decree issued by the [[Finnish Council of State]].

The country's public broadcaster, [[Yle]], provides two Swedish-language radio stations, [[Yle Vega]] and [[Yle X3M]]. The Swedish-language TV channel [[Yle Fem]] was merged with [[Yle Teema]] in 2017 to form [[Yle Teema & Fem]].

==Phonology==
[[File:Svenska dialekter i Finland.svg|thumb|Finland Swedish dialects.]]
With the exception of the dialects spoken in [[Ostrobothnia (administrative region)|Ostrobothnia]] along the west coast, close to the [[Gulf of Bothnia]] (example: the dialect spoken in [[Närpes]]), Finland Swedish is not particularly different from Central Swedish. The phoneme {{IPA|/ʉː/}} is more centralized and pronounced like {{IPA|[ʉː]}}, quite similar to how many speakers of English pronounce {{IPA|/uː/}} (as in ''moon''). That should be compared to the Central Swedish {{IPA|[ʉ̟ː]}}, which is very close to the short vowel {{IPA|[ʏː]}} and is more [[rounding|rounded]].

The highly variable [[Sj-sound|''sj'' sound]] {{IPAslink|ɧ}} varies between {{IPA|[ʂ]}} and {{IPA|[ɕ ~ ʃ]}} on the Finnish mainland, often close to ''sh'' in English ''shoe''. In the Åland Islands, its realization is similar to the velar (and often [[labialization|labialized]]) pronunciations of nearby parts of Sweden. The historic ''k'' sound before front vowels and the ''tj'' sound, in modern Central Swedish a [[Fricative consonant|fricative]]  {{IPA|/ɕ/}}, is an [[affricate]] {{IPA|[t͡ɕ]}} or {{IPA|[t͡ʃ]}} in all Finland Swedish dialects, close to ''ch'' in English ''chin'', except for some<ref>{{cite web|title=Äldre man, Brändö: Har ätit sälkött|url=http://swedia.ling.gu.se/Finland/Aland/Brando/om.html|publisher=swedia.ling.gu.se/|access-date=11 February 2014}}</ref> [[Åland dialects]], in which it is a simple fricative [ɕ].<ref>{{cite web|title=Yngre man, Brändö: Brandlarm på Nordsjön|url=http://swedia.ling.gu.se/Finland/Aland/Brando/ym.html|work=swedia.ling.gu.se/|access-date=11 February 2014}}</ref><ref name="Clips of spoken Swedish, in different dialects">{{cite web|title=snabbmeny|url=http://swedia.ling.gu.se/snabbmeny.html|publisher=swedia.ling.gu.se/|access-date=11 February 2014}}</ref>

The [[Pitch accent|tonal word accent]], which distinguishes some minimal pairs in most dialects of Swedish and Norwegian, is not present in Finland Swedish (except around the parish of Snappertuna, west of Helsinki).{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} Hence, Central Swedish [[minimal pair]]s like {{IPA|/ˈandɛn/}} ("the duck") and {{IPA|/ǎndɛn/}} ("the spirit") are both pronounced {{IPA|[ˈandɛn]}} in Finland.

Finland Swedish lacks the [[Aspirated consonant|aspirated stops]] present in Central Standard Swedish, making the contrast between [[Fortis and lenis|"fortis" and "lenis"]] stops one of voicing only.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ringen|first=Catherine|author2=Kari Suomi|title=The voicing contrast in Fenno-Swedish stops|journal=Journal of Phonetics|year=2012|volume=40|issue=3|pages=419–429|doi=10.1016/j.wocn.2012.02.010}}</ref> The retroflexion that occurs in many dialects when {{IPA|/r/}} precedes a coronal consonant does not occur in certain pairs in Finland Swedish (e.g. {{IPA|/rt/}}, which is realized as {{IPA|[ʈ]}} in Standard Swedish but {{IPA|[rt]}} in Finland Swedish).<ref>{{cite book |last=Kuronen |first=Mikko |chapter=Finns det supradentala konsonanter även i finlandssvenskan? |chapter-url=http://users.jyu.fi/~mijukuro/supradentaler.pdf |title=Svenskans beskrivning 26 |publisher=Hallgren & Fallgren |year=2003 |pages=172–177 |lang=sv}}</ref>

==Vocabulary==
Finland Swedish mostly has the same vocabulary as Swedish in Sweden, and there is a conscious effort to adopt neologisms from Sweden, to maintain cohesion between the two varieties. Nevertheless, there are differences, which generally fall into two categories: words now considered archaic in Sweden, and [[loanword]]s and [[calque]]s from Finnish or independently borrowed from other languages (nowadays mostly English). There are also some terms differing because of differing legislation.

==See also==
{{Portal|Languages|Finland}}
* [[Languages of Finland]]
* [[Åland Swedish]]
* [[Swedish-speaking Finns]]
* [[Estonian Swedish]]
* [[Sveticism]]
* [[Sweden Swedish]]
* [[Mandatory Swedish]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Refimprove|date=December 2006}}

== External links ==
* [https://kaino.kotus.fi/fo/ Ordbok över Finlands svenska folkmål] (in Swedish) – Official dictionary of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland. [[Institute for the Languages of Finland]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030207190254/http://swedia.ling.umu.se/Finland/index.html SweDia] – a collection of dialect samples of Swedish including Finland Swedish

{{Swedish language}}

[[Category:Finland Swedish| ]]
[[Category:Languages of Finland|Swedish]]
[[Category:Swedish language]]
[[Category:Swedish dialects]]