FINLAND
Language

Cities in FINLAND

Helsinki

Language

Finnish keyboard_{Photo: Simo Kaupinmäki CC 3.0 Unported no changes made}

Finland has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. Both languages have fully equal rights in the constitution. The Lapps speak Laps or Sami. With Hungarian and Estonian, Finnish is one of the Finno-Ugrian languages. Estonians and Finns can understand each other with some difficulty. Finnish is also related to Hungarian, although Finns and Hungarians cannot understand each other. Initially, Finnish was the language of the farmers and craftsmen. The upper class spoke Swedish and Russian, German or French. In the second half of the 19th century, Finnish was given official status alongside Swedish. It was not until 1903 that Finnish was equated with Swedish. The large number of vowels in relation to the consonants is typical of Finnish. For example, the b, c, f, q, w, x and z do not occur in real Finnish. Well in words borrowed from Swedish.

Cities and streets have Finnish and Swedish names, for example Helsingfors (Swedish) and Helsinki (Finnish). Laps or Sami is very different from Finnish. Many Swedish and Norwegian words are included in Sami.

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Sources

Encarta Encyclopedie

Europese Unie: Europees Platform voor het Nederlandse Onderwijs

Schaap, D. / Finland
ANWB

Tuovinen, E. / Finland
Gottmer

CIA - World Factbook

BBC - Country Profiles

Last updated October 2024
Copyright: Team The World of Info