Language Research

FINNISH (GENERALLY)

Finnish (including Tornedalen Finnish) is proposed for official status as a minority language. Both Sweden Finns and Tornedalians are proposed for official minority group status (in addition to Sami, Romanies and Jews).

During the 19th century, the Swedish language policy was directed against the Finnish language to avoid the Russian influence in the area. Regarding the linguistic policy, it generated a negative attitude towards Finns. Finnish was not allowed to have a visible role in society; there were no street signs in Finnish, no place names, etc. Although the use of Finnish was neither officially encouraged nor prohibited in informal exchanges, in practice there was discrimination in schools. Finnish students marked with an “F”, punishment for using Finnish in the classroom and on the playground. This practice lasted up until 1957 when the Swedish National Board of Education withdrew the unofficial regulations forbidding the use of Finnish.

In the 1950's and 60's there was no instruction in Finnish in primary schools in the whole of Sweden. There were hardly any demands for Finnish (there were very few pupils with Finnish as their mother tongue). Home language instruction in Finnish started in Torne Valley in 1970. In 1975, it started in the rest of the country with 2-3 hours a week introduced in public schools. During these first years, Swedish local councils supported the use of Finnish. From September 1992, Finnish lessons were in the pupils' free time (early in the morning, lunch time, etc.). Some Swedish teachers put the Finnish pupils under pressure not to attend the Finnish lessons, arguing that it was better and more useful to study other subjects.

The use of Finnish in education is restricted to primary school level. There are some secondary schools in the South of Sweden that teach Finnish as a foreign language, in order to develop the skills of people for the Baltic market (principally Estonia), as regards the economy and social services. Most of the teaching and learning materials are imported from Finland, which tends to confuse the pupils, as the cultural and social context is different. At the university level, Finnish is taught both as a “home language” and a second language in Stockholm and Uppsala.

There is no use of Finnish by public authorities, although some social services are available in Finnish in the larger cities.

FINNISH (TORNE VALLEY)

The bilingual area of Torne Valley is located in the northernmost part of Sweden, in Norrbotten province and has 270,000 inhabitants. Approximately 40,000 to 60,000 people speak Tornedalen Finnish as an everyday language. It is worth pointing out that between 1900 and 1930, and later, during the 50's and 60's, a lot of Finnish-speaking people (about 20%) changed their Finnish family names by statute to take new Swedish family names. The official reason given was the difficulty Swedish-speakers had in pronouncing and transcribing the Finnish names correctly. But according to experts, this was a deliberate intent on the part of the Tornedalians to merge with the overall Swedish society and to identify themselves as fully Swedish.

In Norrbotten and specifically in Tornedalen the rate of unemployment is high and other socio-economic figures are also considerably worse than the national average. State expenditure is higher here, as are unemployment, sickness leave, early retirement pensions, and social transfers in the family budget, crime and violence rates. Life expectancy is shorter and the death rate from alcohol and drug-related diseases is higher.

Finnish-speaking people in Sweden do not, in general, like to be considered as Finns, because Finns traditionally have been perceived in Sweden as backward immigrants. Furthermore, most Tornedalians consider that their language (called Meän kieli, “our language”) is not the same language as “real” or standard Finnish. The differences between Tornedalen and standard Finnish are controversial. This is due not only to prestige and identity (a lot of standard Finnish-speakers tend to see themselves firstly as Finnish, while Tornedalens feel Swedish) but also to power play and money. The recent government proposal, for example, to grant Finnish (including Tornedalen) an official minority language status has provoked protest, since many Tornedalens wish a special status for their language.

In the last decade of the 19th century up until the 70's, Finnish was banned from folk and primary schools. The first school was established in Torne in 1854 but only Swedish was taught there. Later on, the Swedish education system became bilingual. One of the main consequences was that few Tornedalians have developed literacy in their mother tongue and the language is therefore used mainly as an oral language. The main barrier to the survival of Finnish in the Torne Valley (who only make up between 3-4% of the Finnish speakers in Sweden) is that there is no harmonic relationship between the cultural environment and the use of the language. There is no perceived practical reason for learning Finnish, and no incentive. Only Swedish is useful for finding employment and for studying. Youngsters think more globally regarding their future, so most display no interest in speaking or learning Finnish. This is a classic example of a minority language in decline.

In the 1960's, Swedish became the language of the household of most young families. Today only a small percentage of parents within the educated middle class speaks Finnish with their children. There is a negative perception of bilingualism.

SAMI

Sami children can choose between attending government Sami schools or regular municipal nine-year-compulsory schools where they can also receive instruction in Sami. There is a special board of education responsible for the curriculum at the Sami schools. The aim of Sami education is to give the children the same instruction that Swedish children receive in the compulsory schools, while providing them with schooling that takes into account their own linguistic and cultural background.

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Updated (January 2001)

SAMI

The first course for tour guides focusing on Sami tourism and culture began in January 2001. Seven participants will be employed at the end of the course because it is important that Sami people themselves would control tourism in their area.

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Updated (November 2001)

The Finnish language has a national minority status in Sweden since April last year, but in practice it is without importance even its symbolic value is big.

EDUCATION

Education is the most current issue. According to 1999 statistics from the National Agency for Education, only 42% of the Finnish children had education in their mother tongue in school. Currently students can choose a two-hour native language class per week. It is often set outside the ordinary school schedule so this could explain why number of children participating has diminished. Another reason is a lack of information about the right to Finnish education. At the moment, NAFS is revising its information to Sweden-Finnish parents.

Since ten years (1990), freestanding schools have got the same subsidizing as municipal ones. There are eight Finnish-speaking freestanding schools in Sweden at the moment, and some of them are expanding rapidly. The Sweden-Finnish school in Stockholm has increased the number of pupils from 11 at the beginning of the school year in 1990, to 342 in the school year 1999/00. The main aim of the Sweden-Finnish schools is bilingualism. The education is in Finnish at the beginning and later it is successively switched to Swedish. There are no Finnish-speaking upper secondary schools. On university level Finnish can be studied at the Universities of Lund, Stockholm and Umeå.

NAFS (National Association of Finns in Sweden)

The 45-year-old association has 20,000 members and is the umbrella organization for some 150 different Finnish institutes dealing with culture, dance, music, theatre and sports. “Most members are fairly old and if we do not react soon it will all end badly,” Salmela, recently elected Executive Director for the NAFS, stated. “I am not worried, as Sweden-Finns are a proud breed these days. We just have to do something to activate the younger ones and to work with their attitudes. But it is difficult to create something that interests them. We have to offer them the same kind of spare time activities as the Swedes have. It just has to be better, an all-activity house for example.”

GERIATRIC CARE

Another important issue, alongside education, is geriatric care. According to the estimates there are around 40,000 Finnish pensioners in Sweden. However, the municipalities do not take their responsibility, there are not enough places for Finns and for Finnish-speaking staff.

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Updated (November 2002)

SÁMI

The use of Sámi has decreased during the last five - six decades in Sweden as well as throughout Sápmi (Sámiland) and several smaller dialects are in danger of extinction. This is especially true of eastern Sámi and south Sámi languages.

North Sámi has the strongest position in the society. Perhaps 80 to 90 percent of all Sámi speakers speak this dialect. The fact that more than half of all Sámi in Sweden do not speak the language points to the ongoing language shift from Sámi to Swedish. On the other hand, the use of Sámi has developed within certain areas, e.g., education and administration.

EDUCATION

Until the beginning of the 1990s, the use of the Sámi language in teaching was limited. The school in Karesuando offered Sámi instructions in the lowest grades. This was considered to be justified because the children who came to the Sámi school did not have a command of Swedish at the beginning of their schooling.

However, the survey conducted in the 1990s by the Sámi School Board showed that the way the Sámi language was taught is not particularly effective, especially for the children whose knowledge of Sámi is low when they start the school.

In 1993/94, a three-year research project began at three Sámi schools (Karesuando, Kiruna and Gällivare) aimed at developing a model for language instruction in Sámi schools. This project recommended that instruction should be given regularly in both Sámi and Swedish.

After this project, the number of students instructed in Sámi has increased. There were about 170 students in the Sámi schools in the academic year 2000/2001, 155 students in 1997/98, 132 students in 1995/96 and 115 students in 1994/95.

NOMAD SCHOOLS

This special type of school was created for Sámi children who conducted nomadic mountain reindeer herding at the beginning of the 1900s. Children of Sámi who conducted forest reindeer herding and Sámi who were not nomadic were not permitted to attend the nomad schools. This school form existed until 1962, when a new nomad Sámi schools were established.

Even though the nomad schools were highly adapted to the conditions of nomadic Sámi, all instructions were in Swedish. The Sámi language was added to the curriculum as a subject only after 1950. In 1962, the Swedish Parliament reorganized Sámi education, making nomad schools (i.e. Sámi schools) voluntary and open to all Sámi children. The Sámi language became a mandatory subject and could be taught at most two hours per week.

In 1975, Parliament approved teaching of Sámi as a subject (starting from the academic year 1977/78) in both compulsory and upper-secondary schools. After the mother tongue reform was enacted, the number of lessons taught in Sámi per week has increased. Sámi was taught six to eight hours a week in grades 1-3 and four hours a week in grades 4-6.

Nowadays, Sámi can be studied as a mandatory subject and thus it can replace other language study requirements (i.e. French, Spanish, or German). It can also be chosen as an optional subject within the framework of the school's elective courses.

PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

Since 1999 there has been a special curriculum for pre-schools in two municipalities: Kiruna and Gällivare. According to the Sámi School Board the main goal of this curriculum is to preserve and strengthen the Sámi language, culture, identity, traditions, and values.

The use of the Sámi language has increased over the last several years in pre-schools in Kiruna, Gällivare, and Jokkmokk. The Sámi language began to be used systematically in the pre-schools in Gällivare during the 1990s, even with children whose first language was not Sámi.

SECONDARY EDUCATION

There are no Sámi schools at this level.

Sámi as a subject in upper-secondary schools has been taught since 1978. Up until 1990, the number of students studying the language was very low when less than ten studied Sámi as a home language. There was a slight increase during the 1990s when the number of students increased to about twenty.

HIGHER EDUCATION

The teaching of the Sámi language in higher education takes place primarily at Umeå University. To a limited degree it is also offered at the Finno-Ugrian Department at Uppsala University. Some courses in Sámi have also been offered at Luleå Institute of Technology.

ADMINISTRATION

An increased use of Sámi can also be seen in administrative institutions such as the Sámi Parliament. The production of specialized literature, fiction, television and radio programs in Sámi has also increased substantially over the last decades. The Act on the Right to use Sámi with Public Authorities and Courts and in Pre-schools (1999) improved the conditions for the Sámi language in society.

All these improvements contribute to the fact that Sámi speaking parents will choose to speak Sámi with their children, which is the primary prerequisite for the preservation of the language.

The language situation of South Sámi is particularly difficult in Sweden since legislation dealing with the use of Sámi does not include this dialect. It only covers Lule and North Sámi.

Source: Mercator Education, Regional Dossier, The Sámi language in Education in Sweden,

http://www1.fa.knaw.nl/mercator/regionale_dossiers/regional_dossier_sami_in_sweden.htm

MEÄNKIELI

Most speakers of Meänkieli are bilingual in Finnish/Meänkieli and Swedish, with dominance in Swedish, but some are trilingual, with Sámi as a third language. Speakers of Meänkieli have for the most part become literate in their second language (Swedish) first, before gaining possible literacy skills in their mother tongue.

EDUCATION

Among the Tornedalen children with Meänkieli as their mother tongue, few received instruction in Meänkieli before the 1990s. Instead, they were either integrated into mainstream Swedish-only classes or took part in Sweden Finnish classes/hours. The use of Meänkieli as a learning target and a code of instruction has increased during the late 1990s.

Mother tongue teaching in the public school system, in which Sweden Finnish and Tornedalen children participate, now largely takes place in the late afternoon, after school time. In 1999/2000 more than 37.4 percent (this has increased annually during the 90s) of all mother tongue teaching in Finnish (including Meänkieli) took place outside the normal school day (63.5 percent for all languages nationally). Simultaneously, the teachers of a native language have lost the chance to integrate their work into everyday school activities and to cooperate with other teachers and school staff.

About 75 percent of 289 Swedish municipalities offer some type of mother tongue instruction. Although Finnish/Meänkieli was the largest minority language in 2000, according to the National Agency of Education, only about 80 municipalities offered mother tongue teaching in it. This number also includes 8 independent schools and some 8-10 municipalities, in which bilingual classes still exist.

In several cities with large Finnish-speaking population (Huddinge) there is a great discrepancy between the number of pupils who receive instruction and those who are entitled to receive it. Similarly, a handful of municipalities have been criticized for lack of compliance to other regulations (information about or organization of the instruction) regarding other tongues than Swedish (for example Malmö, Gothenburg, Norrköping, Uppsala, Västerås).

PRIMARY EDUCATION

In 2000, about 1.1 million children were at compulsory school age. More than 123,000 had a language background other than Swedish (11.9 percent). According to the language they used at home about 13,500 children in compulsory schools had Finnish background, including both Sweden Finnish and Meänkieli (1999/2000).

The proportion of students in the public schools who received instructions in Finnish has decreased from slightly less than 60 percent (22,000 pupils) in the early 1980s, to 43 percent in 1999/2000, when only about 5,900 pupils were educated in Finnish.

The right to opt for a mother tongue instruction in Finnish/Meänkieli has been valid for all nine years of a basic school (since 1994), whereas it has been restricted to the first seven years for other languages.

Finnish and Meänkieli can also, at least in theory, be chosen by an individual pupil in several ways:

• The pupil may choose Finnish/Meänkieli as a “language choice” (a maximum of 320 hours of a total of 6,665 instructional hours in basic school).
• In grades 6 and 7 they can be chosen as so-called second languages (earlier ”B” languages), instead of French, German, Spanish or some other international European languages.
• The mother tongue can also become a ”pupil's choice” (maximally 382 hours of 6,665) for one or several hours per week. This can take place earlier than in grade 6. If Finnish/Meänkieli is chosen as a pupil's choice in grade 6 or later, it is referred to as a third or “C” language. In this case it can be chosen for 320 hours during three to four years.
• It is also possible to have Finnish and Meänkieli as a subject chosen by the school (”school's choice,” maximally 600 hours). Also in this case it is sometimes called the “C” language.

The four choices offered depend on the school's economic situation, availability of teachers, attitudes of both the teachers and parents, and the number of pupils required to form a class (5 for Finnish; no limits for Meänkieli). In all instances the municipality may deny the students' right to receive a mother tongue instruction, by failing to arrange suitable teachers.

SECONDARY EDUCATION

Both Finnish and Meänkieli may be taught as so-called third language (earlier ”C” language at the beginner's level). English is the first foreign language for all children in the 1st to 3rd grade. The second foreign language may be chosen in the 6th or 7th grade.

Finnish/Meänkieli can also become the pupil's choice. The rule for the minimal number of pupils (5) applies in this case. The percentage of pupils who choose Finnish or Meänkieli as the third language is consistently lower than that choosing them as a mother tongue. Furthermore, the proportion of pupils who want Finnish or Meänkieli as a mother tongue at the upper secondary level is lower than that choosing them as a mother tongue in a basic school.

HIGHER EDUCATION

At the moment, no full study program exists which would include teaching in these languages. Separate preparations are being made for both Meänkieli and Sweden Finnish to start up study programs for bilingual (Swedish + either language) journalists/media production in co-operation with two journalistic departments (Mitthögskolan for Meänkieli and Stockholm University for Sweden Finnish).

Teaching in Finnish has been offered at five traditional universities: in Uppsala since 1894 (at the Department of Finno-Ugrian Languages), in Stockholm since 1930 (the Department of Finnish), in Umeå (northern Sweden) since the early 1970s (the Department of Finnish and Sámi), in Lund (southern Sweden, close to the border with Denmark) since 1947 (the Department of Finno-Ugrian Languages) and in Gothenburg since the late 1970s (Finnish section). In 1996, a decision was taken to stop providing teaching in Finnish at Gothenburg University. This decision came into effect in 1999. In Lund, the Department of Finno-Ugrian languages was closed in the fall of 2001, but some teaching is available in co-operation with the Finnish section at Copenhagen University in Denmark.

The Department of Finnish at Stockholm University is one of the two largest institutions for higher education in Finnish outside Finland, with about 150-200 students annually. More than half of the students have Sweden Finnish background while about 5 to 10 percent have Tornedalian background. At the universities of Uppsala and Umeå, about 50 to 100 students take courses in Finnish.

Higher education in Meänkieli is in its initial phase. Luleå Technical University has a pedagogical faculty and a language section. Finnish has been taught in Luleå since 1972.

Source: Mercator Education, The Finnic Languages in Education in Sweden, http://www1.fa.knaw.nl/mercator/regionale_dossiers/regional_dossier_meankieli_in_sweden.htm

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Updated (September 2003)

FINNISH LANGUAGE DAILY NEWSPAPER LAUNCHED IN SWEDEN AFTER A LAPSE OF TWENTY YEARS

In October 2003, the weekly Finnish-language newspaper called “Viikkoviesti” will be converted into the daily “Ruotsin Sanomat.” Currently the weekly has a circulation of about 7,500 and it is the largest Finnish-language newspaper in Sweden.

The Finnish minority had their own daily already 20 years ago, when the paper was based in Gothenburg.

At the beginning of September the Finnish Department at Mälardalen University in Eskilstuna held talks with the largest journalist-training scheme run by the Journalism and Media Communication Institution (JMK) in Sweden on the establishment of a bilingual journalism course.

Source: Eurolang news, Uppsala, September 7, 2003, by Johanna Parikka-Altenstedt, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4378

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Updated (April 2005)

THE ONLY FINNISH DAILY NEWSPAPER IN SWEDEN GOES BANKRUPT

The only Finnish daily newspaper in Sweden "Ruotsin Sanomat" has gone bankrupt. The owner and editor-in-chief, Mr. Tuurala, blames the Finnish-speaking readers for it because the paper had no more than 3,000 subscribers despite there are approximately half a million Swedish Finns living in Sweden.

The Swedish Finns were acknowledged by the Swedish government as a national minority in April 2000. Most of them immigrated to Sweden during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. At the beginning they were considered to be foreign workers on a temporary visit. As the visits grew longer and longer, the minority asked for Finnish language day care, education and elderly care.

"Ruotsin Sanomat" was published five days a week since September 2003 by the company called Tidnings AB Viikkoviesti. The same company used to publish also a weekly in Finnish.

Source: Eurolang News, Stockholm, April 14, 2005, by Paula Tapiola, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4993

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Updated (October 2005)

IKEA BILINGUAL IN NORTHERN SWEDEN

The Swedish furniture giant Ikea is looking for bilingual staff for its new store, which is to be opened on the Swedish-Finnish border in the autumn of 2006. The new store will be located in the Swedish town of Haparanda¹.

According to the Professor of the Finnish language at the University of Stockholm, Birger Winsa, this step certainly strengthens the position of the Finnish language in the area. IKEA is the first company there to advertise a bilingual service what can have an impact on other companies as well.

Ikea realizes that it will sell more when it sells in two languages because Finnish customers are unlikely to have knowledge of Swedish.

Source: Eurolang News, Stockholm, September 28, 2005, by Paula Tapiola, http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2464&Itemid=1&lang=en

1. Haparanda is geographically a part of Tornio Valley, home to the Tornio Valley Finns. Since the town lies on the border, it has close ties with Tornio on the Finnish side. There has been a large Finnish in-migration to the town over the last few decades. About half of Haparanda's 10,000 inhabitants are bilingual, about 25 percent solely Swedish-speaking and about 25 percent solely Finnish-speaking.

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Updated (April 2007)

FINNISH-LANGUAGE EDUCATION IS TO BE IMPROVED

The Swedish Government has promised to improve the rights of Finnish Swedes to have lessons in Finnish as the first language.

According to the present rules, there has to be a minimum of five students in the county to form a class where Finnish is used as the first language in teaching. Furthermore, Finnish has to be the spoken language at a student's home. According to the Minister of Education, both of these rules are soon to be abolished. However, the exact date for the reforms has not yet been stated.

Today, both rules apply only to the Finnish Swedes and the Jewish community leaving out the Roma, Sámi and Tornedalians.

Source: Eurolang News, April 18, 2007 by Katriina Kilpi

www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2862&Itemid=1&lang=en

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