 | Kven: Encyclopedia II - Kven - Languages in the territory of Kvenland today
Kven - Languages in the territory of Kvenland today
As of 2005 total of four Finno-Ugric languages have been granted a legal language status by the governments of Norway, Sweden and Finland in the areas that once was referred to as Kvenland.
Those languages are Sami, Kainu (official name accepted legally in 2005, a.k.a. Kainun kieli - i.e. the language on Kainu - and Kven), Meänkieli (a.k.a. Tornedalen) and Finnish.
The four Finno-Ugric (a.k.a. Fenno-Ugric, Finnic or Uralic) languages are tought in the schools in the area of the historic Kvenland, i.e. in the northern parts of the Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The speakers of Kainu (a.k.a. Kven), Meänkieli and Finnish can understand each others languages without too much difficulty, but the Sami language differes considerably of the three others. On today's Russian parts of the historic Kvenland area - by the Viena Karelia (Vienan Karjala in Finnish) - an old dialect of the standard Finnish language is spoken. Attepts for a legal minority language status for it is sought currently in Russia.
Besides the Finnish dialects and the four official Finnic languages spoken currently in the historic Kvenland (a.k.a. Kainu and Kainuunmaa in Finnish) territories in the four above mentioned countries, Norwegian is spoken in Northern Norway, Swedish in Northern Sweden and Russian in Norhtwestern Russia, in the areas that - in historical terms - were refered to as Kvenland.
In the historic Kvenland territories, the two official Finno-Ugric languages in Northern Norway are the Kven (a.k.a. Kven language) and the Sami, the two spoken in Northern Sweden are the Meänkieli and the Sami, the two in Northern Finland are the standard Finnish and Sami, and the two on the Russian part of the historic Kvenland are the Finnish (a dialect) and the Sami languages.
The Kven language in Norway has been considered merely a dialect of the standard Finnish language up till recent times - rather than a language of its own -, although some linguists have been calling it a language already for long. However, the year 2005 has brought a significant change in the policies and attitudes on this field. The Kven languag was then secured a status of an official minority language in Northern Norway by the Norwegian government, equal to the status granted to the Sami language before.
According to most recent official Norwegian statistics in 2005, both groups declare over 25 000 native speakers of their languages - as their mother tongue - on their respected areas in Northern Norway. This number does not include the speakers of the modern day regular Finnish language in Norhern Norway - nor does it include those Kvens, who have turned into Norwegian as their first language over time.
In north-easten Norway, mainly around Varanger Fjord, the spoken Kven is quite similar to a standard Finnish, whereas the few remaining Kven speakers in the west, from Alta to the area of Lyngen Fjord, speak Finnish with more particularities, due to a deeper isolation from Finland.
Although Kven Finnish is for the most part based on Finnish, it has many Norwegian loan words, e.g. tyskäläinen (meaning "German" in English, tysk in Norwegian, saksalainen in Finnish). The Kven Finnish also uses some old Finnish words which no longer are used in Finland. The modern day Finnish Kainuu dialect is largely of the same origin as the Kven Finnish.
Furthermore, each of the larger Finnish migration waves from the southern parts of today's Finland have left their signs to the Kven Finnish dialect. Particularly the migration of the so called Tornedalians - from the 9th century up to the 13th century - brough south-western Finnish effects to the spoken Kven Finnish dialect.
The language spoken by the Kven population in north-eastern Sweden - the Tornedalians - was also granted a legal status of an official minority language in Sweden in 1999. That language - called Meänkieli - is now tought in the Swedish school system as a language of its own, despite of some outcry from Finland, where many perceive Meänkieli too close to the modern day Finnish to be a language of its own.
Both, Meänkieli (a.k.a. Tornedalen or Tornedalen Finnish) - spoken in north-eastern Sweden - and Kven (language) - spoken in north-eastern Norway, are now in a process of being included to the group of Fenno-Ugric languages.
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 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Languages in the territory of Kvenland today", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
