Meänkieli dialects

Meänkieli (lit. "our language") is the name used for their own dialect/language by the speakers of distinct Finnish dialects spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden along the valley of the Torne River.

Linguistically, Meänkieli consists of two dialect sub-groups (Tornio and Jällivaara dialects) of the Peräpohjola dialects, which belong to the Western dialects of Finnish.^[2] For political and historical reasons it has the status of a minority language in Sweden. In Swedish nowadays, the language is usually referred to as Meänkieli also by the authorities; a common, and older, name is tornedalsfinska which literally means "Torne Valley Finnish". Meänkieli refers to Torne Valley Finnish (also spoken on the Finnish side of the Torne River) and the Gällivare dialects which belong to the larger Peräpohjola dialect group (see Dialect chart).

Meänkieli is distinguished from standard Finnish by the absence of influence on Meänkieli from modern 19th and 20th Century developments in Finnish.^{[citation needed]} Meänkieli also contains many loanwords from Swedish pertaining to daily life. However, the frequency of loanwords is not exceptionally high when compared to some other Finnish dialects: for example the dialect of Rauma has roughly as many loanwords as Meänkieli. Meänkieli lacks two of the grammatical cases used in standard Finnish - the comitative and the instructive (they are used mostly in literary, official language in Finland). In Finland, Meänkieli is generally seen as a dialect of Northern Finnish. There is also a dialect of Meänkieli spoken around Gällivare which differs even more from standard Finnish.

History

Before 1809, all of what is today Finland was an integral part of Sweden. The language border went west of the Torne Valley area, so a small part of today's Sweden, along the modern border, was historically Finnish speaking (just like most areas along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, areas that were ceded to Russia and are part of modern Finland, were historically Swedish speaking, and to a large extent still are). The area where Meänkieli is spoken that is now Finnish territory (apart from the linguistically Sami and Swedish parts of this geographical area), formed a dialect continuum within the Realm of Sweden. Since the area east of Torne River was ceded to Russia in 1809, the language developed in partial isolation from standard Finnish.

In the 1880s, the Swedish state decided that all citizens of the country should speak Swedish. Part of the reason was military; people close to the border speaking the language of the neighbouring country rather than the major language in their own country might not be trusted in case of war. Another reason was that Finns were regarded as being of another "race." The official Swedish opinion was that "the Sami and the Finnish tribes belong[ed] more closely to Russia than to Scandinavia".^[3] Beginning around this time, the schools in the area only taught in Swedish, and children were forbidden under penalty of physical punishment from speaking their own language at school even during class breaks. Native Meänkieli speakers were prevented by the authorities from learning Standard Finnish as a school subject for decades, which resulted in the survival of the language only in oral form.

Meänkieli today

On April 1, 2000, Meänkieli became one of the five nationally recognized minority languages of Sweden. Meaning that it can be used for some communication with local and regional authorities in the communities along the Finnish border. But "minority language" status only applies in certain designated local communities and areas, not in all of Sweden.

Few people today speak Meänkieli as their only language. Estimates of how many people speak Meänkieli vary from 30,000 to 70,000, with most of them living in Norrbotten. Many people in the northern parts of Sweden understand some Meänkieli, but those who speak it regularly are fewer. People with Meänkieli-speaking roots are often referred to as Tornedalians although the Finnish-speaking part of Norrbotten is a far larger area than the Tornio (the Meänkieli and Finnish name for Torne) River Valley; judging by the names of towns and places, the Finnish-speaking part of Norrbotten stretches as far west as the city of Gällivare.

Today Meänkieli is declining. Few young people speak Meänkieli as part of daily life though many have passive knowledge of the language from family use. The language is taught at Stockholm University, Luleå University of Technology, and Umeå University. Bengt Pohjanen is the trilingual author from Torne Valley. In 1985 he wrote the first Meänkielin novel, Lyykeri. He has also written several novels, dramas, grammars, and songs in Meänkieli; and he has written and directed films.

The author Mikael Niemi does not speak Meänkieli. His novels and a film based on one of his books in Swedish have improved the general knowledge among average Swedes regarding the existence of this Finnish-speaking minority. Since the 1980s, people who speak Meänkieli have become more aware of the importance of the language as a marker of identity.^{[citation needed]} Today, grammar books are being written in Meänkieli. The Bible is being translated into Meänkieli; there is drama performed in Meänkieli, and there area some TV programs in Meänkieli.

Comparison between Meänkieli and Standard Finnish

Literal English translation

Sweden is a democracy. The word democracy means the power of the people. It means that people in Sweden are allowed to participate in deciding how Sweden has to be governed. It is said in our constitution that all power in Sweden comes from the people, and that the Riksdag is the most important representative of the people. Every four years the people choose those who will represent them in the Riksdag, the County Councils and the municipalities.

See also

• Demographics of Sweden
• Sweden Finns
• Kven language

References

External links

Meänkieli dialects test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator