Meänkieli

Meänkieli
meänkieli
Native to	Sweden
Region	Torne Valley
Ethnicity	Tornedalians
Native speakers	(70,000 cited 1997–2020)
Language family	Uralic Finnic Finnish Peräpohjola Meänkieli
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Sweden
Language codes
ISO 639-3	fit
Glottolog	torn1244
Map of the area where Meänkieli has an official status.

Meänkieli(literally 'our language') is aFinnic languageor a group of distinctFinnishdialects spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden along the valley of theTorne River.Its status as an independent language is disputed, but in Sweden it is officially recognized as one of thecountry's five minority languagesand is treated as a distinct language from standard Finnish.According to the Swedish National Association of Tornedalians, 70,000 individuals are able to understand Meänkieli, at least to some level.

Linguistically, Meänkieli consists of two dialect subgroups, theTorne Valley dialects(also spoken on the Finnish side of theTorne River) and theGällivare dialects,which both belong to the largerPeräpohjola dialectgroup.It has the status of aminority languageinSweden.In modernSwedishthe language is normally referred to officially asmeänkieli,although colloquially an older name,tornedalsfinska( "Torne ValleyFinnish "), is still commonly used.Sveriges Radiotends to usetornedalsfinskafor the culture generally andmeänkielispecifically for the language.

Meänkieli is distinguished from Standard Finnish by the absence of 19th- and 20th-century developments in 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 the upper section of today's Sweden (about 10% by area), was historicallyFinnishspeaking (just like most areas along the eastern coast of the southern part ofGulf of Bothnia,areas that werecededto Russia and are part of modern Finland, were historicallySwedish speaking,and to a large extent still are). The area where Meänkieli is spoken that is now northern Sweden (apart from the linguisticallySamiandSwedishparts of this geographical area), formed adialect continuumwithin theRealm of Sweden.Since the area east of Torne River was ceded toRussiain 1809, the language spoken on the western side of it developed in partial isolation fromstandardFinnish. In 1826, the stateChurch of Swedenappointed the priest and amateur botanistLars Levi Laestadiusto be theVicarover theKaresuandoparish, which is situated along theMuonio Rivernorth of theArctic Circleon the border of Finland inSwedish Lapland.

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 (primarily eastern Finns) were sometimes regarded as being of another "race." An opinion of that period, as reflected in contemporary fiction, was that the Sami and the Finnish populations belonged "more closely to Russia than to Scandinavia".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 Finnish 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.

When minority languages first became taught in Swedish schools, Meänkieli was still classified as a form of Finnish and children who spoke in natively were taught standard Finnish in school, which caused problems for children to fully understand, demotivating students. However, in 1977 some schools began to make materials specifically designed for speakers of Meänkieli which did not use standard Finnish. This was also the first time the term "Meänkieli" was applied to the form of speech, which was called "Tornedalian Finnish" before.

Meänkieli today

On April 1, 2000, Meänkieli became one of the now five nationally recognizedminority languagesof Sweden, which means it can be used for some communication with local and regional authorities in the communities along the Finnish border. Its minority language status applies in designated local communities and areas, not throughout Sweden.

Few people today speak Meänkieli as their only language, with speakers usually knowing Swedish and often standard Finnish as well. Estimates of how many people speak Meänkieli vary from 30,000 to 70,000, of whom most live inNorrbotten.Many people in the northern parts of Sweden understand some Meänkieli, but fewer people speak it regularly. People with Meänkieli roots are often referred to asTornedaliansalthough the Finnish-speaking part of Norrbotten is a far larger area than theTorne River Valley;judging by the names of towns and places, the Finnish-speaking part of Norrbotten stretches as far west as the town ofGällivare.

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, and it is not uncommon for younger people from Meänkieli-speaking families to be more familiar with standard Finnish, for which literature and courses are much more readily available. The language is taught atStockholm University,Luleå University of Technology,andUmeå University.Bengt Pohjanenis a trilingual author from the Torne Valley. In 1985 he wrote the first Meänkieli novel,Lyykeri.He has also written several novels, dramas, grammar books, songs and films in Meänkieli.

The authorMikael Niemi's novels and a film based on one of his books in Swedish have improved awareness of this minority among Swedes. Since the 1980s, people who speak Meänkieli have become more aware of the importance of the language as a marker of identity.Today there are grammar books, a Bible translation, drama performances, and there are some TV programmes in Meänkieli.

On radio, programmes in Meänkieli are broadcast regularly from regional stationP4 Norrbotten(as well as local station P6 in Stockholm) on Mondays to Thursdays between 17:10 and 18:00, while on Sundays further programmes are carried by P6 between 8:34 and 10:00 (also onP2nationwide from 8:34 to 9:00). All of these programmes are also available via the Internet.

Status as a language

Individuals who agree with the classification of Meänkieli as a separate language generally do so for historical, political and sociological reasons, usually pointing to its separate standardised written language that is distinct from standard Finnish. However, on pure linguistic grounds, Meänkieli may be classified as a Northern dialect of Finnish. Meänkieli is very comprehensible for speakers of Finnish, especially due to the fact that Swedish is taught as a mandatory subject in Finland, causing the heavy Swedish influence in Meänkieli to not cause problems for comprehension. Despite the mutual intelligibility, speakers of Meänkieli generally wish to see it as its own language separate from Finnish, since its status as an independent language has increased its linguistic prestige and has aided with keeping the language alive.

Geographical distribution

Meänkieli has an official status in:Pajala,Övertorneå,Haparanda,Gällivare,Luleå,Kalix,Kiruna,and many speakers also live inStockholm.

Alphabet

• A – aa –[ɑ]
• B – bee –[b]
• C – see –[k/s]
• D – dee –[d]
• E – ee –[e]
• F – äf –[f]
• G – gee –[ɡ]
• H – hoo –[h]
• I – ii –[i]
• J – jii –[j]
• K – koo –[k]
• L – äl –[l]
• M – äm –[m]
• N – än –[n]
• O – oo –[o]
• P – pee –[p]
• Q – kuu –[k]
• R – är –[r]
• S – äs –[s]
• T – tee –[t]
• U – uu –[u]
• V – vee –[ʋ]
• W – kaksois-vee/tupla-vee –[ʋ]
• X – äks –[ks]
• Y – yy –[y]
• Z – tset(a) –[s]
• Å – ruotti oo –[o/oː]
• Ä – ää –[æ]
• Ö – öö –[ø]

B, C, D, G, W, X, Z, and Å are only used in foreign words and names.

in 2016 a letter š/ʃ/was added into Meänkieli, instead of theSwedishletters sj.

Grammar

Main article:Meänkieli grammar

The grammar of Meänkieli is very similar to Finnish, with some variations such as the aspiration of consonants before long vowels. Meänkieli is an agglunatitive language with fifteen noun cases. It contains consonant gradiation and vowel harmony, just like Finnish. It contains four verb tenses, which are the present, imperfect, perfect and the pluperfect. It does not have a separate tense for future events.

Some Meänkieli words not used in standard Finnish

TheSwedish languagewords are in parentheses in case of borrowed cognates. With Swedish being the dominant everyday language in the region, the language has impacted modern Meänkieli in some ways.

• äpyli'apple' (äpple)
• son/s'oon'it is'
• sole'it is not'
• klaarata'to get along' (klara)
• sturaani'ugly'
• potati'potato' (potatis)
• pruukata'to have a habit of' (bruka)
• följy'along with, company' (följe)
• ko'when, as, since'
• fiskata'to fish' (fiska)
• kläppi'child'
• muuruutti'carrot' (morot)
• porista'to talk'
• praatata'to speak' (prata)
• kahveli'fork' (gaffel)
• pruuvata'to try' (prova)
• kniivi'knife' (kniv)
• knakata'to knock' (knacka)
• öölata'to drink beer' (öla)
• miilu'game'
• knapsu'feminine man'
• fruukosti'breakfast' (frukost)
• fältti'field' (fält)
• funteerata'to think' (fundera)
• engelska'English' (engelska)
• fryysbuksi'freezer' (frysbox)
• flakku'flag' (flagga)
• häätyy'to have to'

Differences between standard Finnish and Meänkieli

In many loanwords the soundfhas been replaced withvin Finnish.

Meänkieli	Finnish	English
färi	väri	'color'
fankila	vankila	'prison'

Many words have been loaned with the letteruinto Finnish but withyinto Meänkieli.

Meänkieli	Finnish	English
kylttyyri	kulttuuri	'culture'
resyrssi	resurssi	'resource'

Many words have been loaned with the letterointo Finnish but withuinto Meänkieli.

Meänkieli	Finnish	English
puliisi	poliisi	'police'
pulitiikka	politiikka	'politics'

In loanwords, the sounddhas been replaced witht.In native words,dis gone.

Meänkieli	Finnish	English
tehä	tehdä	'to make'
tynamiitti	dynamiitti	'dynamite'
meän	meidän	'our'
heän	heidän	'their'

Double consonants

Meänkieli	Finnish	English
mettä	metsä	'forest'
kattoa	katsoa	'to watch'
savvu	savu	'smoke'

See also

• Demographics of Sweden
• Kven language
• Sweden Finns

External links

• Media related toMeänkieliat Wikimedia Commons

• Torniolaaksolaiset
• Ridanpää, Juha (2018)Why save a minority language? Meänkieli and rationales of language revitalization.–Fennia: International Journal of Geography169 (2), 187–203.