Bishop Mikael Agricola published the first Finnish books in 1543 and 1548; The ABC-book and The Bible. Most of the first literature in Finnish was religious and though Latin and Swedish were the languages of administration within the church, Finnish was the language used in sermons etc., because most of the Finns spoke only Finnish. In 1500s, as part of the reformation the trend across Europe was to use people's own languages in churches instead of Latin so that people could actually understand what was said and was expected of them. Naturally only-Finnish speakers used Finnish in trading too and when dealing with public officers. in the beginning of the 1800s half of the Finns could read. The European trends let also to the development of formal Finnish from the 1830s onward and more so from 1860s onward when nationalistic idea spread across Europe. Finnish was taught academically from 1829 onward. In 1835, Elias Lönnrot published the first version of the Kalevala, national epic of Finland. Officially Finnish became the second official language of administration in 1863. How spoken Finnish looks like in written form depends on which dialect it's spoken in. E.g. numbers aren't said the same way in all dialects. In those quick-spoken numbers you can drop the double vowel. 'Y, ka, ko, ne, vi, ku' etc. is one letter less quicker. The number of Finnish speakers is much higher than 5 million. In Finland there are 4,8 million who speak Finnish as their first language and 0,5 million as their second language. On top of those, E.g. in 2015 in Sweden alone there were 420 000 people who spoke or understood Finnish or Mäenkieli, which is basically a Finnish dialect. In Spain lives 30 000-40 000 Finns temporarily or permanently. You can find Finns everywhere. Even some foreigners are interested in learning Finnish, it seems. Finnish speakers abroad have spoken and are speaking Finnish dialects, also in the US, even if there has developed some local dialect on top of that original dialect. Speaking of oppression towards the Finns. Though there were Finns who rose to high positions under Swedish rule, in general all Finns were considered as inferior people by the Swedes regardless what language the Finns spoke. in general all Finns were considered as inferior people by the Russians too regardless what language the Finns spoke. Speaking of Russian oppression, the Russian Empire's attempt to terminate Finland's political autonomy and cultural uniqueness started in 1899 and lasted in two parts till 1917. Though the oppression of Finns by the Russians didn't start from there. E.g. between 1714 and 1721 Finland was occupied by Russia and during that time estimated 5 000-20 000 Finns were tortured and killed and 20 000-30 000 abducted and enslaved. Also the time of Finland's independence is an era of oppression by Russia with invasions, Finlandization and now with all the hybrid operations. The faith of Finnic peoples and languages in Soviet Union and Russia has been even worse. E.g. before the persecution of Ingrian Finns from 1935 onward there were 140 000-160 000 of them living in Russia and today approximately 19 000.
There was a change in the position of the Finnish language in Church usage when Sweden turned from Catholicism to Protestantism. The Protestants wanted that people can understand the Church teachings in their own language. Translation of the New Testament to German was in 1522, to Swedish in 1526, and to Finnish in 1548. Mikael Agricola was a Protestant reformer and the first printed book in Finnish was his 1543 Abckirja, a primer for reading and a cathechism, ie a summary of Christian teachings.
A very good summary. However, I think the status of Finnish during the Swedish era is partly misunderstood. The idea that Finnish was inferior only developed during Finnish autonomy while being part of the Russian Empire. During the Swedish era Swedish was the majority language in the country and therefore used as the official language also in the part of Sweden called Finland. The situation changed in 1809: in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Finnish suddenly was the language of the majority and the Swedish speaking upper class felt their position was in danger. They had to find excuses why upper education would still need to be Swedish and the government and upper agencues run in Swedish; that Swedish was somehow a superior language; Finnish language and people somehow naturally inferior. This is a developement of the 1800's and the language 'battles' lasted until the 1930's, even though Finnish had been made official in 1863. As explained earlier, when turning into Lutheranism in the early 1500's Sweden actually forced Agricola to develop written Finnish, and during the Swedish era it became compulsory for Finns to be able to read Finnish - you were not allowed to get married unless you could read, for Finnish speakers to read Finnish. Finnish was widely used in Finland, but the main language in Sweden was Swedish and therefore it was also the 'official' language in the eastern part of Sweden, Finland.
Many has told already that misunderstooding of usage of Finnish language under Swedish rule so I spoke about some other things. I liked that in your examples you showed also numbers in quick spoken language, I think these are not on many other videos. But the other example, its also very common to say "mie oon" which you could have mentioned, that form is roughly in use on Northern parts and Eastern parts of Finland. Then there exist more less known forms like miä, mnä,meä, mää on different parts of Finland. Actually according to Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, there is 4000 common words with Russian and 6000 with Swedish in Finnish language but of of course meanings can be different. Example you can say "siisti sininen kapakka" and it actually means same as in Russian "чистый синий капюшон" (tsistij sinij kapjushon). Some others examples are mesta, koni, kapusta, leima, murju, lavitsa, sontikka, piirakka, pirtti, putka, tyrmä, pätsi, toveri, tuumata, tavara.
Excelllent, I know about these facts and they are ok. Very compact, she walks on path all the time, and don't jump to unessential explanations. Very informative! Suosittelen sekä ulkomaalaisille, että suomalaisille ... 🙂
Just one addition ... (Russian & Swedish loan words). Actually there are in Finnish many Slavic and Germanic loan words. A funny example is connected with traditional sauna, where birch branches are used to hit the sweating skin. In western Finlland the word is "'vihta" from Swedish *kvist*, meaning branch, and in eastern Finland *vasta* whichcomes from a Russian word meaning same :-) Also Finnish language ha probably inluence to other languages /there are scientific papers about thos, For example, which sounds odd, the Enhglish word "boy" is probably based the Swedish word "pojke"and it is based on Finnish word "poika" ... the explanation is viking raids to Britain ...
Karelian isn't actually classified as Eastern Finnic, it's in the Northern Finnic grouping with Finnish. The only Eastern Finnic language is Vepsian, which Karelian has been influenced by, especially when it comes to Southern Karelian dialects. Northern Finnic can be further split into western and eastern branches, the western one contains western Finnish dialects and the eastern one contains eastern Finnish dialects and the modern Karelian language itself. This roughly correlates with the main 3 Finnish tribes that existed, the Finns in the southwest of Finland, Tavastians northeast of the Finns more inland and the Karelians in the east directly northwest of Ladoga.
Just a tiny tidbit, but the title should be “Suomen kielen historiaa”. That is, in the possessive. A noun phrase can be used for the possessive in English - A Finnish language history - but not usually in Finnish.
Supression did not stop in 1809, read the book "Itämaasta itsenäisyyteen(2010)". Technically constitution does not mention official languages, instead it's "national languages" and it makes a big difference that is ignored nowadays. First drafts of the constitution had only one official language: Finnish. But it was not feasible as likely end-result would been a war with Sweden. Finnish military feared landings not only in disputed Ahvenanmaa island, but in other Swedish speaking coastal areas also.
This otherwise impressive video loses a bit of credibility with major grammatical errors in its title…. It should be ‘Suomen kielen historia’ (Although ‘historiaa’ isn’t wrong as such, just a slightly different meaning.) Maybe you can update the title? 😊
I don't know anything about your channel but you sound like someone thats learned finnish for over a decade, even then it's impressive as hell!!
Tosi upea ja informatiivinen video! :)
Kiitos Heidi! ☺️
Wow, your language skills are once again very impressive!👍
Thank you very much! ☺️
Bishop Mikael Agricola published the first Finnish books in 1543 and 1548; The ABC-book and The Bible. Most of the first literature in Finnish was religious and though Latin and Swedish were the languages of administration within the church, Finnish was the language used in sermons etc., because most of the Finns spoke only Finnish. In 1500s, as part of the reformation the trend across Europe was to use people's own languages in churches instead of Latin so that people could actually understand what was said and was expected of them. Naturally only-Finnish speakers used Finnish in trading too and when dealing with public officers.
in the beginning of the 1800s half of the Finns could read. The European trends let also to the development of formal Finnish from the 1830s onward and more so from 1860s onward when nationalistic idea spread across Europe. Finnish was taught academically from 1829 onward. In 1835, Elias Lönnrot published the first version of the Kalevala, national epic of Finland. Officially Finnish became the second official language of administration in 1863.
How spoken Finnish looks like in written form depends on which dialect it's spoken in. E.g. numbers aren't said the same way in all dialects. In those quick-spoken numbers you can drop the double vowel. 'Y, ka, ko, ne, vi, ku' etc. is one letter less quicker.
The number of Finnish speakers is much higher than 5 million. In Finland there are 4,8 million who speak Finnish as their first language and 0,5 million as their second language. On top of those, E.g. in 2015 in Sweden alone there were 420 000 people who spoke or understood Finnish or Mäenkieli, which is basically a Finnish dialect. In Spain lives 30 000-40 000 Finns temporarily or permanently. You can find Finns everywhere. Even some foreigners are interested in learning Finnish, it seems. Finnish speakers abroad have spoken and are speaking Finnish dialects, also in the US, even if there has developed some local dialect on top of that original dialect.
Speaking of oppression towards the Finns. Though there were Finns who rose to high positions under Swedish rule, in general all Finns were considered as inferior people by the Swedes regardless what language the Finns spoke. in general all Finns were considered as inferior people by the Russians too regardless what language the Finns spoke. Speaking of Russian oppression, the Russian Empire's attempt to terminate Finland's political autonomy and cultural uniqueness started in 1899 and lasted in two parts till 1917. Though the oppression of Finns by the Russians didn't start from there. E.g. between 1714 and 1721 Finland was occupied by Russia and during that time estimated 5 000-20 000 Finns were tortured and killed and 20 000-30 000 abducted and enslaved. Also the time of Finland's independence is an era of oppression by Russia with invasions, Finlandization and now with all the hybrid operations. The faith of Finnic peoples and languages in Soviet Union and Russia has been even worse. E.g. before the persecution of Ingrian Finns from 1935 onward there were 140 000-160 000 of them living in Russia and today approximately 19 000.
There was a change in the position of the Finnish language in Church usage when Sweden turned from Catholicism to Protestantism. The Protestants wanted that people can understand the Church teachings in their own language. Translation of the New Testament to German was in 1522, to Swedish in 1526, and to Finnish in 1548.
Mikael Agricola was a Protestant reformer and the first printed book in Finnish was his 1543 Abckirja, a primer for reading and a cathechism, ie a summary of Christian teachings.
Thanks for all of this interesting information! There’s always more to learn 😄
A very good summary. However, I think the status of Finnish during the Swedish era is partly misunderstood. The idea that Finnish was inferior only developed during Finnish autonomy while being part of the Russian Empire. During the Swedish era Swedish was the majority language in the country and therefore used as the official language also in the part of Sweden called Finland. The situation changed in 1809: in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Finnish suddenly was the language of the majority and the Swedish speaking upper class felt their position was in danger. They had to find excuses why upper education would still need to be Swedish and the government and upper agencues run in Swedish; that Swedish was somehow a superior language; Finnish language and people somehow naturally inferior. This is a developement of the 1800's and the language 'battles' lasted until the 1930's, even though Finnish had been made official in 1863.
As explained earlier, when turning into Lutheranism in the early 1500's Sweden actually forced Agricola to develop written Finnish, and during the Swedish era it became compulsory for Finns to be able to read Finnish - you were not allowed to get married unless you could read, for Finnish speakers to read Finnish. Finnish was widely used in Finland, but the main language in Sweden was Swedish and therefore it was also the 'official' language in the eastern part of Sweden, Finland.
Many has told already that misunderstooding of usage of Finnish language under Swedish rule so I spoke about some other things. I liked that in your examples you showed also numbers in quick spoken language, I think these are not on many other videos. But the other example, its also very common to say "mie oon" which you could have mentioned, that form is roughly in use on Northern parts and Eastern parts of Finland. Then there exist more less known forms like miä, mnä,meä, mää on different parts of Finland.
Actually according to Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, there is 4000 common words with Russian and 6000 with Swedish in Finnish language but of of course meanings can be different. Example you can say "siisti sininen kapakka" and it actually means same as in Russian "чистый синий капюшон" (tsistij sinij kapjushon). Some others examples are mesta, koni, kapusta, leima, murju, lavitsa, sontikka, piirakka, pirtti, putka, tyrmä, pätsi, toveri, tuumata, tavara.
Excelllent, I know about these facts and they are ok. Very compact, she walks on path all the time, and don't jump to unessential explanations. Very informative! Suosittelen sekä ulkomaalaisille, että suomalaisille ... 🙂
Just one addition ... (Russian & Swedish loan words). Actually there are in Finnish many Slavic and Germanic loan words. A funny example is connected with traditional sauna, where birch branches are used to hit the sweating skin. In western Finlland the word is "'vihta" from Swedish *kvist*, meaning branch, and in eastern Finland *vasta* whichcomes from a Russian word meaning same :-) Also Finnish language ha probably inluence to other languages /there are scientific papers about thos, For example, which sounds odd, the Enhglish word "boy" is probably based the Swedish word "pojke"and it is based on Finnish word "poika" ... the explanation is viking raids to Britain ...
Karelian isn't actually classified as Eastern Finnic, it's in the Northern Finnic grouping with Finnish. The only Eastern Finnic language is Vepsian, which Karelian has been influenced by, especially when it comes to Southern Karelian dialects. Northern Finnic can be further split into western and eastern branches, the western one contains western Finnish dialects and the eastern one contains eastern Finnish dialects and the modern Karelian language itself. This roughly correlates with the main 3 Finnish tribes that existed, the Finns in the southwest of Finland, Tavastians northeast of the Finns more inland and the Karelians in the east directly northwest of Ladoga.
Upea video!
Just a tiny tidbit, but the title should be “Suomen kielen historiaa”. That is, in the possessive. A noun phrase can be used for the possessive in English - A Finnish language history - but not usually in Finnish.
Fellow Uralic (namely Hungarian) learner here.
Awesome! Good luck in your language learning! 😄
@@multisingual1241 you too, and belated shanah tovah umetucha! Sabbath shalom as well.
Nice video
Thank you 😊
Terveisiä Suomesta
Kiitos!
Supression did not stop in 1809, read the book "Itämaasta itsenäisyyteen(2010)". Technically constitution does not mention official languages, instead it's "national languages" and it makes a big difference that is ignored nowadays. First drafts of the constitution had only one official language: Finnish. But it was not feasible as likely end-result would been a war with Sweden. Finnish military feared landings not only in disputed Ahvenanmaa island, but in other Swedish speaking coastal areas also.
Kalevalalla on kyllä aika sanahirviö!
Tuumata, vaino.. there are Russian loan words from Russian. Probably older than 1809.
גמר חתימה טובה און גוט יום טוב!!!
Sounds like sami
They’re definitely related. Nice catch! 😄
Koivunkuorikirje on suomeksi oikeastaan tuohikirje, koska koivunkuoren nimi on tuohi.
איך האָב אַ פראַגע, ווי פילע שפּראַכן איר רעדן?
איך קען רעדן 7/8 שפראכן בלויז אדער אויף א הויכע מדריגה. נאך 5/6 האלט איך אין מיטן פון מיך אויסלערנען און קען שמועסן דער אין. 😀
איך האט ניט דערווארטן אזוי פילע, אבער עס איז אויסגעצייכנט און אנגלייבליך. טראץ איר קענט און וויסן אזוי פילע שפראכן, איך גראטולירן איר פֿאר געבן אזא א וויכטיק ארט צו אונדזער מאמע לשון אויף אירם קאנאל. שכּוייח!!!
@LydlDrakhe ישר כח און עס איז מיין כבד😇
With some accent
This otherwise impressive video loses a bit of credibility with major grammatical errors in its title…. It should be ‘Suomen kielen historia’ (Although ‘historiaa’ isn’t wrong as such, just a slightly different meaning.) Maybe you can update the title? 😊