Meänkieli dialects

Spoken in

• Uralic languages Finno - Ugric Finno - Lappish Baltic Finnish Finnish meänkieli

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Fiu

Fit

Meänkieli ( literally " our language " ) or Tornedalfinnisch ( swedish tornedalsfinska, finn tornionlaaksonsuomi ) is a Finnish dialect, which is in the valley Torne Valley (Finnish Tornionlaakso ) of the Swedish-Finnish border river Torne River (Finnish Tornionjoki ) in Lapland and Norrbotten spoken and is recognized in accordance with the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages ​​in Sweden as a national minority language.

Dissemination

Meänkieli is spoken mainly in the valley of the Torne River in and around Pajala, Haparanda, Övertorneå and to a lesser extent in Kiruna and Gällivare. Furthermore, the language is represented in cities, the influx area of Tornedalfinnen are reinforced, such as Luleå and Stockholm. The number of speakers of Tornedalfinnischen varies depending on how you count ( active, passive voice control, ...) 30000-70000 people.

Language

Due to the isolation of the Finnish-speaking population of Sweden from the rest of the Finnish language area after the loss of Finland to Russia in 1809, developments of the Finnish language in the 19th and 20th centuries have hardly found their way into Tornedalfinnische. In contrast Meänkieli was heavily influenced by the Swedish language, especially in the form of new concepts of modern life. This development was also encouraged by efforts of the Swedish government ( between 1888 and the early 1960s ) to assimilate the Tornedalfinnen. The Finnish was informed in 1888 used in school either as a language of instruction even at all. Many Tornedalfinnen speak the language today only passive.

From a linguistic point of view Meänkieli is not very different from the Finnish language and is understood in Finland as Subdialekt the West Finnish dialect. For language policy perspective and in view of the resulting effects Meänkieli but is now well known as language.

Meänkieli differs from standard Finnish, among others, in phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary.

Example of word borrowed from the Swedish are: fryysi ( swedish frys - freezer), biili ( bil - car), räkinki ( räkning - invoice).

A characteristic peculiarity of Tornedalfinnischen is the so-called h- metathesis, in which an hour to one or two places is moved in the word. From the urfinnischen talohon ( from inside the house, finn taloon ) is talhoon in Meänkieli.

Another difference from standard Finnish is the lack of two cases of Komitativs and Instruktivs. Pohjanen and Muli give in their grammar Meänkieli rätt och lätt - grammar i meänkieli (2003), however, that the two cases in Meänkieli happen very well.

There are four variants: the Torneälvdalsdialekt, the Vittangidialekt, the Jukkasjärvi dialect and the more clearly from the other deviating Gällivaredialekt (especially by a very high proportion of Swedish and Saami loanwords ).

Meänkieli today

On 2 December 1999, the Swedish Parliament recognized the Finnish-speaking population of Torne Valley as a minority and Meänkieli as a minority language.

In recent decades, the Tornedalfinnische has declined sharply as a spoken language. In particular, young people dominate Meänkieli nowadays hardly active. Support is Meänkieli ( this term was only coined in the 1980s ), for example by the writer Bengt Pohjanen by Matti Kenttä, Eeva Muli, Kirsti Johansson, Marita Matsson - Barsk and Harriet Kuoppa that on established rules for grammar and spelling the Tornedalfinnischen work. Before the 1970s, there was neither an independent literary language nor the Tornedalfinnische of its speakers was generally as something other than a Finnish dialect perceived. For the preservation and development of language, the association Svenska tornedalingars Riksförbund sets - Tornionlaaksolaiset (STR- T). Meänkieli is taught, among other things at the universities of Luleå and Umeå; have already been translated first sections of the Bible. Even today, there are TV shows to Tornedalfinnisch.