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Meänkieli

Finnic language or Finnish dialect spoken in northern Sweden

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Meänkieli is spoken by the Tornedalians in Sweden, who descent from a mixture of old Tavastian and Old Karelian speakers who began settling formerly Sámi speaking regions in the Torne Valley region. Meänkieli is particularly similar to the Kven language in Norway and the Peräpohjola dialects of Finnish spoken in Finland, and it is strongly mutually intelligible with them. Its status as an independent language is sometimes disputed due to this high degree of mutual intelligibility. However, Meänkieli contains strong influences from Swedish, a number of loanwords from the Sámi languages, preserves some archaic features that even the northern Finnish dialects have lost, and lacks the changes which standard Finnish experienced in the 19th to 20th centuries. As a result, while Meänkieli is often intelligible to speakers of Finnish, standard Finnish is often very difficult for speakers of Meänkieli to understand. The Gällivare varieties of Meänkieli differ even more significantly from standard Finnish and from other Finnish dialects, notably particularly their complete absence of vowel harmony.

A written Meänkieli language has been developed since the 1970s.

History

Early history

The indigenous population of the regions where the Tornedalians currently live were the Sámi. The first Finnic people of the region were Tavastians, who had been making expeditions into the region since the 9th century. Examples of Tavastian toponyms include the names Tornio and Kemi. After the Tavastians, a number of Old Karelian speakers also migrated to the area, from whom toponyms such as Seittenkaari were derived. In the 15th century, Finnic settlements became established as far as Pello. North of Pello, the population still consisted mainly of Sámi. In the 17th century, Finnic speakers began to spread beyond this boundary, and by the 18th century Finnic settlements had emerged in places such as Vittangi and Jukkasjärvi. In the late 17th century, Finnic speakers also arrived in the Gällivare area.

Treaty of Fredrikshamn

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 historically Finnish speaking (just like most areas along the eastern coast of the southern part of 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 northern Sweden (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 spoken on the western side of it developed in partial isolation from standard Finnish. In 1826, the state Church of Sweden appointed the priest and amateur botanist Lars Levi Laestadius to be the Vicar over the Karesuando parish, which is situated along the Muonio River north of the Arctic Circle on the border of Finland in Swedish 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 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 by Sweden as a form of Finnish and children who spoke it natively were taught the standard Finnish literary language in school instead of their more native Tornedalian variant, causing the students to become demotivated. 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 recognized minority languages of 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 in Norrbotten. 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 as Tornedalians although the Finnish-speaking part of Norrbotten is a far larger area than the Torne River Valley; the Meänkieli-speaking part of Norrbotten stretches as far west as Gällivare municipality.

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 at Stockholm University, Luleå University of Technology, Umeå University, and Babeș-Boylai University in Romania. In 2020, Oulu University began teaching translators in Meänkieli and Kven. Bengt Pohjanen is 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 author Mikael 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 station P4 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 on P2 nationwide from 8:34 to 9:00). All of these programmes are also available via the Internet.

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