Comments on: Finland Swedish – Finlandssvenska

By: EGIL A. GUNDERSEN

EGIL A. GUNDERSEN — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:33:20 +0000

Hej
I am looking for music (songs) that are typical for the swedish-speaking part of Finland. Any good suggestions? (It has to do with a contest were there is a challenge to use music from that part of Finland.) (title of song/music.)
Appreciate all help! Thanks.

By: A set back for Finland « Concluding Helsinki

A set back for Finland « Concluding Helsinki — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:41:42 +0000

[...] of the population speak a dialect of the Swedish language that in Sweden itself is considered “odd”. Even though 200 years have passed, Finland still finds itself under the thumb of Swedish speakers [...]

By: Ölänning

Ölänning — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:46:33 +0000

Jonas G – I feel your pain, man. I remember in high school when we had to do an assignment about minorities in Sweden. Interestingly Finland-Swedes was one of the choices! One of the questions for the assignment was “What do you think the minority have to do to adjust to life in Sweden?” (like an indigenous minority has to adjust to life in their own homeland) and the students who chose Finland Swedes said something like “Well, they have to learn Swedish”. It seemed I was the only one who reacted. Not even the teacher reacted, since the students actually got a pass with distinction (VG) on the assignment! Unbelievable! I would like to apologize on the behalf of my ignorant countrymen. I love your dialect and I think it’s very cool!

By: Jonas G

Jonas G — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:13:56 +0000

This was an interesting blog post. I have to say it is always a little sad for us Swedish-speaking Finns to realise just how ignorant so many people in Sweden are of our very existence. I can count several occasions in Sweden where I have been told by Swedes things along the lines of “Oh, your Swedish is so good”, which is rather patronising when it is one’s mother tongue. (I have since learnt to reply, “Thanks, so is yours”). The Swedish-speaking “world” is not a big one, so you would think that the Swedes would learn about the one other place on the planet where you can live your life in Swedish. One can’t imagine a British person being surprised to learn that they speak English also in many parts of Canada, for example.

As for the issue of melody, I was always taught that this was a later development and that Swedish in Finland is more archaic in that respect compared to Swedish in Sweden (or perhaps archaic is the wrong word, as it suggests that Sweden-Swedish is the natural norm – and who is to say that it is!) We learnt at school that the Old Norse tongues lacked the melody that today exists in modern Sweden-Swedish and also in most Norwegian dialects. If you listen to Icelandic, which is the most faithful to Old Norse, it does seem to back that theory up. The melody of today’s sing song rikssvenska is something that developed later, that theory suggests. I personally do not know which to believe.

By: Passerby

Passerby — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:15:47 +0000

Finns are the biggest racists in Europe. Only finnish swedes are civilised.