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Finnish Finnish (fi-suomi.ogg suomi, or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% as of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken. The Kven language, which is closely related to Finnish, is an official minority language in Norway.  Finnish is the eponymous member of the Finno-Ugric language family and is typologically between fusional and agglutinative languages. It modifies and inflects the forms of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals and verbs, depending on their roles in the sentence. Finnish is a member of the Baltic-Finnic subgroup of the Finno-Ugric group of languages which in turn is a member of the Uralic family of languages. The Baltic-Finnic subgroup also includes Estonian and other minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea. Geographic distribution  Finnish is spoken by about six million people that reside mainly in Finland. There are also notable Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia, Canada, and the United States. The majority of the population of Finland, 91.51% as of 2006[update], speak Finnish as their first language. The remainder speak Swedish (5.5%), Sami (Northern, Inari, Skolt) and other languages. It has achieved considerable popularity as a second language in Estonia.  The sun literally doesn’t seem to ever go down in Helsinki. The Scandinavian city sits on the Finnish coast along the waters of the Baltic Sea. Nighttime during the summer months basically consists of an extended twilight and although the sun does technically set around 11PM and rises around 4 AM it never actually turns completely dark at night. During the day the sun shines bright and people head to outside to enjoy the fresh air. Helsinki is clean and the people seem very pleasant. The numerous parks in Helsinki are filled with people on picnic blankets drinking beer and wine, strumming guitars, and getting all the sun they can get before the cold dark days of winter set back in. Religion Most Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (81.7 percent). With approximately 4.6 million members, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is one of the largest Lutheran churches in the world. A minority belong to the Finnish Orthodox Church (1.1 percent; see Eastern Orthodox Church). Other Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church in Finland are significantly smaller, as are the Muslim, Jewish and other non-Christian communities (totaling 1.2 percent). 15.9 percent of the population has no religious affiliation. Historically, in the prehistoric, ancient and early mediaeval periods of Finnish history, Finnish paganism was the majority religion. It has been revived recently through the form of Finnish neopaganism. The main Lutheran and Orthodox churches are constitutional national churches of Finland with special roles such as in state ceremonies and schools. A university degree in theology is compulsory for Lutheran priests. Representatives at Lutheran Church assemblies are selected in church elections every four years. Over half of Finns say they pray at least once a month, the highest proportion in Nordics.[39] Most children are baptized and have confirmation at the age of 15. Nearly all funerals are Christian. Religious television programmes and radio broadcasts are popular. However, the majority of Lutherans attend church only for special occasions like Christmas ceremonies, weddings and funerals. According to a 2005 Eurobarometer poll, 41 percent of Finnish citizens responded that "they believe there is a god"; 41 percent answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force"; and 16 percent that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force". Dictionary: (modern) Christianity in Finland coming soon! |
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