The Finnish Language

Finnish Studies at SSEES | Finland in brief | More about Finland

Finnish (suomi) belongs to the Finno-Ugric family of languages, so it is not related to either of its neighbours, i.e. Swedish or Russian. There are about 5 million speakers in Finland and adjacent countries.

Finnish uses the Latin alphabet, with two additional letters (ä, ö), and has a complex yet very logical grammar. The vocabulary includes some loans from Indo-European languages e.g. bussi, turisti, musiikki, paperi, televisio, mikroskooppi.

Everyone knows at least two words in Finnish: sauna and Nokia (the name of the company stems from a small town of the same name where the company first started producing paper, car tyres, Wellington boots... ).

People all over the world learn Finnish, as translators and interpreters are in great demand to work for international and European bodies such as the European Union. Leading international companies and research bodies, in particular in the areas of communications, IT and other technologies, have close links with Finland. There is also a demand for Finnish speakers to work for UK-based companies.

To find out more about the Finnish language click on the links below:

• Discover Finland: finland.cimo.fi/studying_finnish/characteristics_of_finnish_language.html



• Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish language



• Virtual Finland: virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=25827



• City and University of Helsinki: www.helsinki.fi/~jolaakso/fufaq.html

This page last modified Thursday 16 December 2010.