American Finnish Explained

American Finnish
States:United States, Canada
Speakers:26,000 (in their homes) United States
Date:2013
Speakers2:15,295 Canada (2016)
Familycolor:Uralic
Fam2:Finnic
Fam3:Finnish
Map:Pct finnish4.png
Mapcaption:Location of Finnish people in America; however, only a few can speak American Finnish.
Ietf:fi-021

American Finnish, Finnish: Fingliska or Finnish: Fingelska is a form of the Finnish language spoken in North America.[1] [2] [3] It has been heavily influenced by the English language. American Finnish was used actively until the 1950s and after that it has been declining, and Finnish Americans have been switching to English. Even some basic phrases like Finnish: tätsrait 'that's right' were borrowed from English.[4] The form of speech was studied by Pertti Virtaranta in 1960, and the first American Finnish dictionary was made in 1992.[5] It has influence from English both in syntax and vocabulary.[1] In 2013 Finnish was spoken by 26,000 people in their homes.[6] In the town of Oulu, Wisconsin, there are documented third-generation speakers of American Finnish,[7] and in Stanton Township, Michigan, there are children who speak the language.[8] American Finnish has also retained loanwords from Swedish which modern Finnish lost.[9]

Those in the second and third generations who speak American Finnish are usually bilingual and tend to use English most often. There have been some negative attitudes to "impurities" in American Finnish; however, American Finns usually consider it a language of their own and dislike linguistic purism.

Finnish Americans sometimes have problems understanding Finnish. There is not much areal variation in American Finnish; however, first-, second- and third-generation speakers have more variation in their speech, especially as the amount of English influence differs in generations.[5]

Features

There are also grammatical differences from Finnish, such as consonant gradation. In American Finnish the letter k remains unchanged, unlike in Finnish: 'law', 'laws' (Finnish:,). And in American Finnish the first person plural ending has often been dropped: 'we can't' (Finnish:). Another difference in American Finnish is that the sound pronounced as //i// does not change into an pronounced as //e// when conjugated: 'language', 'languages' (Finnish:,).[10]

Vocabulary

American Finnish has many loanwords from English, but has also retained some older Swedish loanwords that Finnish lost.

!English!Fingelska!Modern Finnish
bedFinnish: petiFinnish: vuode
blanketFinnish: plänkettiFinnish: huopa
kitchenFinnish: kyökki/kitsiFinnish: keittiö
onionFinnish: löökiFinnish: sipuli
telephoneFinnish: telefooniFinnish: puhelin
telegramFinnish: telekrammiFinnish: sähke
hay barnFinnish: heinä baanaFinnish: heinälato
hospitalFinnish: hospitaaliFinnish: sairaala
countyFinnish: kauntiFinnish: maakunta
farmFinnish: farmiFinnish: maatalo
roomFinnish: ruumaFinnish: huone
potatoFinnish: potaattiFinnish: peruna
towelFinnish: hantuukiFinnish: pyyhe
[9]

Grammar

Cases

Word Finnish: ruuma 'room' in the cases!Case!Fingelska
nominativeFinnish: ruuma
genitiveFinnish: ruuman
accusativeFinnish: ruuman
essiveFinnish: ruumana
partitiveFinnish: ruumaa
translativeFinnish: ruumaksi
inessiveFinnish: ruumassa
elativeFinnish: ruumasta
illativeFinnish: ruumaan
adessiveFinnish: ruumalla
ablativeFinnish: ruumalta
allativeFinnish: ruumalle
comitativeFinnish: ruumineen
instructiveFinnish: ruumin
[9]

In American Finnish the possessive suffixes are rarely used.

Examples of American Finnish

Finnish: On heitä enemmän, mutta he ovat nyt muusia hunttaamassa.

'There are more of them, but they are moose hunting.'

Finnish: fiksata

'to fix'

Finnish: 'Nyt pitää äkkiä koolata Albertille

'Now I have to call to Albert fast.'

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Kolehmainen . Taru . August 13, 2002 . Mihin fingelskaa tarvitaan? . . fi . Institute for the Languages of Finland.
  2. Web site: Fingelska . Suomisanakirja.fi . fi.
  3. Web site: Amerikansuomi . Suomisanakirja.fi . fi.
  4. Book: Pitkänen, Silja . Amerikansuomalaisten tarina . Sutinen . Ville-Juhani . Kustannusosakeyhtiö Tammi . 2014 . 9789513183387 . Helsinki . fi . 907686907.
  5. Web site: Lindfors . Jukka . September 8, 2006 . Amerikansuomalaisten kieli . . fi.
  6. Web site: October 2015 . Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English . March 29, 2021 . United States Census Bureau.
  7. Web site: Kotkavirta . Johannes . May 28, 2017 . Täällä saunotaan ja puhutaan suomea kolmannessa polvessa – IS vieraili Amerikan Oulussa . . fi.
  8. Web site: Saarikoski . Laura . December 2, 2017 . Yhdysvalloissa on paikkakunta, jossa joka toisella on suomalaiset juuret – "Pikku-Suomessa" luotetaan Trumpiin ja saunomiseen, mutta tietokoneet herättävät yhä epäilyksiä . . fi.
  9. Sahlman . Selma Siiri . 1949 . The Finnish Language in the United States . dead . . 24 . 14-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170222052348/http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article181e.htm . February 22, 2017 . March 30, 2021 . www.genealogia.fi.
  10. Book: Virtaranta, Pertti . Amerikansuomi . Jönsson-Korhola . Hannele . Martin . Maisa . Kainulainen . Maija . Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura . 1993 . 9789517177214 . Tietolipas . 125 . Helsinki . 97-101 . fi.