Gail Owen

Finnish or Suomi, spoken by 5- 6 million people in the world, belongs to the Finno-Ugric family of languages. 92% of native speakers live in Finland; however, there are small parts of Sweden, Russia and the USA where Finnish is also spoken. Finnish is closely related to and occasionally mutually intelligible to speakers of Estonian, Ingan, Karelian, Livonian, Veps and Votic.

Finnish was solely a spoken language until the sixteenth century when Mikael Agricola, a priest, produced the first book in 1543; he also later translated the New Testament into Finnish and is regarded by many as the creator of the Finnish literary language. Mikael believed that worship and teaching in Finnish were very important for religion within Finland and also translated various hymns and prayers; this undoubtedly bought literary Finnish into the public eye and its use increased.

In spite of the significant effect Agricola had on the Finnish language, for a considerable period of time Swedish was the most important language in Finland. Swedish was the main language used in administration and official political documents. After six centuries of Swedish denomination Finland entered the Russian Empire in 1809; however it wasn’t until 1892 that Finnish gained status as the official language of Finland, Swedish had a significant presence in Finland up until this point.

Today, Finnish is prevalent throughout Finland and although only a small number of people speak Finnish, it is important to never underestimate the power of speaking your client’s language.

Roevin provides high quality translations into and from Finnish. For a free quotation please contact us.