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U.S. English Foundation Research FINLAND
Language Research9. Conclusion: Final RemarksUpdated (October 2007) The current linguistic landscape of Finland, and in particular the privileged status of the Swedish language, reflects the historical development of language use on the territory. Finland was part of Sweden until 1809, when it became part of the Russian Empire. Until 1863 Swedish was the only official language of the territory that is nowadays Finland. Only since the country's Independence in 1917 has Finnish gained sufficient strength to be considered the majority language. Swedish had been the only practical language at official level, ‘though Finnish legally had a minority status (as had Russian for a short time, when the administration was in fact multilingual). The 1922 Finnish Constitution (last amended in 2000) recognizes both Finnish and Swedish as the official languages of the State. The Constitution further stipulates that the State guarantee the right of all citizens to use their (Finnish or Swedish) mother tongue in any official contact with state or public administrative bodies and that it be responsible for the equal treatment of both languages. This means, in practice, that Finland has a full–scale Swedish–medium school system, including university studies, and Swedish–language media (television, radio, press). Finnish–speaking children study Swedish as a mandatory subject for three years in junior secondary school. Swedish is also mandatory in senior secondary schools. Likewise, Swedish–speaking students must study Finnish at school. In general, every student studies at least two languages in addition to their mother tongue, one of which has to be the other national language. It is broadly accepted that Swedish–speaking students study more Finnish than Finnish–speaking students study Swedish. Thus it is that today, even though the Swedish–speaking population amounts to only about six percent of the total Finnish population, they are not legally considered a minority, given the strength of the framework surrounding Swedish as one of the two official languages in the country. The 2004 Language Act, which replaced the old Act of 1922, governs the use of the two official languages in public administration and is based on a linguistic division of authorities into unilingual and bilingual. Central Administrative offices are always bilingual (they are obliged to provide services both in Finnish and Swedish); whereas regional or local administrative offices can be either bilingual or unilingual, depending on the language/s spoken by the population resided in the territory. To comply with the Language Act, any administrative unit that includes more than one municipality will be monolingual only if all its municipalities are monolingual in the same language; but if the population includes both Finnish and Swedish speakers and if the minority comprises at least 8 percent of the municipality's population or at least 3,000 persons, then the municipality shall be bilingual. The State Council decides on compliance in a ten–year cycle on the basis of the Population Data System records of the language of each inhabitant of the municipality. However, the Government may decide, if the municipality so proposes, that the municipality will be bilingual at some point in the future. At present, there are 21 bilingual municipalities with Finnish as the majority language and 23 with Swedish. Three municipalities are monolingual Swedish and the rest, 399 today, are Finnish–speaking. The municipality decides its own authorities' working language but all individuals have the right to documents and service on their own account in their own first language. Personnel in bilingual public bodies are required to have excellent speaking and writing skills in the majority language and satisfactory skills in the other language. In monolingual municipalities, however, they need only a satisfactory ability to understand the other language. People working in the public administration must have passed a State administration language examination, or other accepted language examinations, in Finnish or Swedish. Over 13,000 Swedish–speaking people living in monolingual Finnish–speaking municipalities claim that they cannot assume that they can use Swedish normally when communicating with municipal authorities. As a result, in some Finnish–speaking areas, Swedish speakers and parishes have set up associations and schools to maintain the Swedish language or arranged activities for its speakers. The Swedish language is threatened in Finland particularly because it is spoken by such a small minority. Its use has decreased especially before the authorities and in public life. A topical example of its decreasing use is the Finnish Broadcasting Company's decision to stop broadcasting Swedish–language morning news on television, further decreasing the chance even to hear Swedish spoken. The provisions of the Language Act do not apply to inhabitants of the Åland Islands and to other minority groups whose language rights are stipulated in separate laws. The Åland Islands are an autonomous province of Finland in which Swedish is the only official language and the only language in education. They enjoy a large degree of autonomy defined by the Finnish Constitution and by the Act on Autonomy of Åland in education, culture, health care, social issues, municipal administration, media, in local business and industry. The special status of Åland arises from a separatist movement that followed Finland's independence: Ålanders wanted to become part of Sweden. The conflict was solved by the League of Nations in 1921 when Finland got sovereignty over the islands but had to give Åland a high degree of autonomy in many fields and guarantee the Swedish language the status of sole language of the region. For other minority groups living in Finland, the Finnish Constitution guarantees the Roma, the Sámi (as an indigenous people) and some “other groups” the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture. The Constitution does not define these “other groups”, however. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the concept of a “national minority” is not used in Finnish law, nor has Finland provide a list of national minorities falling within the scope of the Framework Convention on National or Regional Minorities (in force since 1998). However, in practice, it has been considered that the Framework Convention would cover the Sámi, the Roma, the Jews, the Tatars, the so–called old Russians and de facto the Swedish–speaking Finns. All these people certainly enjoy the rights stipulated in the Constitution and can maintain and develop their language. The renewed Sámi Language Act, which came into force simultaneously with the 2004 Language Act, guarantees the right of the Sámi to maintain and develop their own language and culture and to use their own language (Inari, Skolt or North Sámi) in court and before other authorities. Many provisions of the Sámi Language Act are applicable irrespective of the place of residence of the person speaking the language, although the rights of those living in the Sámi Homeland are more extensive. Even the right to receive instruction in Sámi (Sámi as a language of instruction) and of Sámi (Sámi as a subject to be taught) applies to the entire country, ‘though in practice the right is best ensured in the Sámi Homeland. Outside it there is in fact very little instruction in and of the Sámi language. Municipalities are, however, entitled to a specific state subsidy for arranging supplementary teaching for two hours a week. The State can be seen to grant the highest degree of protection to the Swedish–speaking Finns and the Sámi; the Government, however, has been supporting the use of other minority languages, especially in the field of education and media, and has been trying to improve their status in society. Internationally, Finland serves as an example of successful language policy to other multilingual countries in the world. Many European minorities, including Hungarians in Romania, regard the status of Swedish in Finland as a model for their own efforts. We should bear in mind, however, that the strong position of Swedish as a minority language dates back to the era when it was the national language in Finland, and that other minority languages in the country do not receive such specific protection. Sources:
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