History question

[Adaptation]

This might be a tough one, help me out.

The finnish language became equal in 1861 to swedish(both official), but im curious as to how this was applied, in particular in the field of education. I assume that they taught Finnish in schools before that, except at the university? For how long was Finnish taught in schools? It seems as if Swedish was the ''all mighty language'', i actually wondered how Finnish survived - i assume from word to mouth?

[Rob A.]

This might be a tough one, help me out.

The finnish language became equal in 1861 to swedish(both official), but im curious as to how this was applied, in particular in the field of education. I assume that they taught Finnish in schools before that, except at the university? For how long was Finnish taught in schools? It seems as if Swedish was the ''all mighty language'', i actually wondered how Finnish survived - i assume from word to mouth?

I suppose the short answer is that it survived because the majority of people spoke it. Swedish was the language of of government and actually Latin would have been the more signficant language in universities....in common with the rest of Europe...the "lingua franca" of educated people.

The first known written Finnish is this: Mÿnna tachton gernast spuho somen gelen Emÿna daÿda. ...transcripted apparently by a German... There is also a Finnic...probably Karelian, inscription written in Cyrillic characters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_bark_letter_no._292

...it dates to the 1200s (13th Century)

Mikael Agricola is credited with developing a writing system for Finnish in 1542 and the bible was transcribed in written Finnish starting in 1552...there were other later versions...1642, 1776 etc....

http://www.finbible.fi/

The Swedish Church Law of 1686 which applied to all of Sweden's holdings...Finland, Estonia, etc... required people to learn to read....this took some time but within a hundred years the literacy level was very high.... [But this law does not really seem so progressive to us moderns.... Among other things it was intended to make the Swedish Empire a Protestant Lutheran empire ....and for those who insisted on remaining Catholic, the death penalty was prescribed, though I suspect rarely invoked.... And now you know why Northern Europe is "Lutheran country"... ] The law was intended to ensure the "little people" could diligently attend to their bible studies.... Also from what I understand the school system, such as it was, was not where early Finns learned to read....it was in the home environment...

http://www.suomenrahapaja.fi/eng/commem ... ncial-coin

OK... Someone else can add to this if they want...

[Jukka Aho]

This might be a tough one, help me out.

The finnish language became equal in 1861 to swedish(both official), but im curious as to how this was applied, in particular in the field of education. I assume that they taught Finnish in schools before that, except at the university? For how long was Finnish taught in schools? It seems as if Swedish was the ''all mighty language'', i actually wondered how Finnish survived - i assume from word to mouth?

Before mid-19th century, the only form of schooling generally available to “ordinary people” (peasants) was so-called kiertokoulu, an irregular form of basic education primarily arranged by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, or whatever its predecessor was actually called in the Swedish realm. In kiertokoulu, there was no set school building but the teacher (often a sacristan of the local parish) moved from house to house and village to village, teaching people how to read and the basics of the Christian faith. There were also special gatherings called kinkerit for much the same purpose, and also for testing whether individuals have actually learned to read and if they can cite or read aloud the Cathechism.

This was all in the spirit of Lutheran protestantism where it was deemed important that people be able to understand the Bible in their own language. The protestant reformation was originally brought to Finland, full-scale, by Michael Agricola, who translated the New Testament into Finnish, establishing the first standard for Finnish as a written language, and who also wrote the first Finnish ABC book which was subsequently used by the church for teaching common people how to read.

Finnish (or rather, the various local dialects which are now known as “Finnish”) was the mother tongue of the ordinary people, primarily peasants. Swedish was the language of the nobility and the bourgeois and officials such as those working in the judicial system or holding governmental posts – but those were greatly outnumbered by the common people, and different classes didn’t mix that much in their daily life, of course. A farmer located deep in inland probably only had some rare, random contacts with the Swedish-speakers and they were way above his league in the social hierarchy.

As for the educational system, everything higher up from kiertokoulu was only available in Swedish – or in Latin in some cases, I believe. But common people would not usually have even imagined educating their kids any further than what was absolutely required by the Church. (What’s the use? It would have cost an arm and a leg and they will never learn how to work properly, then, and are of no help with the chores of the farm... wasting their time with those useless books instead, and acting cocky!) Despite the best efforts of the Church, the reading skills of many common people were rather questionable, too. (There wasn’t much to read in Finnish, anyway – primarily the Bible. And the commoners didn’t know any other languages.)

This all changed, or slowly started changing, in 1866, with kansakouluasetus, the act on public schooling – or “folk schools” – which required municipalities to offer 4-year basic education for all willing citizens in their mother tongue, with the help of purpose-hired teachers and purpose-built school buildings. (The system was no longer based on the resources of the local parish and it had a wider scope than just teaching people about the Bible.) The idea was proposed (and largely implemented) by Uno Cygnaeus, who modeled his school system after the Swiss Volksschule.

As for other aspects to the story, see fennicization, Fennoman movement and the language strife. If you can read Finnish, you might also want to take a look at here and here.

[Adaptation]

Extremely helpful guys! That info on pre-1860 school was great.

I assume that all this finnish nationalism started with the guys at the uni and the saturday club(lonnrot, runeberg&company)?

[Jukka Aho]

Extremely helpful guys! That info on pre-1860 school was great.

I assume that all this finnish nationalism started with the guys at the uni and the saturday club(lonnrot, runeberg&company)?

Before that, there was a pro-Finnish movement called Turun romantiikka (“Turku romanticism”, or “Turku Romantic Movement”) with Henrik Gabriel Porthan and Adolf Ivar Adwidsson, et al. But yes, it was a forerunner to Lauantaiseura (“The Saturday Club”). (You might actually want to check out the Wikipedia article on the history of the University of Helsinki... you’ll find some details about these things there... as well as on the developments concerning the status of the Finnish language in university-level teaching.)

All this was a part of the then-fashionable European ideological/political trend called Romantic Nationalism.

[Jukka Aho]

It is probably worth nothing the first Finnish-language newspaper, Suomenkieliset Tieto-Sanomat, came out of the press as early as in 1775 – only four years after the first Finnish newspaper ever, Tidningar Utgifne Af et Sällskap i Åbo, which was published in Swedish.

The editor of Suomenkieliset Tieto-Sanomat was the parson of the Mynämäki parish, Antti Lizelius. Publication stopped short, however, as peasants weren’t avid readers. But Lizelius was also active in other projects related to the Finnish language: he served as the language consultant for two early editions of the Finnish Bible and he is said to be responsible for replacing the c’s of the old written Finnish with k’s...

Some other things you might want to check out (all in Finnish):

• The first Finnish dictionaries
• The first Finnish grammars
• A list of notable people who have participated in developing the accepted standards for the written Finnish
• An article about the strife of the Finnish dialects (in other words, which grammatical features and words shall be accepted into the standard, written Finnish and which shall not) (more on this subject)

[Pursuivant]

And if you are into Finnish, the old newspapers have been digitized as well as a number of books and documents in the Agricola service. Old Finnish is a bit peculiar though...

[Adaptation]

And if you are into Finnish, the old newspapers have been digitized as well as a number of books and documents in the Agricola service. Old Finnish is a bit peculiar though...

I already have a hard time enough with actual finnish

Thanks Jukka Aho for the infos.