Future of Finnish Language

[Cadwgan]

I'm curious, is there any concern among Finns for a potential disappearance of the Finnish language sometime in the future? Having a low number of speakers, and Finland adapting Swedish as an official language, and everyone speaking English, not to mention the great difficulty to learn Finnish, it seems that Finnish could be on the chopping block soon like so many other languages in Europe have.

I'm not trying to start another conflict, I'm just asking out of concern, as my own native tongue faced numerous extinctions in the past.

Well, that's it. My desperate attempt to post something intelligent for once on this forum.

[Henry-Finland]

There is no such risk.
in 1930ties there was some 3-4 million people speaking Finnish.
Now it is almost the double.
The Swedish language was 100 years ago much more important in Finland that it is today.
English is not a threat, just a communication 'central' between the countries of the world.

Henry

[Samppa]

A language that does not have grammatical future tense has no future.

[sammy]

Having a low number of speakers, and Finland adapting Swedish as an official language, and everyone speaking English, not to mention the great difficulty to learn Finnish

Hi,

Well of course everything is possible in a very long run - but I'd hardly see this as a realistic danger. Many Finns speak English, but you need to remember that it is not the same thing as having Finnish as the mother tongue. We will still continue to speak and think in Finnish - at least as long until someone invents a good English translation to "p*rrrrkele"

I can't see any sane reason for considering English, or Swedish, or any other language a "threat" to Finnish. The language may change, of course, it's not something sacred and untouchable - but even this happens at a very, very slow pace. The written grammars, vocabularies etc. of today's world make this change even slower.

As for the difficulty of learning Finnish, this is an illusion when we think about it from a native speaker's point of view. It may be (nay, it IS) difficult for someone who has not learnt it when very young. Babies and kids, to my knowledge, learn their mother tongue with more or less the same amount of ease everywhere in the world, no matter what the language in question. They do not need language classes or dictionaries - not even when they do make mistakes at some point of the process (like English-speaking kids may at some point be "too correct" and say e.g. "I readed this book yesterday".)

[dusty_bin]

I am not so sure. I know Finnish couples who use English in their normal, private life. They work in English and simply continue doing so when alone. It is, as many know, perfectly possible to function in the urban areas, at least, with minimal Finnish.

I can foresee a time when Finnish may well be still used and spoken, but English becomes the first choice language, rather than the second, among educated people.

[sammy]

I can foresee a time when Finnish may well be still used and spoken, but English becomes the first choice language, rather than the second, among educated people.

Wishful thinking But honestly, I do not think this will happen. Largely because your mother tongue is very, very rarely (and marginally) based on "choice". It is another thing altogether to predict that e.g. the working language in certain academic circles or certain sectors of working life may increasingly turn towards English (which is also debatable, but I'm just using this as a simplified example). Even if this would happen, you're forgetting that it would remain just a working language, no matter how well spoken. And one that only would touch a small minority of Finns.

Do you think that Finnish-language day-care, kindergartens, comprehensive schools, secondary schools, universities and so on are disappearing? If you wish to make research, go and see let's say 500 groups of children playing at a random playgrounds in various areas of Finland. The language(s) they speak are a pretty good indication of the future They will think, learn, write books, confess their love and feel like $hit in those particular languages. What they learn to use later is quite another matter.

(I do not have anything against other languages, nor am I defending my mother tongue Finnish; it's just that the whole issue seems quite unrealistic - or maybe your crystal ball works better than mine )

As for your example, the Finnish couple (I mean if their native tongue is Finnish) speaking English to each other both at work and at home sounds extremely pretentious and superficial to me, if I may say so Unless they e.g. have small kids and are planning to move to an English-speaking country anytime soon. That would make at least some sense. Otherwise - they're just pompous and vacuous gits (not to be taken too seriously, that last remark)

Edit: oh yeah, meant to include this as well: it is much more realistic to worry about the future of the Sami or Romani language in Finland. Even Swedish, though a minority language, is far too well established to just "disappear" in the foreseeable future.

[sammy]

It is, as many know, perfectly possible to function in the urban areas, at least, with minimal Finnish.

Yep - it's possible, but will people do it? What would be the motivation for a Finn to use English, when you can use Finnish? Or Swedish, for that matter? (NB it's a different matter altogether for an immigrant to resort to English!)

For example, I could quite easily do my everyday shopping in English and trick at least my average countryman to think I'm a genuine "silly English person" (shades of Monty Python there) but what would be the point? I'd just feel a complete fool

Now, wouldn't it be most convenient if all the people in the world were only allowed to use their native tongue in their innermost thoughts, but all external communication would by law need to be carried out in English, in morse code, using kazoos? Perfectly possible but I wouldn't invest my money on the Kazoo-Morse World Linguistic Domination Society bonds.

[sammy]

Well, that's it. My desperate attempt to post something intelligent for once on this forum.

Don't worry it's a good question! Although linguistic extinction is a reality in some parts of the world, I wouldn't say Finnish is for the chop anytime soon. And I hope Cymric is doing fine, too!

As said in an earlier post, in Finland the Sami and Romani minorities' languages face a different situation when compared with Finnish and Swedish that can only be called "minority languages" in the sense that the number of native speakers is relatively low. Depends on the perspective. Finnish is not a minority language in Finland

[Hank W.]

Having a low number of speakers, and Finland adapting Swedish as an official language,

Well, actually that official status was to save the Swedish from its slow extinction. Swedish was the language of commerce and law fro more or less since 1100 or so; and spoken extensively on the coast - it was the language of the "upper class" of the time. That has changed during the last 200 years, with a few "Fennomania" spurts, and unless it were not included as an official language it'd followed the fate of Swedish in Estonia.

and everyone speaking English, not to mention the great difficulty to learn Finnish

Well, if you want a job, you need to speak Finnish. "If you don't speak Finnish you are not a Finn" they do say sometimes... depends a bit on the nuances of citizenship but some guy sporting a Finnish passport with no Finnish is more of an outsider than some guy who landed here as a refugee as a small kid and grown up here who speaks like a native.

And 5 million is a pretty good base to have a language kept alive.

[Hank W.]

For example, I could quite easily do my everyday shopping in English and trick at least my average countryman to think I'm a genuine "silly English person" (shades of Monty Python there) but what would be the point?

You get a better pull in the bars

[karen]

For example, I could quite easily do my everyday shopping in English and trick at least my average countryman to think I'm a genuine "silly English person" (shades of Monty Python there) but what would be the point?

You get a better pull in the bars

Until they find out you were born in Helsinki

[EP]

No, no concern over that. Because that is not likely to happen. Finnish may have been in danger in Swedish times when everybody had to speak Swedish to get any education beyond reading, writing, religion and simple arithmetics. Finnish wasn´t even an official language, but something primitive the peasants used to communicate with. It was considered that Finnish is not suitable for any "higher" things like literature. Aleksis Kivi who wrote the first novel in Finnish (Seven Brothers) was openly ridiculed. One good thing came out of Russian rule: Finnish became an official language just like Swedish had always been.

I don´t see why any native Finnish-speaker living in Finland would change his language into English. It doesn´t matter how fluent one is, your native language always stays the language of your "soul", something that you can express yourself and your feelings and thoughts best.

A Finnish speaking couple using English as their home language? What a stupid idea. Meeting such couple would make me have a little twisted smile inwards. Not the kind of people I would like to know.

[Rosamunda]

and.... Finnish is THE easiest European language to learn to read and write (as a mother tongue) due to its orthographic symplicity (English and Danish are the hardest).

There is already a dire shortage of English speaking teachers for all the existing bilingual day cares and primary/comprehensive schools and the Finnish state is still vey protectionist about allowing teachers with foreign qualifications into the state schools. Sure, in Espoo and Helsinki it sometimes feels like English is becoming really dominant but outside Keha III it's a different story completely.

And, BTW, the English language primary schools in Espoo had a lower grade one in-take this year than for many years.

[ajk]

In general, the main official language of any country isn't in much danger of disappearing, all the infrastructure of a country pretty much preserves it. It's small languages without their own nation to protect them one should worry about.

[Samppa]

I can foresee a time when Finnish may well be still used and spoken, but English becomes the first choice language, rather than the second, among educated people.

I can foresee past...

A long time ago educated people spoke Greek and Aramaic, then they switched to Latin. Then it was French, German. Now it is English. In a couple of centuries no one will remember that there was such a language as English - some little nation in a foggy Albion will probably speak a dialect of proto-English, but the educated ones will not speak it at their homes, they will rather speak Chinese.