Kven language
Encyclopedia
The Kven language is a Finnic language
spoken in Northern Norway
by the Kven people. For political and historical reasons it received the status of a minority language in 2005 within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
. Linguistically
, however, it is seen as a mutually intelligible
dialect
of the Finnish language
, and grouped together with the Peräpohjola dialects
, such as Meänkieli
, spoken in Torne Valley
in Sweden
.
Contrary to popular belief, the dialects spoken by the Kvens and Kainuu
peoples are not closely related. The Kainuu dialect is one of the Savonian dialects
that was formed from the 16th century onwards, when immigrants from Savonia
started to settle in the northern wastelands.
The Kven language has come to incorporate many Norwegian loanword
s, such as tyskäläinen (from the Norwegian word tysk, meaning German) instead of standard Finnish saksalainen. The Kven language also uses some old Finnish words that no longer are used in Finland
.
attempted to assimilate the Kvens. For example, the use of the Kven language became forbidden in schools and government offices, and Kven town names were replaced by Norwegian names. From 1970s onwards, the Kvens and the Sami
in Norway
have openly been allowed to use their original mother tongues, the Kven language and the Sami languages
, respectively, and to teach them to their children in schools. Despite its recent gain of status as a minority language
, there is still a major discussion among the Kven about whether the Finnish orthography
should be applied to the language or if a new orthography
should be devised.
Since 2006 it has been possible to study the Kven culture and language at the University of Tromsø
, and in 2007 the Kven language board was formed at the Kven institute
, a national centre for Kven language and culture in Børselv
, Norway
. The council will work out a written Kven language, but use Finnish orthography to maintain inter-Finnish language understanding.
, Neiden, Vestre Jakobselv
, Vadsø
, and Børselv
. Also a few older speakers may still be found in the municipalities of Nordreisa
and Storfjord
. Bugøynes perhaps remains the most vital of all the remaining Kven communities in Norway
.
In Northeastern Norway, mainly around Varanger Fjord, the spoken language is quite similar to the standard Finnish
, whereas west of Alta
the few remaining Kven speakers speak Finnish with more particularities, due to a deeper isolation from Finland
.
In a 2005 government report, the number of people speaking the Kven language in Norway is estimated to be between 2000 and 8000, depending on the criteria used. However, today there are very few young people who speak the language, making it an endangered language
.
of Kven is basically the same as that of Finnish
. It is however worth noting that while Standard Finnish has been replacing /ð/ by /d/, it is retained in Kven. For instance, the word meiðän ('our') in Kven is meidän in Standard Finnish.
s, if one includes the vowel length
:
In writing, the vowel length is indicated by doubling the letter, e.g. /yː/ and <öö> /øː/.
The graphemes representing /ø/, /æ/ and /ɑ/ are <ö>, <ä> and , respectively.
s found in native vocabulary
, and four consonants found in loanword
s:
/b, d, ɡ, ʃ/ are only found in loanwords.
/ʋ/ and /ʃ/ are represented in writing by and <š>, respectively.
/ð/ is represented in writing by either <ð> or <đ>.
/ŋ/ is represented in writing by if followed by /k/, and if geminated, i.e. /ŋk/ and /ŋː/
Gemination
is indicated in writing by doubling the letter, e.g. for /mː/ and for /lː/
Finnic languages
The term Finnic languages often means the Baltic-Finnic languages, an undisputed branch of the Uralic languages. However, it is also commonly used to mean the Finno-Permic languages, a hypothetical intermediate branch that includes Baltic Finnic, or the more disputed Finno-Volgaic languages....
spoken in Northern Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
by the Kven people. For political and historical reasons it received the status of a minority language in 2005 within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European treaty adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe...
. Linguistically
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, however, it is seen as a mutually intelligible
Mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...
dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
of the Finnish language
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, and grouped together with the Peräpohjola dialects
Peräpohjola dialects
Peräpohjola dialects are forms of Finnish language spoken in Lapland in Finland, Sweden and Norway. The dialect group belongs to the Western Finnish dialects and it is divided to five more specific dialect groups.-Tornio dialects:...
, such as Meänkieli
Meänkieli
Meänkieli is the name used in Sweden for Finnish dialects spoken in the northernmost parts of the country, around the valley of the Torne River....
, spoken in Torne Valley
Torne Valley
The Torne Valley or Torne River Valley lies at the border of Sweden and Finland. In 2009 it became one of the Sub-regions of Finland. It is named after the Torne River flowing through the valley and into the Gulf of Bothnia...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
Contrary to popular belief, the dialects spoken by the Kvens and Kainuu
Kainuu
Kainuu is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Northern Ostrobothnia, North Karelia and Northern Savonia. In the east it also borders Russia. Kainuu is known in the ancient Norse sagas as Kvenland....
peoples are not closely related. The Kainuu dialect is one of the Savonian dialects
Savo Finnish
The Savonian dialects are forms of Finnish language spoken in Savonia and other parts of Eastern Finland. It belongs to the eastern Finnish dialects and it is divided to more specific dialect groups....
that was formed from the 16th century onwards, when immigrants from Savonia
Savonia (historical province)
Savonia is a historical province in the east of Finland. It borders to Uusimaa, Tavastia, Ostrobothnia, and Karelia. Largest cities in Savo by population are Kuopio, Mikkeli, Savonlinna and Varkaus.-Administration:...
started to settle in the northern wastelands.
The Kven language has come to incorporate many Norwegian loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s, such as tyskäläinen (from the Norwegian word tysk, meaning German) instead of standard Finnish saksalainen. The Kven language also uses some old Finnish words that no longer are used in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
.
Official status
From the 1860s onwards the Norwegian governmentPolitics of Norway
Politics in Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the King's council, the cabinet, led by the Prime Minister of Norway. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Storting, elected...
attempted to assimilate the Kvens. For example, the use of the Kven language became forbidden in schools and government offices, and Kven town names were replaced by Norwegian names. From 1970s onwards, the Kvens and the Sami
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
have openly been allowed to use their original mother tongues, the Kven language and the Sami languages
Sami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently and erroneously believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami...
, respectively, and to teach them to their children in schools. Despite its recent gain of status as a minority language
Minority language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.-International politics:...
, there is still a major discussion among the Kven about whether the Finnish orthography
Finnish alphabet
The Finnish alphabet is based on the Latin script, and especially the Swedish alphabet. Officially it comprises 28 letters:A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö...
should be applied to the language or if a new orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
should be devised.
Since 2006 it has been possible to study the Kven culture and language at the University of Tromsø
University of Tromsø
The University of Tromsø is the world's northernmost university. Located in the city of Tromsø, Norway, it was established in 1968, and opened in 1972. It is one of eight universities in Norway. The University of Tromsø is the largest research and educational institution in northern Norway...
, and in 2007 the Kven language board was formed at the Kven institute
Kainun institutti
Kainun institutti - kvensk institutt is a center for Kven culture and language. It is located in Børselv in Porsangi municipality in Norway. It was opened in January 2007. The chair at the institute is Hilde Skanke. In total six people are employed at the institute...
, a national centre for Kven language and culture in Børselv
Børselv
Børselv is a village in Porsanger in Finnmark, Northern Norway. It is located along the Porsangerfjord at the outlet of the river Børselva....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. The council will work out a written Kven language, but use Finnish orthography to maintain inter-Finnish language understanding.
Geographic distribution
Today, most speakers of the Kven language are found mostly in Northeastern Norwegian communities such as BugøynesBugøynes
is a fishing community in the very most northeastern tip of Norway, in the municipality of Sør-Varanger in the province of Finnmark, situated by the Varanger Fjord which is a vast bay off the Barents Sea , near the border with Russia...
, Neiden, Vestre Jakobselv
Vestre Jakobselv
Vestre Jakobselv is a tiny community in Vadsø municipality in the extreme north-eastern Norway...
, Vadsø
Vadsø
is a city and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality and the county of Finnmark....
, and Børselv
Børselv
Børselv is a village in Porsanger in Finnmark, Northern Norway. It is located along the Porsangerfjord at the outlet of the river Børselva....
. Also a few older speakers may still be found in the municipalities of Nordreisa
Nordreisa
Nordreisa is a municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Storslett.The municipality consists of the valley of Reisadalen, with the Reisa river and deep pine forests, surrounded by mountains and high plateaus. Most people live in...
and Storfjord
Storfjord
Storfjord is a municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Hatteng.- General information :...
. Bugøynes perhaps remains the most vital of all the remaining Kven communities in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
In Northeastern Norway, mainly around Varanger Fjord, the spoken language is quite similar to the standard Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, whereas west of Alta
Alta, Norway
-Birdlife:For those interested in bird watching, the river outlet, known locally as Altaosen is well worth a visit. This tidal area is used as a stopover for many wetland species.-Transportation:...
the few remaining Kven speakers speak Finnish with more particularities, due to a deeper isolation from Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
.
In a 2005 government report, the number of people speaking the Kven language in Norway is estimated to be between 2000 and 8000, depending on the criteria used. However, today there are very few young people who speak the language, making it an endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
.
Phonology
The phonologyPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
of Kven is basically the same as that of Finnish
Finnish phonology
Unless otherwise noted, statements in this article refer to Standard Finnish, which is based on the dialect spoken in Häme Province in central south Finland. Standard Finnish is used by professional speakers, such as the reporters and the news presenters on television.-Vowels:Phonetically, the...
. It is however worth noting that while Standard Finnish has been replacing /ð/ by /d/, it is retained in Kven. For instance, the word meiðän ('our') in Kven is meidän in Standard Finnish.
Vowels
Kven has 16 vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s, if one includes the vowel length
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
:
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i iː | y yː | u uː | |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
e eː | ø øː | o oː | |
| Near-open Near-open vowel A near-open vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-open vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to an open vowel, but slightly more constricted. Near-open vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully open vowels... |
æ æː | |||
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
ɑ ɑː | |||
In writing, the vowel length is indicated by doubling the letter, e.g.
The graphemes representing /ø/, /æ/ and /ɑ/ are <ö>, <ä> and , respectively.
Consonants
Kven has 14 consonantConsonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s found in native vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
, and four consonants found in loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s:
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Labiodental Labiodental consonant In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Postalveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ŋ | ||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |||||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
voiceless | f | s | ʃ | h | ||||
| voiced | ð | ||||||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r | ||||||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
ʋ | l | j | ||||||
/b, d, ɡ, ʃ/ are only found in loanwords.
/ʋ/ and /ʃ/ are represented in writing by
/ð/ is represented in writing by either <ð> or <đ>.
/ŋ/ is represented in writing by
Gemination
Gemination
In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
is indicated in writing by doubling the letter, e.g.
Example
| Kven: Kvääninkieli oon se kieli mitä kväänit oon puhuhneet ja vielä tääpänäki puhhuuvat, ja mikä oon säilyny ruottalaistumisen ja norjalaistumisen läpi minuriteettikielenä. Minun mielestä Torniolakson «meiän kieliki» oon vanhaa kvääninkieli tahi vanhaala meiđän kielelä kaihnuunkieli. |
Standard Finnish: Kveenin kieli on se kieli, jota kveenit ovat puhuneet ja vielä tänä päivänäkin puhuvat, ja joka on säilynyt ruotsalaistumisen ja norjalaistumisen läpi vähemmistökielenä. Minun mielestäni Torniolaakson "meidän kielikin" on vanhaa kveenin kieltä tai vanhalla meidän kielellämme kainun kieltä. |
Literal English translation: The Kven language is the language which the Kvens have spoken and still today speak, and which has survived through Swedenization and Norwegianization Norwegianization Norwegianization is a term used to described the official government policy carried out by the Norwegian government against the Sami and later the Kven people of northern Norway to assimilate non-Norwegian-speaking native populations into an ethnically and culturally uniform Norwegian population... as a minority language Minority language A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.-International politics:... . In my opinion "meänkieli Meänkieli Meänkieli is the name used in Sweden for Finnish dialects spoken in the northernmost parts of the country, around the valley of the Torne River.... " of Torne Valley Torne Valley The Torne Valley or Torne River Valley lies at the border of Sweden and Finland. In 2009 it became one of the Sub-regions of Finland. It is named after the Torne River flowing through the valley and into the Gulf of Bothnia... is also an old Kven language or in our old language, Kainu language. |
External links
- Kven country names (ISO 3166) Page with translations of all country names to Kven, Finnish, Norwegian and English.
General
-
-
- The grammar above can be found in the Kven language here.
- The grammar above can be found in the Norwegian languageNorwegian languageNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
here.
-