5. Retell the text. The Finns and the Karelians and their languages

The area where the Finnish language is spoken, exclusively or predominantly comprises the sovereign territory of Finland except its northernmost community, Utsjoki (where the Lappish language dominates), and the Swedish-speaking areas, namely, the Åland-isles and the archipelago to the east of them, and the coastal regions of Nyland (Finn. Uusimaa) and southern Ostrobotnia (Finn. Pohjanmaa, Swed. Österbotten). Finnish is also spoken in the region immediately to the west of the Finnish-Swedish frontier and (together with Lappish and Swedish) in the three northernmost parishes of Swedish Lappland (Karesuando, the ‘city’ of Kiruna, and Gällivare). In westernmost Värmland and the adjacent region in Norway, the vernacular of the Finnish settlers is moribund. There are Finnish-speaking minorities in Finnmark (the northernmost province of Norway), in St. Petersburg, and here and there in the historical province of Ingermanland, and in U.S.A. (especially in Michigan and Minnesota) and Canada.

The Finns (and the Karelians) probably invaded southern Finland at the beginning of our era, coming partly across the Finnish Gulf, partly across the Karelian Isthmus. They slowly expanded northward, expelling, subduing or assimilating the Lapps. The different Finnish tribes, Suomalaiset (or Finns proper), Hämäläiset (Tavastians), and Karelians, were mutually independent until they were successively incorporated into the Kingdom of Sweden. There is still a borderline dividing the eastern group of Finnish dialects from the western one; it goes approximately from Hamina in the southeast to Kokkola (Gamlakarleby) in the northwest. The Finnish-speaking population to the north of the Botnic Gulf came from Western Finland and therefore speak predominantly Western idioms. The southwestern idioms, spoken in Turunmaa (Finland proper), have some features in common with Estonian. Nobody knows at what time the political collaboration of Finns and Swedes began. A medieval legend tells us that the southwestern part of Finland was conquered by a Swedish king in the middle of the 12th century. But according to an older source, Swedish kings had a foothold in southern Finland as early as the 9th century. The Hämäläiset, living to the east of the Suomalaiset, swore allegiance to the Swedish crown in the middle of the 13th century according to the Swedish chronicle. Russian sources speak of a battle fought at the mouth of the Neva River in 1240 by Swedes, Finns, and Tavastians (Hämäläiset) on one side and Russians and Karelians on the other. The Russians won the battle, and it decided the fate of the eastern­most of the Finnish tribes, the Karelians. Although the Swedes were mostly successful in their wars with Russia till the rise of the Roma­novs (in the 17th century), all they could do in favour of the Karelians was to split their land in two parts, leaving the eastern part to the Russians.

The Karelians were christianized by the Russians, and it is not unlikely that also the Tavastians got their first Christian impulses from the East. The Finnish language has got the terms ’risti’ cross, ‘pakana’ pagan, and ‘raamattu’ bible, through the intermediary of Russian. There are many profane Russian loan-words in standard Finnish, e.g. ‘ikkuna’ (‘akkuna’) window; ‘kanava’ canal; ‘kapakka’ public house, saloon; ‘leima’ stamp, hallmark, seal; ’lusikka’ spoon; ’majakka’ lighthouse, beacon; ‘määrä’ quantity, proportion, measure; ‘rotu’ race, stock; ‘saapas’ boot; ‘sääli’ pity; ‘siisti’ tidy, neat, clean; ‘tavara’ ware, stuff, goods; ‘toveri’ fellow, comrade; ‘tuuma’ thought, idea; ‘vapaa’ free.

The Finnish language received hundreds of Swedish loan-words in the Middle Ages and later, and most of the common European words of civilization came to Finland over Sweden.

In 1809 Finland came under Russian domination.