TRANSLATE FROM / TO FINNISH

Services of translation from / into Finnish in our translation agency are performed by certified professional translators of Finnish language.

We provide translation from / into Finnish for both enterprises, including state organizations, and for private individuals as well. Our services involve all types of written / oral translation from / into Finnish, including simultaneous interpretation.

SOME FACTS

Finnish language, also called Suomi, member of the Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric languages. These languages form a subdivision of the Uralic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages. Finnish is spoken by about 5 million people in Finland. Additional speakers totaling close to 1 million live in neighboring areas of Sweden and Russia and also in the United States. There are several dialects. In Finnish the first syllable of a word is stressed. The language has 15 cases for nouns, personal pronouns, and adjectives. It lacks grammatical gender and the article. There is a negative conjugation for the verb. Like the other Uralic and Altaic languages, Finnish has vowel harmony and agglutination. Postpositions are employed instead of prepositions. Suffixation is used to form derived nouns and verbs. The Finnish vocabulary has been enriched by words borrowed from the Germanic, Slavic, and Baltic languages. A modified Roman alphabet is used for writing Finnish, which has been recorded since the 16th cent.

History

It is believed that the Baltic Finnic languages evolved from a proto-Finnic language, from which Sami was separated around 1500-1000 BCE. It has been suggested that this proto-Finnic had three dialects: northern, southern and eastern. The Baltic Finnic languages separated around the 1st century.

The first written form of Finnish was created by Mikael Agricola, a Finnish bishop in the 16th century. He based his writing system on Swedish (which was the official language of Finland at the time), German, and Latin. Later the written form was revised by many people.

The Reformation marked the real beginning of writing in Finnish. In the 16th century major literary achievements were composed in Finnish by people like Paavali Juusten, Erik Sorolainen, and Jaakko Finno, as well as Agricola himself. In the 17th century books were written in Finland in Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Estonian, Latvian, German, and Swedish. However, the most important books were still written in Latin. Finnish and Swedish (which in the late 17th century was decreed the sole language of government) were small languages of lesser importance.

FINNISH: a language of Finland
SIL code: FIN
ISO 639-1: fi
ISO 639-2: fin

Population 4,700,000 in Finland, 93.5% of population (1993), including 30,000 speakers of Tornedalen Finnish. Population total all countries 6,000,000 (1999 WA).
Region Also spoken in Canada, Estonia, Norway, Russia (Europe), Sweden, USA.
Alternate names SUOMI, SUOMEA
Dialects SOUTHWESTERN FINNISH, HAME (TAVAST), SOUTH POHJANMAA, CENTRAL AND NORTH POHJANMAA, PERAPOHJA, SAVO (SAVOLAX), SOUTHEASTERN FINNISH (FINNISH KARJALA, FINNISH KARELIAN).
Classification Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finno-Permic, Finno-Cheremisic, Finno-Mordvinic, Finno-Lappic, Baltic-Finnic, Finnic.
Comments Southeastern dialects called 'Karelian' in colloquial Finnish are distinct from true Karelian (T. Salminen). Finnish is closely related to Karelian and Olonetsian. About 300,000 are bilingual in Swedish. National language. Grammar. SVO. Christian. Bible 1642-1991.

Also spoken in:
Russia (Europe) Language name FINNISH
Population 31,570 speakers out of 77,000 in the ethnic group in Russia (1979 census). 41% speak it as mother tongue.
Comments Eastern dialects merge gradually into Karelian. Bilingualism in Russian. Christian. Bible 1642-1991. See main entry under Finland.


Sweden Language name FINNISH
Population 200,000 in Sweden (1997 Birger Winsa). 'Swedish-Finns' were 446,134 in 1999, which counts those born in Finland and first generation born in Sweden, but not others, even if the mother tongue is Finnish.
Alternate names SUOMI, SUOMEA
Comments 1st to 3rd generation immigrants, apart from speakers of Tornedalen Finnish. Christian. Bible 1642-1991.