Suomi, suomen kieli
Native Speakers: 5 million
Finland, Sweden, Russia, United States
Official: Finland, European Union, Nordic Council
Indo-European, Uralic
Highly agglutinative language, using suffixes to convey meaning
instead of word order. It features 15 grammatical cases, vowel
harmony, and consonant gradation. The language lacks
grammatical gender and definite or indefinite articles, relying on
context for meaning. While it generally follows an SVO structure,
word order is flexible. Finnish has a rich vocabulary for nature and a
tradition of language purism, often creating native alternatives to
foreign loanwords.
Finnish has two main dialect groups: Western and Eastern, with
numerous regional variations. Western dialects, influenced by
Scandinavian languages, tend to simplify word endings, while
Eastern dialects, influenced by Russian and Karelian, often have
softer consonants and longer vowel sounds. Some dialects, like
Savonian and Karelian, exhibit distinct phonetic and grammatical
features. Despite these variations, Standard Finnish, based on a mix
of Western and Eastern dialects, is universally understood and used
in formal settings.
Latin script
The Finnish language is spoken by a small but historically significant
community in the United States, primarily concentrated in the
Upper Midwest. The largest populations of Finnish speakers are
found in Michigan (especially the Upper Peninsula), Minnesota, and
Wisconsin, where Finnish immigrants settled in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. Other smaller Finnish-speaking communities
exist in Washington, Oregon, and Florida. While the number of
native Finnish speakers has declined due to assimilation, some
heritage speakers and Finnish language programs help preserve the
language, particularly in cultural centers and universities.
At Latitude Prime, we offer Finnish translation, Finnish interpretation, and Finnish localization services in
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