– Finnish as a minority language in Norway will mean death for the Kven language – NRK Kveeni
A few weeks ago, Tobias Eriksen (18), together with other young people, asked the royal household, several ministers and Princess Ingrid Alexandra to equate Finnish and Kven languages in Norway. Behind the request lay the concern for the state of the Finnish language in the country.
The Kven Finnish Student Network, where the young people are board members, believes that the authorities’ one-sided focus on the Kven language has led to a documentable result: the number of students taking Finnish has dropped drastically.
– The authorities must invest in both languages, not just one of them. This is how they take care of the entire minority, not just half, Eriksen told NRK and believed that Finnish must become one of the official minority languages in Norway, and all of them in the Language Act.
However, Kristine Jonas (24) does not agree with the student network. She is deputy leader of Kvenungdommen/Kvääninuoret, the youth organization under the Norwegian Kveners’ Association, but will speak as a private person.
She believes that equality would have meant death for the Kven language.
– Do not give the authorities more shortcuts to deprioritize the Kven language.
Equality will mean death for the Kven language
Jonas can agree with the student network on many things. Actually, about everything, when it comes to the right to learn Finnish at school.
– I think it is incredibly nice that those who identify with Finnish have the opportunity to choose Finnish as a second language in primary and secondary school, and wear their identity with pride.
When it comes to the equality of the languages, she still disagrees with the student network.
– It is important that the languages are equal in the Education Act, but if they are also treated equally at national level, so that both become official minority languages in Norway, it means death for the Kven language. There is no other way to look at it.
According to Jonas will no Equality of the languages could cause no situation where state institutions and organizations will prioritize Finnish over Kven. Possible to an even greater extent than the as already happening today.
– We can see how this priority is in schools today. Since Finnish is a living language with lots of resources and language users, it is easier for schools to offer Finnish than Swedish education.
Jonas believes that if Finnish is also equated with Kven at the national level, other public institutions and schools will also choose Finnish over Kven. And that will threaten the existence of the Kven language.
– If we allow the rest of society to prioritize Finnish over Kven, there will soon be no need for Kven skills, such as Kven teachers and other language users. And when there is no longer a need for female teachers, people lose motivation to take teacher training in Swedish. It becomes a vicious circle that leads to the death of the Kven language.
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What is Swedish language?
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Kvensk is defined as one of Europe’s truest languages. It is a Baltic Finnish language closely related to Meänkieli in Sweden and to Northern Finnish dialects in Finland.
Other Baltic Finnish languages include Sami and Estonian.
Kvensk was recognized as a minority language by the Norwegian authorities in 2005.
Is Kven a Finnish dialect?
Before recognition, there were many and thorough discussions about whether Kven can be perceived as a separate language or as a Finnish dialect.
Is Kven a Finnish dialect?
Over a long period of time, Kven had developed independently of language development in Finland, and eventually the differences were so great that one could speak of different languages.
Swedish against Finnish
Norwegians and Finns can understand each other, but the biggest obstacle to understanding is vocabulary related to modern life and society.
department (n.) / ministry (k.) / ministry (f.)
rule (n.) / reekeli (k.) / rule (f.)
prime minister (n.) / Ministry of the Interior (k.) / pääministeri (f.)
The Kven language was spoken by the Kvens/Norwegian Finns in many ways.
Apart from Kven/kväänin kieli, you often hear the terms kainun kieli, our language, kitchen Finnish, Skibotn-/Alta-/Varanger Finnish etc., or simply just Finnish.
The number of language users is uncertain, and estimates vary between 2,000 and at least 10,000 according to the Directorate of Education.
However, most of these language users are older, and therefore there is now a great danger that the language may die out.
Jonas also cannot understand why Finnish should be recognized as one of the minority languages in Norway. This had meant that Norway has a duty to protect and preserve the Finnish language on the same level as the Kven language.
– As Hilde Skanke from the Kvensk Institute said, Finnish is not worthy of preservation. It is a national language in Finland, and stands well on its own two feet. Yes, Finnish has a role in the history of Norway and Northern Norway and can be used as an aid to learning Swedish, but it is Swedish that is the language of the women today, not Finnish.
The statistics not a usable proof
In the letter Eriksen sent to the royal house and a number of ministers, he explains the equality with, among other things The Norwegian Directorate of Education’s primary school statistics 2021/22.
For the first time, the statistics included the student numbers for both Finnish and Kven, and it shows that 380 students chose Finnish for the 2021-22 school year. Only 46 chose Swedish.
– Young people in Troms and Finnmark would rather learn Finnish than Swedish, Eriksen said and believes that the statistics are clear proof of that.
Kristine Jonas still believes that the primary school statistics are not usable evidence. The statistics say how many people take Finnish, not how many choose Finnish, she says with an extra emphasis on the word “choose”.
– The statistics that the student network points to say nothing about the choices these students have. I strongly doubt that all pupils had been offered both Kven and Finnish.
Today, primary school students in Troms and Finnmark with a Swedish/Norwegian-Finnish background have the right to education in Finnish and Swedish, if at least three students request it. The right applies whether there are three who choose one of the languages, or respectively and to the students who choose each.
Jonas says that the lack of female teachers is a well-known problem. Therefore, many schools only offer Finnish, even if they have also had students who want to learn Swedish.
– I know quite a few children and young people who are not offered Swedish and therefore have to choose Finnish. And they do that because it’s the closest thing they can do. But it’s not enough. Language training is one thing, but they don’t get either training in Swedish culture.
Therefore, Jonas believes that the statistics rather show how good the situation of the Finnish language is in Troms and Finnmark.
– The statistics can just as well say something about how much more widespread the offer of Finnish education is compared to the Kven offer. It is so much more accessible to people, especially to children and young people.
– Finnish does not destroy Swedish
Tobias Eriksen does not understand how an equality of Finnish and Kven would mean death for the Kven language. After all, it is mostly people with a Finnish background who work at Kven language centers and institutes, he says.
– The threat to the Kven language comes from Norwegian and English. The use of Finnish written language is a boost both for the Kven community and the newly developed Kven written language.
Eriksen believes that Jonas has not familiarized himself with the school’s Finnish education. According to him, the curriculum for Finnish also includes training in Kven culture and dialects.
– It is entirely possible to read Kven and finish the 10th grade with Kven on the diploma through Finnish learning.
Therefore, he cannot understand why students should only learn a language that has no resources or language users. He believes that the 380 pupils, who took Finnish as a second language for the 2021/22 school year, did so on purpose.
– The main reason is that most people want to learn Finnish. I myself am an example of that, says Eriksen and reasons that the Finnish language is more useful.
– We do not choose Finnish to support the Finnish language. We do it to develop our own competence with a view to being able to use it in future professional life, while at the same time taking care of our old culture.
Together with the rest of the board of Kvensk Finnish Student Network, Tobias believes that Finnish must be equated with Kven because of the language’s past and future. He points out that Kvens/Finns have used religious books for years, and therefore Finnish is the foundation for Kvens/Norwegian Finns’ language to a far greater extent than Kven.
– The Kven language is not alive. You have to look at the problem realistically. The only real alternative today, and most likely in the foreseeable future, is the Finnish track.
Can’t say for sure
NRK Kvensk contacted the Norwegian Directorate of Education to find out what the latest primary school statistics say about Finnish and Kven education.
Communications advisor Vebjørn Løvås can confirm that there are more pupils who take Finnish than Kven, but does not dare to say whether the figures show how many of these could choose between Finnish and Kven.
– We cannot say with certainty that there are more people who “choose” Finnish than Swedish. It depends on whether the school has an obligation to offer training in Finnish and/or Swedish.
The Løvås, on the other hand, can say that in the 2021/22 school year, eight school pupils took Swedish as a second language, and 53 schools had pupils with Finnish as a second language.
– There is no record of how many schools offer teaching in Kven without some students taking advantage of the offer, he says.
– We must save Kven, not Finnish
Kristine Jonas personally believes that there are quite a few Kven children and young people who have started Finnish education in primary school, who will learn Swedish. According to her, the reason for the drastic decrease in the number of Finnish pupils can be be onet these students eventually find that Finnish was not the language they wanted to learn.
– But since we don’t have any statistics about it, we can’t say anything with certainty. And therefore the student network cannot say with certainty that “more students would rather choose Finnish than Kven”, when there are no statistics on this.
Jonas believes that it is Kven that has been used in Norway, and therefore it is recognized as a minority language by the authorities, and not Finnish.
– The authorities have not recognized Kven as a minority language in order to be kind to the Kven. It is a measure to reverse Norwegianization policy.
Jonas had said in Norway and Finland and still has an important role in history, but it is not the Finnish language that is true. And in order to receive training in Finnish, the language does not have to become one of Norway’s minority languages.
– We don’t need to save Finnish, we need to save Kven. And therefore the Finnish language does not need to be equated with the Kven language in Norway, says Jonas.