“I opened the fridge. The fridge opened my mind.”
That’s when it hit me: Finnish is on another level.
At first, it was just the word Jääkaappi (IPA: /ˈjæːˌkɑːpːi/) that made me pause (it means fridge, by the way—not a type of arctic coffee). But once you start noticing Finnish words… you can’t stop. They’re long, they’re strange, and some of them sound like IKEA furniture that’s come to life.
But there’s a reason behind all this—and it’s genuinely fascinating.
Here are 15 facts that reveal what makes Finnish so unique, complex, and unlike anything you’re used to.
1. Remember That Finnish Word? It’s Probably Long!
Finnish words can be quite long due to the language’s agglutinative nature. This means that instead of using prepositions or helping words like ‘in’ or ‘at’, Finnish adds suffixes to words.
For example, the word ‘kaupassakin’ means ‘also in the store’, with ‘kaupassa’ meaning ‘in the store’ and ‘kin’ meaning ‘also’.
2. Finnish, a Minority Language in Many Lands
Outside of Finland, Finnish is spoken by sizable communities in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States.
In fact, in Sweden and Norway, Finnish has the status of an official minority language. This highlights the global spread and influence of the Finnish language and culture.
3. Finnish in Finland and Beyond
Finnish is a native language to 5 million people, primarily residing in Finland. However, it has also spread to other countries including Sweden, Norway and Russia.
There are also considerable Finnish-speaking minorities in countries like the United States, Canada and Brazil. In total, Finnish is spoken by around 5.5 million people worldwide.
4. Finnish and Its Family Resemblance
Finnish shares common features with other Uralic languages such as Hungarian and Sami languages.
These common features include shared morphology (case suffixes, plural markers, possessive suffixes) and shared basic vocabulary. For example, the Finnish word ‘kala’ (fish) corresponds to ‘guolli’ in North Saami and ‘hal’ in Hungarian.
5. Finnish, a Language of Many Endings
Finnish is typologically agglutinative. This means that it uses a lot of suffixes (endings attached to words) to show grammatical relations.
For example, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals and verbs in Finnish are inflected depending on their role in the sentence. This extensive use of inflection allows sentences to be ordered differently while retaining their meaning.
6. In Finland, Finnish Rules
Finnish is the first language for the majority of the population in Finland.
As of 2010, 90.37% of the Finnish population speak Finnish as their first language. The remainder speak Swedish (5.42%), one of the Sámi languages, or another language as their first language.
7. Finnish, a Language of the European Union
Finnish is one of the official languages of the European Union. This means that all EU legislation and certain other documents must be available in Finnish, and Finnish citizens have the right to correspond with the EU institutions in Finnish.
This gives the Finnish language a significant presence on the international stage.
8. Finnish, a Language with Official Status
Finnish has official status in several regions. It’s one of the two official languages of Finland, alongside Swedish.
It also holds official status in the European Union and the Nordic Council. Furthermore, it’s recognized as an official minority language in Sweden, Russia (Karelia), and Norway (Finnmark).
9. Finnish and the Sound of Music
In Finnish, vowel length and consonant length are important distinctions. This means that the duration of the sound can change the meaning of a word.
For example, ‘tapa’ means ‘way’, but ‘tapa’ with a longer ‘a’ sound means ‘murder’. The language also has a range of diphthongs, which are combinations of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable.
10. A Forest Born Language
Finnish, along with other Uralic languages, is believed to have originated from the boreal forest belt around the Ural Mountains region and/or the bend of the middle Volga.
This theory is supported by common vocabulary and regularities in sound correspondences between the Uralic languages.
11. Finnish and Its Sibling Languages
The closest relatives of Finnish are the Ingrian language or, depending on definitions, the Karelian language.
These languages form a dialect continuum, which means that there is no single isogloss (a geographic boundary line separating two different linguistic features) that separates dialects considered ‘Finnish’ from those considered ‘Estonian’, even though the two standard languages are not mutually intelligible.
12. How Hard is Finnish, Really?
According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, Finnish is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers.
This classification is on a scale of four levels, with level IV being the most difficult. So, if you’re thinking about learning Finnish, be prepared for a bit of a challenge!
13. Finnish, a Language of Respect
In Finnish, there’s a strong distinction between formal and informal language. The language uses different pronouns for formal (‘te’) and informal (‘sinä’) second person singular.
This reflects the Finnish culture’s respect for social hierarchy and formality in certain situations.
14. Finnish in the Family Tree of Languages
Finnish is a member of the Uralic language family, which is a group of languages that also includes Hungarian and Sami languages.
It is notably one of the few European languages that is not Indo-European. Within the Uralic family, Finnish belongs to the Finnic branch, which also includes Estonian and a handful of minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea and in Russia’s Republic of Karelia.
15. Finnish Alphabet, Swedish Roots
The Finnish language uses a Latin-script alphabet derived from the Swedish alphabet. This means that while it uses the same letters as English, it also includes some special characters such as ä and ö.
The orthography of Finnish is phonemic to a great extent, which means that each symbol corresponds to a particular sound, making it easier to pronounce words once you know the sounds of the letters.
? Final Thoughts from the Land of Jääkaappi
And there you have it—Finnish in all its glory.
A language where fridges have majestic names, words go on forever, and grammar plays 4D chess. It may not be the easiest to learn, but it’s definitely one of the most fascinating to stumble through.
So next time you spot a word that looks like someone mashed a keyboard, don’t panic. It might just be Finnish. And it might just mean “also in the store.”
Stay curious. And maybe label your fridge Jääkaappi—just for fun.
Hey fellow Linguaholics! It’s me, Marcel. I am the proud owner of linguaholic.com. Languages have always been my passion and I have studied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Sinology at the University of Zurich. It is my utmost pleasure to share with all of you guys what I know about languages and linguistics in general.