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Finland has since then been a bilingual country with a Swedish-speaking minority, speaking Finland-Swedish, living mostly in the coastal areas of southern, south-western, and western Finland.

The autonomous island-province of Åland is an exception, being monolingually Swedish-speaking according to international treaties. It is a matter of definition whether the Swedish spoken on Åland is to be considered Finland-Swedish or not.

Finland-Swedish differs slightly from Swedish spoken in Sweden ("rikssvenska"), most notably for the lack of melodic accent — a trait shared with Finnish and with most Indo-European languages. The difference, however, is not more significant than differences between high-prestigious varieties spoken within Sweden. Spelling is identical. In spoken language, especially among young people in Finnish-dominated areas, Finnish loanwords, as well as calqueCalque # In linguistics, a calque ([kaelk]) or loan translation consists of the borrowing of a phrase from one language into another, in the process of which individual words native to the borrowing language semantically match the individual words in thes from Finnish, are frequently incorporated.

1 Language Regulation

The Finland-Swedish language is regulated by the "Swedish Department" at the " Research Institute for the Languages of Finland " in Finland. There is an officially stated aim that the Finland-Swedish dialect should remain close to the Swedish spoken in Sweden, thus the Swedish Department strongly advises against loanwords and calqueCalque # In linguistics, a calque ([kaelk]) or loan translation consists of the borrowing of a phrase from one language into another, in the process of which individual words native to the borrowing language semantically match the individual words in thes from Finnish, which would often be incomprehensible to Swedes from Sweden.

2 History

Swedish is the mother tongue for about 265,000 persons in Mainland FinlandMainland Finland Manner-Suomi or Fasta Finland is a term used for instance in statistics to exclude the autonomous Aland Islands under Finnish sovereignty. Mainland Finland is not to be confused with Finland Proper, that is the province adjacent to Aland. and 25,000 on Åland, or 5.55% of the total population according to official statistics for 2003 [1]. The proportion has been steadily diminishing since the 18th century17th century 18th century 19th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701- 1800; however, historians will sometimes specifically refer to the 18th Century as 1715- 89, when approximately 15% of the population had Swedish as the mother tongue (estimation for 1815Events January 3 Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia. January 8 War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans February 3 The first commercial cheese factory is founded in Switzerland February 6 New Jersey g [2]).

The Swedish-speaking minority of Finland descends chiefly:

1. from settlers who arrived particularly to some coastlines and archipelagos with the Viking raids and trade connections towards East (so-called Austway) ( 9009th century 10th century 11th century other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. Events The beginning of the Medieval Warm Period Viking groups settle in northern France N– 1200, during which period also towns in present-day Russia had Scandinavian colonies).
2. from the settlers who arrived with the Christian missionaries, crusaders and administrators in the early middle ages of Finland (1200-1400).
3. from socially ambitious Finnish families. The Swedish mother tongue was a great social advantage, particularly during the 17th– 19th centuries. Therefore socially ambitious families often raised their children in Swedish, ultimately leading to a situation where the administrative elite had a limited knowledge of the popular language, Finnish.
4. from foreign immigrants. Plenty of non-Finnic immigrants, particularly townspeople and elite, chose to join Swedish speakers rather than Finnish. For example, children of Mr Marhein, a Dutch merchant, chose to learn Swedish. Later some descendants succeeded in climbing into civil servant nobility, which entitled them to gloss their surname a bit. Thus, a person named C.G.E.Mannerheim, a Swedish-speaker, having become a leading military and a president in Finland, is correctly listed below as Finland-Swede.
5. from Swedish settlers throughout the period of close connections, c 1400-1800.