Dialects are geographically distinct varieties of a language. They grew up at a time when most people lived and worked in their native village or parish all their lives. This resulted in distinct linguistic features characterising the local community.
The Institute has comprehensive collections of dialect corpora. The Word Archive of Finnish Dialects contains millions of words and sayings collected since the beginning of the 20th century. The Tape Archive of the Finnish Language (established in 1959) contains recordings of dialects from basically every parish in Finland.
The Dictionary of Finnish Dialects is based on the word archive of Finnish dialects. It comprises eight printed volumes. Today, it is published online.
The Institute’s Finnish and Swedish webpages contain a lot of information about Finnish and Finland-Swedish dialects. There are also text and audio samples.
Finnish dialects
Dialect distribution map
1. The Southwestern dialects
1a the northern group
1b the eastern group
2. The transitional dialects between the Southwestern and Häme dialects
2a the dialects of the Pori region
2b the dialects of Lower Satakunta
2c the dialects of the Turku uplands
2d the dialects of the Somero–Somerniemi group
2e the dialects of western Uusimaa
3. The Häme (Tavastian) dialects
3a the dialects of Upper Satakunta
3b the Central Häme dialects
3c the Southern Häme dialects
3d the Southeastern Häme dialects, Hollola group
3e the Southeastern Häme dialects, Porvoo group
3f the Southeastern Häme dialects, Iitti group
4. The dialects of South Ostrobothnia (Pohjanmaa)
5. The dialects of Central and North Ostrobothnia (Pohjanmaa)
5a the dialects of Central Ostrobothnia
5b the dialects of North Ostrobothnia
6. The dialects of Peräpohjola (the Far North)
6a the Tornio dialects
6b the dialects of Gällivare
6c the Kemi dialects
6d the Kemijärvi dialects
6e the fjord dialects spoken in Norway (Kven dialects)
7. The Savo dialects
7a the dialects of Päijät-Häme
7b the South Savo dialects
7c the transitional dialects between South Savo and North Karelia
7d the dialects of North Karelia (the eastern group of Savo dialects)
7e the North Savo dialects
7f the dialects of Central Finland
7g the transitional dialects along the Keuruu–Ähtäri–Evijärvi line
7h the dialects of Kainuu
7i the dialect of the Forest Finns, mainly in Värmland
8. The Southeastern dialects and a few transitional dialects bordering on them
8a the Southeastern dialects proper
8b the Finnish dialects spoken in Ingria
8c the transitional dialects between the Southeastern group and South Savo
8d the transitional dialects between the Southeastern group and North Karelia
Swedish dialects in Finland
The Swedish dialects of Finland belong to the East Swedish family of dialects. Their origins trace back to Old Swedish, which spread to Finland from Central Sweden with Swedish settlers from the 12th century onwards. Swedish dialects are spoken in four regions of Finland: Ostrobothnia, the autonomous island province of Åland, Åboland and Nyland (Uusimaa). (Contrary to standard recommendations for English usage, in this context we have used the Swedish names of Finnish regions and municipalities.)
Swedish-speaking Ostrobothnia extends down the western coast from Karleby (Kokkola) to Sideby. Swedish dialects were formerly also spoken in parts of North Satakunta. Ostrobothnian dialects are divided into three groups: Northern, Central and Southern. The province of Åland comprises mainland Åland and its island municipalities. Two distinct groups of Åland dialects are recognised: Western and Eastern. The province of Åboland, located south of Åbo (Turku) and comprising the southwestern Åbo Archipelago, is divided into two regions: Western and Eastern Åboland. In the province of Nyland, Swedish dialects are spoken along the southern coastal strip extending eastward from Hangö (Hanko) to Pyttis (Pyhtää). Nyland is divided into three dialect groups: Western, Central and Eastern. (See dialect distribution map.)
Having evolved in the periphery of other Swedish-speaking areas, Finland-Swedish dialects preserve numerous archaisms, yet they also feature many linguistic innovations, coined either independently or through contact with dialects spoken in Sweden. The dialects spoken in Åland are related to the dialects of Uppland and Sörmland in Sweden. Contact also exists across the Gulf of Bothnia: the dialects spoken on the west coast of Finland are related to the Swedish dialects of Norrland. Neighbouring Swedish and Finland-Swedish dialects have exerted a two-way influence through regular contact, especially in the form of loan words.
The Swedish dialects of Finland can be considered conservative. They retain many features encountered only in peripheral, mainly northern, Swedish dialects. For instance, they preserve many Old Swedish diphthongs, such as in stein (sten) ‘stone’, höi (hö) ‘hay’ and bröut (bröt) ‘broke’ (see map). In many Finland-Swedish dialects, the consonants g, k, sk are pronounced ‘hard’ when preceding a frontal vowel, such as in gära or göra (göra) ‘do/make’, kärrå (kärra) ‘cart/barrow’ and skära ‘cut’, but in other dialects they may alternatively be pronounced djära, tjärrå, stjära or as affricates or fricatives as in Standard Swedish (see map). Many Finland-Swedish dialects preserve the segmental durations of Old Swedish, e.g. in the words fara ‘go’ and viku or viko (vecka) ‘week’, where the first vowel is pronounced short; in drööm (dröm) ‘dream’ and toom (tom) ‘empty’, where the vowel is long; and in blåått (blått) ‘blue’ and föödd (född) ‘born/fed’, where both the vowel and the following consonant are pronounced long (see map).
