Finns
Alvar Aalto • Mikael Agricola • Minna Canth • Tarja Halonen Tove Jansson • C.G.E. Mannerheim • Karita Mattila • Jean Sibelius
Total population
6. Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto ( February 3, 1898 — May 11, 1976) was a Finnish Architect and Designer, sometimes Mikael Agricola ( (c 1510 &ndash April 9, 1557) was a Finnish clergyman who became de facto founder of written Finnish and Minna Canth (born Ulrika Wilhelmina Johnsson, March 19 1844, Tampere - May 12 1897, Kuopio) was a Tarja Kaarina Halonen ( pronounced) (born 24 December 1943 is the current President of Finland. Tove Marika Jansson ( August 9, 1914 – June 27, 2001) was a Finnish Novelist, painter, Illustrator Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim ( IPA: ˡkɑːrl ˡɡɵstɑf ˡeːmil ˡmɑnːərhe͡im ( June 4, 1867 &ndash January 27, 1951 Karita Mattila (pronounced KAH-ree-tah MAHT-ee-lah is a leading opera Soprano. 5-7. 0 million (est. )
Regions with significant populations
Finland:       approx. Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. 5,300,000[1] Other significant population centers:
United States 700,000[2]  Sweden 470,000  Canada 120,000[3]  Russia 34,000[4]  United Kingdom 30,000[5]  Germany 16,000 (in 2002)[6]  Estonia 11,000[7]  Australia 8,619[8]  Norway 5. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia ( Eesti or Eesti Vabariik) is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional 3 (15,000 -60,000 including Kvens)[9][10][11]  Spain 5000 (in 2001)[12]
Languages
Finnish, Swedish Languages related to Finnish include Estonian, Karelian, Vepsian, Võro and to a lesser extent, all Finno-Ugric Languages. Kvens ( kveeni in Kven language / Finnish; kvener in Norwegian, and láddelažžat in Northern Sami Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside Finland Swedish is a general term for the closely related cluster of Dialects of Swedish spoken in Finland by Swedish-speaking Finns as their Estonian (; ˈeːsti ˈkeːl is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1 Karelian is a language closely related to Finnish, with which it is not necessarily Mutually intelligible. The Veps language (also known as Vepsian) spoken by the Vepsians (also known as Veps) belongs to the Baltic-Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric The Võro language ( võro kiil) is a language belonging to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Finno-Ugric (ˌfɪnoʊˈjuːgɹɪk is a grouping of languages in the Uralic language family comprising Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and Swedish is a Scandinavian language, closely related to Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic, and to a lesser extent to all Indo-European Languages. The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages Norwegian ( norsk) is a North Germanic Language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Icelandic ( is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland.
Religions
Indigenously Finnish Paganism, Christianization from the 11th century onwards (the two faiths coexisted for centuries). Finnish paganism was the indigenous pagan Religion in present-day Finland and Karelia prior to Christianization. Today predominantly Protestant (mainly Lutheran); Orthodox minorities. Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the teachings of the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther Structure and organization Along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland the Orthodox Church of Finland has a special position in Finnish law

The terms Finns and Finnish people (Finnish: suomalaiset, Swedish: finländare) are used in English to mean "a native or inhabitant of Finland". Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the They are also used to refer to the ethnic group historically associated with Finland or Fennoscandia, and they are only used in that sense here. Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. Fennoscandia and Fenno-Scandinavia are geographic and geological terms used to describe the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia ^[13][14]

As with most ethnic groups, the definition of Finns may vary. Usually, in every definition, the term includes the Finnish-speaking population of Finland. The group can also be seen to include the Swedish-speaking population of Finland and the Finnish-speaking population of Sweden. Swedish -speaking Finns (often called Finland-Swedes, Finnish Swedes, Fennoswedes or Swedish Finns, see below ( Swedish Sweden Finns ( ruotsinsuomalaiset in Finnish sverigefinnar in Swedish are a Finnish speaking minority in Sweden. Smaller populations that may or may not be seen to fall under the term Finns include the Kvens in Norway, the Tornedalians of Sweden and the Ingrian Finns of Russia. Kvens ( kveeni in Kven language / Finnish; kvener in Norwegian, and láddelažžat in Northern Sami Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The Tornedalians are descendants of Finns who in some point in history settled to the areas of today's Northern Sweden near the Torne Valley district and west from The Ingrian Finns (inkeriläinen or inkerinsuomalainen were the Finnish rural Peasant population of Ingria (now the central Finns can be divided according to dialect into subgroups sometimes traditionally called heimo, but such divisions have become less important with internal migration.

Linguistically, Finnish, spoken by most Finns, is closest related to the other Baltic-Finnic languages Estonian and Karelian, while Swedish, spoken by Swedish-speaking Finns, is unrelated to the Finnish language and a member of the Indo-European language family. The Baltic-Finnic languages, spoken around the Baltic Sea by about 7 million people are a branch of Finnic languages belonging to the Finno-Ugric group Estonian (; ˈeːsti ˈkeːl is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1 Karelian is a language closely related to Finnish, with which it is not necessarily Mutually intelligible. Finnish has loanwords from Swedish, other Germanic and broader Indo-European languages in different chronological layers while Swedish has few loan words from the Baltic-Finnic languages. Genetically, Finns seem to be a fairly homogeneous group with a genetic heritage mostly in common with the other European ethnicities. ^[15][16]

Definition

The Finnish Population Registry Center maintains information on the place of birth, citizenship and mother tongue of the people living in Finland, but does not specifically categorize any as Finns by ethnicity. ^[17] Like all ethnicities, Finns are subject to the phenomenon of ethnogenesis. Ethnogenesis (From Greek: ethnos ( group of people nation and genesis ( a coming into being is the process by which a group of human beings comes Language—both active and lost—has traditionally been seen as a key element when defining a people or its descendants.

Finnish-speaking Finns

Main article: Finnish language

With regard to language, in addition to most Finnish-speaking inhabitants of mainland Finland, also Kvens (people of Finnish descent in Norway), Tornedalians (people of Finnish descent in northernmost Sweden), and Evangelical Lutheran Ingrian Finns are usually considered Finnish people. Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside Kvens ( kveeni in Kven language / Finnish; kvener in Norwegian, and láddelažžat in Northern Sami Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional The Tornedalians are descendants of Finns who in some point in history settled to the areas of today's Northern Sweden near the Torne Valley district and west from The Ingrian Finns (inkeriläinen or inkerinsuomalainen were the Finnish rural Peasant population of Ingria (now the central

The Finnish speakers form the large majority of Finns.

Swedish-speaking Finns

Main article: Swedish-speaking Finns

The area of modern Finland was part of the Swedish kingdom for several hundred years, and a small population of people having Swedish as their mother tongue exists in the country. Swedish -speaking Finns (often called Finland-Swedes, Finnish Swedes, Fennoswedes or Swedish Finns, see below ( Swedish "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. The ethnicity of the Swedish-speaking Finns (or Finland-Swedes) is debated with positions emphasizing in one extreme a settler nature and in the other extreme a language-shifting nature of this group. Swedish -speaking Finns (often called Finland-Swedes, Finnish Swedes, Fennoswedes or Swedish Finns, see below ( Swedish

In Finland, language is typically considered the basic and even the only criterion that distinguishes the Finnish-speakers and the Swedish-speakers from each other. ^[18] In general, Swedish speaking Finns consider themselves to be just as much Finnish as the Finnish-speaking majority, but they have their own special identity distinct from that of the majority, and they wish to be recognized as such. In a 2005 survey by Svenska Finlands Folkting carried out among the Swedish speakers, when asked about the meaning of their identity, 82% of the respondents answered: "Both to belong to an own culture but also to be Finnish amongst the rest. The Swedish Assembly of Finland ( Swedish: Svenska Finlands Folkting or Folktinget, Finnish: Suomenruotsalaiset kansankäräjät, "^[19]

On the other hand, the Swedish-speaking Finns can be seen to fulfill some of the four major criteria for a separate ethnic group: self-identification of ethnicity, language, social structure, and ancestry. ^[20] (The last criterion being put in question by loss of genetic differences between the linguistic groups, see below).

Sweden Finns

Main article: Sweden Finns

These include recent immigrants from Finland and (at least originally) Finnish-speaking people that have lived in Sweden for centuries. Sweden Finns ( ruotsinsuomalaiset in Finnish sverigefinnar in Swedish are a Finnish speaking minority in Sweden. An estimated 450,000 first- or second-generation Finns live in Sweden, of which approximately half speak Finnish. The majority moved from Finland to Sweden following the Second World War, with a peak in 1970 and declining thereafter. There are also historical Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, for example the Tornedalingar (Torne Valley Finns) and the Finns of Dalecarlia. The Tornedalians are descendants of Finns who in some point in history settled to the areas of today's Northern Sweden near the Torne Valley district and west from The Torne Valley or Torne River Valley ( Finnish: Tornionjokilaakso, Swedish: Tornedalen) lies at the border of Sweden and As a result, the Finnish language has an official status as one of five minority languages in Sweden. ^[21]

Other groups

In some texts in the past, the term 'Finns' may have also been employed generally for other Finnic peoples, including Izhorians in Ingria, Karelians and Veps. Finnic peoples ( Fennic) are a historical linguistic group of peoples Baltic Finns who are Native speakers of Baltic-Finnic The Izhorians ( sg ižoralaine, inkeroine, ižora) along with the Votes are an indigenous people of Ingria For the Italian municipality see Ingria Italy. For the Brachiopod Genus, see Ingria (brachiopod. The Karelians (also Karels are descendants of Baltic Finns whose historic homeland Karelia is divided between Finland 's counties North Karelia Veps or Vepsians are a Finnic people that speak the Veps language, which belongs to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages

Terminology

The Finnish term for Finns is suomalaiset (sing. suomalainen).

The Finnish and Swedish terms for the Swedish-speaking population of Finland are the expressions suomenruotsalaiset and finlandssvenskar respectively, which translate literally with regard to each other. In Finland Swedish usage and mindset the following distinctions are usually made: The nation (people) consists of Finnish speakers (Finland Swedish: finnar) and Swedish speakers (Finland Swedish: finlandssvenskar) who together with smaller minorities constitute the people of Finland (Finland Swedish: finländare). Finland Swedish is a general term for the closely related cluster of Dialects of Swedish spoken in Finland by Swedish-speaking Finns as their In Swedish spoken outside of Finland, in particular in Sweden, the term finländare is less known, and these distinctions are not always made.

Translating this terminology accurately into foreign languages, including Sweden's Swedish, is a tricky matter because the terminology closely reflects the nation's entire language issue, which played an intricate part in the process of the crystallisation of the nation's self-perception and in the interpretation of its history, and because it still affects these. Swedish ( is a North Germanic language spoken by more than nine million people predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the Indeed, one of the very first domestic matters addressed during the process of national awakening in the 19th century was the language question. The language strife was one of the major conflicts of Finland's national history and domestic politics

It is therefore debatable which English terms best match the Finnish and (Finland-)Swedish terms suomalaiset (finländare, finnar) and finlandssvenskar (suomenruotsalaiset). Nevertheless, Swedish-speaking Finns seems to be the English term most commonly used today for^[22] and by^[23] the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, although the term Finland Swedes is in wide use too, at least in English written by non-native speakers in Scandinavia. Swedish -speaking Finns (often called Finland-Swedes, Finnish Swedes, Fennoswedes or Swedish Finns, see below ( Swedish

Similarly debatable is how to best designate the people living in Sweden who are current Finnish speakers or have Finnish or Finnish-speaking ancestors. The terms used include the traditional Sweden Finns and the more modern Finnish Swedes, instead of which it may be preferable to differentiate between (recent) Finnish immigrants and the indigenous Finnish ethnic minority in Sweden. Sweden Finns ( ruotsinsuomalaiset in Finnish sverigefinnar in Swedish are a Finnish speaking minority in Sweden. ^[24]

As the meanings of these terms have changed in time, these terms may well be used with other meanings than those given above, particularly in foreign and older works.

Etymology

Historical references relating to Europe's north are scarce and the names given to its peoples obscure, and so the etymologies of the names of these peoples and geographic regions remain rather sketchy. Such names as Fenni, Phinnoi, Finnum, and Skrithfinni / Scridefinnum were used in a few written texts for almost two millennia in association with a people located in a northern part of Europe, but the real meaning of these terms is debatable. Fenni were a people living in Fennoscandia in the 1st century mentioned by Cornelius Tacitus in Germania in 97 A Phinnoi were one of the people living in Scandinavia (Scandia mentioned by a Greek scientist Ptolemy in his Geographia around 150 The earliest mentions of this kind are usually interpreted to have meant Fennoscandian hunter-gatherers whose closest successors in modern terms would be the Sami people. Fennoscandia and Fenno-Scandinavia are geographic and geological terms used to describe the Scandinavian Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula, Karelia A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild Foraging and Hunting The Sami people are the Indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway ^[25] It has been suggested that this non-Uralic ethnonym is of Germanic language origin and related to such words as finthan (Old High German) 'find', 'notice'; fanthian (Old High German) 'check', 'try'; and fendo (Old High German) and vende (Old Middle German) 'pedestrian', 'wanderer'. The Uralic languages (jʊˈrælɨk constitute a language family of 39 Languages spoken by approximately 20 million people The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. ^[26]. Another etymological interpretation associates this ethnonym with fen in a more toponymical approach. Yet another theory postulates that the words finn and kven are cognates. The origin of the name " Kven " is unclear The name appears for the first time in a 9th century Old English version written by King Alfred of Wessex In the Icelandic Eddas and Norse sagas (dating from about the 11th to 14th centuries), some of the oldest written sources probably originating from the closest proximity, words like finnr and finnas are not used consistently. This page refers to the Eddur poems and tales of Norse Mythology The sagas (from Icelandic saga, plural sögur) are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history about early Viking voyages Most of the time, however, they seem to mean northern dwellers with a mobile life style, i. e. the Sami.

Interestingly, an etymological link between the Sami and the Finns exists also in modern Finno-Ugric languages. Finno-Ugric (ˌfɪnoʊˈjuːgɹɪk is a grouping of languages in the Uralic language family comprising Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and It has been proposed that e. g. the toponyms Sapmi (Sami for Lapland), Suomi (Finnish for Finland), and Häme (Finnish for Tavastia) are of the same origin,^[27] the source of which might be related to the proto-Baltic word *zeme meaning 'land'. Coat of arms of historical province of Tavastia in Finlandpng|right|150px]] Tavastia, Tavastland or Häme, is a historical province in the south of The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic ^[28] How, why, and when these designations started to mean specifically people in Southwestern Finland (Finland Proper, Varsinais-Suomi) and later the whole area of modern Finland is unknown. Finland Proper or Southwest Finland (Varsinais-Suomi Egentliga Finland is a region in south-western Finland.

Among the first written documents possibly designating western Finland as the land of Finns are two rune stones. One of these is in Söderby, Sweden, with the inscription finlont (U 582 †), and the other is in Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, with the inscription finlandi (G 319 M) dating from the 11th century. The Joint Nordic database for runic inscriptions ( Swedish: Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project started on January 1, 1993 at is a county, province and municipality of Sweden and the largest Island in the Baltic Sea. ^[29]

History

A peasant girl and a woman in traditional dress from Ruokolahti, eastern Finland, as depicted by Severin Falkman in 1882

See also: History of Finland

With regard to the ancestry of the Finnish people, the modern view emphasises the overall continuity in Finland's archeological finds ^[30] and (earlier more obvious) linguistic surroundings. Archaeological data suggest the spreading of at least cultural influences from many sources ranging from the south-east to the south-west following gradual developments rather than clear-cut migrations.

The possible mediators and the timelines for the development of the Uralic majority language of the Finns are equally uncertain. On the basis of comparative linguistics, it has been postulated that the separation of the Baltic-Finnic and the Sami languages took place during the 2nd millennium BC, the proto-Uralic roots of the entire language group dating perhaps from about the 6th to the 8th millennium BC. The Baltic-Finnic languages, spoken around the Baltic Sea by about 7 million people are a branch of Finnic languages belonging to the Finno-Ugric group Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Finnic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway When the Uralic or Finno-Ugric languages were first spoken in the area of contemporary Finland is a matter of debate but the current opinion is leaning towards the Stone Age. The Uralic languages (jʊˈrælɨk constitute a language family of 39 Languages spoken by approximately 20 million people ^[31]

Because the Finnish language itself reached a written form only in the 16th century, not much primary data remains of early Finnish life. For example, the origins of such cultural icons as the sauna, the kantele (a harplike instrument), and the Kalevala (national epic) have remained rather obscure. A sauna (ˈsɔːnə or as Finnish) is a small room or house designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions or an establishment with one or more of these and auxiliary Kantele (other names kannel, sormikantele) is a Finnish traditional Plucked string instrument. The Kalevala is a book and epic poem which the Finn Elias Lönnrot compiled from Finnish and Karelian Folklore in the nineteenth

Finland's Swedish speakers descend from peasants and fishermen who settled coastal Finland ca. 1000–1250,^[32] from the subsequent immigration during Swedish sovereignty over Finland,^[33] and from Finns and immigrants who adopted the Swedish language. ^[34]

Subdivisions

See also: Finnish language#Dialects

Finns are traditionally assumed to originate from two different populations speaking different dialects of Proto-Finnish (kantasuomi). Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside Thus, a division into West Finnish and East Finnish is made. Further, there are subgroups, traditionally called heimo,^[35][36] according to dialects and local culture. Although ostensibly based on late Iron Age settlement patterns, the heimos have been constructed according to dialect during the rise of nationalism in the 19th century. The Fennomans were the most important political movement in the 19th century Grand Duchy of Finland. A comparable concept is the Twelve Tribes of Israel. See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel.

• Western^[37]
  • Häme: Tavastians or Häme people (hämäläiset)
  • Ostrobothnia: Ostrobothnians (pohjalaiset); Southern Ostrobothnians (eteläpohjalaiset) have a particularly distinct identity and dialect
  • Southwestern Finland: varsinaissuomalaiset
  • Västerbotten, Sweden: speakers of Meänkieli, a Far Northern dialect of Finnish

• Eastern
  • Ingria: Ingrian Finns (inkerinsuomalaiset)
  • Karelia: Karelian Finns (karjalaiset); Karelian dialects of Finnish are distinct from the Karelian language spoken in Russia, and most of Northern Karelia actually speak Savonian dialects
  • Savo: Savonians (savolaiset), speak the Savo dialect

• Emigrants
  • Forest Finns (Metsäsuomalaiset) of Sweden
  • Finnish immigrants to Sweden (ruotsinsuomalaiset)
  • Kvens (kveenit) of Finnmark, Norway
  • Other emigrant Finns (ulkosuomalaiset)

• Swedish-speakers also have several dialectal subdivisions. Meänkieli (lit "our language" is a Finno-Ugric language spoken in the most northern parts of Sweden around the valley of the Torne River. The Ingrian Finns (inkeriläinen or inkerinsuomalainen were the Finnish rural Peasant population of Ingria (now the central Karelian is a language closely related to Finnish, with which it is not necessarily Mutually intelligible. The Savonian dialects are forms of Finnish language spoken in Savonia and other parts of Eastern Finland. The Savonian dialects are forms of Finnish language spoken in Savonia and other parts of Eastern Finland. Forest Finns ( Norwegian: Skogfinner, Swedish: Skogsfinnar, Finnish: Metsäsuomalaiset) are people of Finnish Kvens ( kveeni in Kven language / Finnish; kvener in Norwegian, and láddelažžat in Northern Sami

The historical provinces of Finland and Sweden can be seen to approximate some of these divisions. The historical provinces (historialliset maakunnat singular historiallinen maakunta, historiska landskap of Finland is a legacy of the country's joint history with The provinces of Sweden, Landskap, are historical geographical and cultural regions The regions of Finland, another remnant of a past governing system, can be seen to reflect a further manifestation of a local identity. Finland is divided into 20 regions ( maakunta in Finnish, landskap in Swedish)

Today's (urbanized) Finns are not usually aware of the concept of 'heimo' nor do they typically identify with one, although the use of dialects has experienced a recent revival. Urbanized Finns do not necessarily know a particular dialect and tend to use standard Finnish or city slang but they may switch to a dialect when visiting their native area.

Genetics

Recently, mitochondrial (female lineage) and Y-chromosomal (male lineage) DNA-markers have been started to use in tracing back the history of human populations. Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA) is the DNA located in Organelles called mitochondria. In Human genetics, a Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup is a Haplogroup defined by differences in the non- recombining portions of DNA from the As for the paternal and maternal genetic lineages of Finnish people and other peoples, see, e. g. , the National Geographic Genographic Project and the Suomi DNA-projekti.

In essence, the types of mtDNA markers of Finnish people do not differ from those of other European ethnicities. ^[38] Haplogroup U5, for example, estimated to be the oldest mtDNA haplogroup in Europe and found in the whole of Europe at a low frequency, seems to be found in significantly higher levels among Finns, Estonians and the Sami. In Human genetics, Haplogroup U is a human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA haplogroup, a group of people who descend from a woman in the Haplogroup R (mtDNA Estonians ( Estonian: eestlased, previously maarahvas) are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting primarily the country ^[39]

With regard to the Y-chromosome, besides the markers found in other European populations, the haplotype N3 appears in Finland at clearly higher frequencies than in most other European populations. Haplotype N3 is a subgroup of the haplogroup N (Y-DNA) distributed across northern Eurasia and estimated in a recent study to be 10,000–20,000 years old and suggested to have entered Europe about 12,000–14,000 years ago from Asia. In Human genetics, Haplogroup N (M231 is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. ^[40]

According to an earlier study conducted by four scientists, including Cavalli-Sforza LL:

Principal coordinate analysis shows that Lapps/Sami are almost exactly intermediate between people located geographically near the Ural mountains and speaking Uralic languages, and central and northern Europeans. The Sami people are the Indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway Hungarians and Finns are definitely closer to Europeans. Hungarians (or Magyars, magyarok are an Ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. The European peoples are the various Nations and Ethnic groups of Europe. An analysis of genetic admixture between Uralic and European ancestors shows that Lapps/Sami are slightly more than 50% European, Hungarians are 87% European, and Finns are 90% European. The Sami people are the Indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway There is basic agreement between these conclusions and historical data on Hungary. Less is known about Finns and very little about Lapps/Sami. The Sami people are the Indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway ^[41]

According to recent autosomal (genomewide, 10,000 markers instead of few looked at Y-DNA and MtDNA-studies) give distinct picture of Finnish genes. Finns are a genetic isolate. It could be said that all other Europeans have Finnish genes but Finns don't have all the genes found in other Europeans. Finns show very little if any Mediterranean and African genes but on the other hand almost 10% Finnish genes seem to be shared with some Siberian populations. Nevertheless more than 80% of Finnish genes are from single ancient North-European population, while most Europeans are admixture of 3 or more principal components. ^[42]

Genetics of the Swedish-speaking Finns

A few studies have shown that Swedish-speaking Finns, as a whole, today share affinities in their genetic make up more with other Finns and less with Swedes. ^[43][44] Previously, it was thought that existence of the haplogroup I1a on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia reflected a direct spread of this marker from one side to the other but a recent study shows that the I1a on the western side of the Gulf of Bothnia and that on the eastern side have different histories. The same paper reports "a lack of association between the Western Finns and Swedes in SAMOVA analysis" and states that "the presence of the haplogroup in Finland and Karelia is not merely due to Swedish influence. "^[45] Even today, there are, however, some people who believe that Swedish-speaking Finns as a whole are genetically or culturally more similar to Swedes than to Finns, and these views were widespread in the 19th century when scientists confused the concepts of language and genetics (called "race" at the time). ^[46]

Theories of the origin of Finns

In the 19th century, the Finnish researcher Matthias Castrén prevailed with the theory that "the original home of Finns" was in west-central Siberia. Matthias Alexander Castrén ( December 2 1813 - May 7 1853) was a Finnish Ethnologist and Philologist. Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving ^[47] Later, the theory of an ancient homeland of all Finno-Ugric speaking peoples situated in a region between the Volga and Kama rivers in the European part of Russia appeared more credible. Kama (река́ Ка́ма is a major river in Russia, the longest left tributary of the Volga and the largest one in discharge in fact it is larger than Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Until the 1970s, most linguists believed Finns to have arrived in Finland as late as the first centuries AD. Accumulating archaeological data, however, suggested that the area of contemporary Finland had been inhabited continuously from the ice-age onwards contrary to the earlier idea that the area had experienced long uninhabited intervals. One conclusion was that the ancestors of the Finns arrived in their present territory thousands of years ago, perhaps in many successive waves of immigration. During this immigration, the possible linguistic and cultural ancestors of the hunting-gathering Sami were pushed into the more remote northern regions. A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild Foraging and Hunting The Sami people are the Indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway ^[48]

Kalevi Wiik, a professor emeritus of phonetics at the University of Turku, postulated a controversial theory in the 1990s. Kalevi Wiik is a Professor emeritus of Phonetics at the University of Turku, Finland. Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech According to Wiik, the ancestors of the Finns lived during the Ice Age in one of three habitable areas of southern Europe, so-called refugia, the two other habitable areas being the homes of the Indo-European and Basque languages. An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the Temperature of the Earth 's surface and atmosphere resulting in an expansion of continental Ice sheets Basque ( native name: euskara) is the Language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain According to this theory, Finno-Ugric speakers spread to the north as the ice melted. They populated central and northern Europe, while Basque speakers populated western Europe. Central Europe is the Region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Northern Europe is a term for the northern part of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as (Finland The Basques (Euskaldunak are a people who inhabit a region spanning over parts of north-central Spain and southwestern France. Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' As agriculture spread from the south-west into Europe, the Indo-European languages spread among the hunter-gatherers. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture In this process, both the hunter-gatherers speaking Finno-Ugric and those speaking Basque learned how to cultivate land and became Indo-Europeanized. According to Wiik, this is how the Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, and Baltic languages were formed. The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Due to their isolated location, the linguistic ancestors of modern Finns did not switch their language. ^[49] Wiik's theory, the main supporters of which are Ago Künnap, Kyösti Julku and Angela Marcanio, has attrated strong criticism from other scholars. Especially Raimo Anttila, Petri Kallio and brothers Ante and Aslak Aikio have renounced Wiik's theory with strong words, even hinting on right-wing tendencies among Wiik's supporters. ^[50][48] The most heated debate took place in the Finnish journal Kaltio during autumn 2002. See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Since then, the debate has calmed, each side retaining their positions. ^[51]

See also

• Finnic (disambiguation)
• Finnish (disambiguation)
• Finnish Americans
• Finnish immigration to North America
• List of Finns
• Mandatory Swedish
• Swedish-speaking Finns

References

External links

• FTDNA Finland Geographic DNA Project
• The Finnish Heritage Museum of Fairport Harbor, Ohio, USA
• Folktinget
• Åbo Akademi