Finnish

Finnish has been spoken since ancient times in Sweden. Moreover, the extensive immigration that took place during the post-war period has made Finnish the second most common mother tongue in our country. In many areas of society, there is therefore a need for people with knowledge of Finnish, for example in schools and medical care, among lawyers, priests, social workers and in the media and in business life. Modern Finnish fiction has begun to gain more attention and within the Finnish-speaking cultural life in Sweden, Swedish-Finnish literature is emerging.

Although Finnish and Swedish do not have the same origin, they show a lot of similarities, as a consequence of the impact that Swedish has had for a long time, when Finland and Sweden were part of the same kingdom. Even before that, Finnish was influenced by Germanic languages. In Finnish, you, therefore, encounter both familiar phenomena and foreign features that make the studies exciting. In these studies, you will be working on both modern Finnish literature and classics such as the national poet Kalevala and Aleksis Kivi, the first great fiction writer in Finnish. In addition, you become acquainted with Finnish society and Finnish history.

Courses at the advanced level are to be found under the heading Finno-Ugric languages.