Language contact between Finnish and English

In the 2024 book called English in the Nordic Countries: Connections, Tensions, and Everyday Realities, I wrote a chapter called Shifting connections between English and the languages of the Nordic region. The main point of the chapter was to offer information on how language contact with English is nothing new. In fact, the contact between these languages, or what led to these languages, predates even the concepts we now refer to as “English” and “Finnish.” In short, the contact has always been there. It is normal, and it is inevitable. 

The chapter is summarized here in three main points: 1) Periods of contact between what we nowadays call “Finnish” and “English” 2) Outward directed contacts  3) Inward directed contacts

Periods of contact between what we nowadays call “Finnish” and “English” 

Talking about “contact” between English and the Scandinavian languages Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish is a strictly contemporary notion. Why? Because historically speaking, all of these languages emerged from the same group of speakers, speakers of proto-Germanic, up until about 200 BC or so. Human mobility is, of course, as old as humans themselves, so as various groups of proto-Germanic people moved and settled into different areas, the language they spoke naturally, gradually shifted. What we now call “English” ended up eventually spoken by people who settled in the British Isles, Dutch became the language of people who lived in the Lowlands, and the Scandinavian languages, known as “North Germanic” languages in linguistics terminology, emerged from people who settled in the Nordic countries. These different languages emerged under different circumstances and according to differing timelines, with the end result of what we see (and hear) today.

Finnish is not a North German language, of course, it is a Finno-Ugric language. It is important to point out, however, that speakers of Proto-Finnic were living and moving around in adjacent spaces to speakers of Proto-Germanic, so naturally their languages influenced each other during a span of time some 2000+ years ago. Did you know that there are hundreds of loan words from Proto-Germanic that overlap with Proto-Finnic? (For a full list, refer to the work of Kallio 2012.) These facts point to a couple of critical observations: 

1) There is no true “origin” of any language, as language has always been and always will be a process. 

2) There is no “pure” and unadulterated form of any language, as language contact has been and always will be the norm. To state otherwise is simply against the laws of human language processes. 

Outward directed contacts 

According to the chapter, we can consider contacts between English and Finnish according to two major dimensions: outward oriented, meaning away from Finland, and inward oriented, meaning into Finland. 

Most Finnish people are already aware that between about 1870 and 1920, hundreds of thousands of Finns, around 390,000, migrated to North America and other locations around the world. In some ways the mass migration from Finland was different from the other Nordic countries, and in some ways it was the same. For example, like the other Nordic countries, the biggest reason to leave was economic, with other intertwining factors such as geopolitics. Compared the other Nordic countries, however, the Finnish mass migration was relatively late and also distinguished by the fact that it dominated by men. Many of these men, in fact, ended up returning to Finland after they had managed to make some money.  

All of this is by way of demonstrating that language contact between Finnish and English was certainly the norm when Finnish people migrated to North America. There is ample evidence of Anglicized Finnish spoken among the Finnish American communities in the United States and Canada, with some words, such as sisu, still prevalent in the English used by Finnish Americans today. It stands to reason that the returning Finnish workers, when they migrated back to Finland, brought back English words with them, especially those relating to their working and social conditions in the United States (e.g., terms like dollars and certain swear words).  

It is interesting to point out that for many Finnish people, the mixing of English and Finnish in North America seems to be something positively viewed, seen as a natural consequence of the lifestyle and circumstances; “Finglish” in the United States seems to be observed as a quaint and curious, even humorous phenomenon. The same cannot be said of “Finglish” in the context of Finland in the current era, where negative attitudes abound among the population. This contrast has its roots in language attitudes and ideologies, which does not make it any less real or common sense to many Finnish people.  

Inward directed contacts 

Mass migration from Finland to North America has slowed to a trickle, especially when it comes to permanent North American long-term residency or citizenship (as opposed to shorter term visits).  

The cessation of this outward movement from Finland has been followed by enormous changes in how the English language is used in the world, and by whom. English has become the most important lingua franca and most used language in the world, meaning that the majority of its users do not speak English as a first language (that is, as a mother tongue). The breadth and sheer magnitude of English language used by people around the world today is, quite simply, unprecedented. Not only is it used in all kinds of face-to-face situations, but its enormous increase in use coincides with massive changes in the digital world and technology.  

What this means for language contact between Finnish and English, in the current era, is that the languages come into contact through people who use English as a lingua franca, including, in some cases, immigrants and workers who come to Finland. It also means that English is coming into our most intimate spaces in Finland, such as our homes, our personal relationships, into our children’s lives, and into our schools. This is due to such exposure as media, hobbies, entertainment, and so on.  

Having English come into our private sphere in Finland, through multiple means, the way it does today, stands in sharp contrast to language contact of 100+ years ago, when the domestic (Finnish) role of English was minimal.   

What this information points out is that it is not the language contact itself that is new or even alarming, but rather the shape and form of the language contact today. Language contact between Finnish and English predates the languages themselves, but the nature of the contact has changed drastically over the decades, centuries, and millennia due to changing global positions, economics, and innovations.