Meänkieli dialects
Meänkieli (also known as Tornedalian Finnish, meaning "our language") is a Finno-Ugric language spoken in the River Torne valley in the north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle. It is an official minority language of Sweden. The language could be seen as a mix between Finnish and Swedish, since it has been changed a lot by Swedish.
| Meänkieli | |
|---|---|
| meänkieli | |
| Native to | Sweden, Finland |
| Region | Torne Valley |
| Native speakers | 60,000 (1997–2009)e18 |
| Language family | |
| Recognised minority language in |  Sweden |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | fit |
For many years, Swedish was the only language to be taught in the schools of the Torne valley. The population became bilingual. They spoke both Finnish and Swedish, but they were mostly only able to write in Swedish. Today many people in the younger generations only speak Swedish. Since 1999, Meänkieli is an official minority language of Sweden.
Since there are no Swedish statistics of the population's native languages, it is not known how many Meänkieli speakers there are. Taking statistics is also a bit controversial, as many people consider the language to be a dialect of Finnish.
