Finnish language threatened by degeneration but enriched by neologisms

In future Finnish may become increasingly splintered and simple, in part through new forms of writing

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By Aki Petteri Lehtinen
     
      The Tower of Babel referred to in the Book of Genesis was never completed.
      The massive construction project "with its top in the heavens" ground to a juddering halt when God came down and confounded the builders' languages and scattered the people throughout the earth. The people, broken up into many different language-groups, were no longer able to understand each other.
      Today, the Finnish language is about to meet similar challenges to those in the Old Testament, but this time God is not to be blamed for the problems.
      These days, the common standard language and national culture are being threatened by other languages, particularly by English.
     
The usage of the Finnish language is becoming more narrow in certain branches of science and in some sub-cultures, charges the language policy programme drafted by the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland (KOTUS).
      The programme urges the Finnish state to set up a working group to compile an official language policy programme that would comprehensively recognise the languages used in Finland.
      According to Professor Pirkko Nuolijärvi, the director of KOTUS, the prerequisites for the preservation of the Finnish language in all fields of society include activity from the users of the language as well as policies that support the use of the Finnish language. It is a question of preserving Finnish democracy.
      ”Multilingualism is important in itself, but if the language of a society is not being used in all contexts, with English being the sole language of choice in commerce and science, the situation easily leads to inequality and to the emergence of certain inner circles."
     
Nuolijärvi’s political perspective on the fate of Finland expands to a global dimension in the mind of Professor Janne Saarikivi, a specialist in Finno-Ugric language research.
      ”The world is already now facing huge inequality, as many people can speak English - the dominant language - as their mother tongue”, Saarikivi notes.
      In addition to equality, national identity is at stake, as culture is organically intertwined with language. Saarikivi also brings up creativity.
      ”Language is the medium for thinking, while various languages have highly different associative relationships. If we only use English, part of the potential associations of thoughts are basically ruled out”, Saarikivi continues.
     
As an example of the state of play, Professor Saarikivi mentions that the hugely successful Finnish company Nokia has adopted English as its official operating language, and that the Finnish media continuously laments the poor [English] language skills of some Finnish politicians.
      ”Within the European Union they would have the right to use Finnish all the time if they so wish, but this privilege is not regarded as important in our 'colonial consciousness'. Even the Academy of Finland generally ranks English-language publications higher than the Finnish ones”, Saarikivi claims.
      Actually, Europeans speak only three languages, Saarikivi argues: Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages.
      ”In structure and lexis, Finnish differs from these languages in quite fundamental fashion, which would actually offer unique possibilities for cultural and even economic creativity”, notes Saarikivi.
     
What kind of linguistic developments could one expect to see in the Finnish language in the future?
      According to Janne Saarikivi, some individual concepts could be borrowed from the minority languages into Finnish in the future.
      Even local argots and sub-languages reminiscent of slang could emerge, but the influence of minority languages on standard Finnish is likely to remain small.
      The best parts of a minority language can be introduced to the standard language in the same way as certain Finnish culture products - such as Tove Jansson's Moomins, metal band Nightwish, and Aki Kaurismäki’s films - have become known worldwide.
     
Saarikivi believes that the texts written these days in poor-quality Finnish and published in newspapers, magazines, and books are having the greatest influence on the standard Finnish language.
      ”In any case, the ideal of good standard Finnish is being degenerated as the language police are not able to intervene in the texts posted on the Internet”, Saarikivi charges.
      Doubtless this is not a specifically Finnish complaint: the erosion and simplification of language through SMS abbreviations and acronyms is a universal grumble among language purists.
      Unlike France, Finland does not have any regulator of standard Finnish, as the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland (KOTUS) can only provide recommendations.
     
Salli Kankaanpää, the director of the Language Office at the Research Institute of the Languages of Finland, predicts that in the future more and more new text varieties will emerge even in the written form of Finnish - largely through the influence of the Internet.
      In her opinion, the simpler vocabulary of the spoken language as well as other features characteristic of colloquial speech have already surfaced even in traditional newspaper texts.
      Yeah, right. I guess.
      In any case, the Finnish language may get influences not only from English, Swedish, and Russian, but also from Somali, Arabic, and - through business contacts - even from Asian languages.
      ”For example, Italian words have been adopted into Finnish through culinary culture. Regardless of all the borrowed words slipping in, it is not on the cards that standard Finnish could somehow cease to exist", believes Kankaanpää.
     
Besides, foreign influences are no novelty in the Finnish language, and it is a falsehood to claim such.
      In fact, the Finnish vocabulary has been enriched by neologisms borrowed from foreign languages for thousands of years, ever since the early Finnish language started to gain recognition.
      Among the words which have been regarded as entirely Finnish there are plenty of examples to prove the point: äiti (”mother”) is actually of Germanic origin, while vesi (”water”) is a loan from early Indo-European languages.
     
The standard Finnish language has been gradually evolving since the 16th century when Mikael Agricola (1507-1557), the father of the Finnish written language and orthography, wrote books in a language that was based on the western dialects of Finnish.
      Agricola also single-handedly coined many new Finnish words in his translation work (which included the New Testament, hymns, and the Mass), and later on many words from other dialects were also absorbed into the written Finnish language.
      Salli Kankaanpää says that the means of Finnish-language maintenance will have to be used even in the future and the standard Finnish will have to be taught in order that Finns do not cease to understand each other, when the number of variations of Finnish continues to grow.
     
At the same time, author and dramatist Kari Hotakainen is approaching the future of the Finnish language from the perspective of his work. He believes that it is better to write in standard Finnish than to try to reach the special features of the colloquial language at any given time.
      Hotakainen says that if one starts to ponder whether or not he or she has managed to keep up with the times, one soon gets stuck, as the teens are always ahead of one’s time.
      In general, for example a play that has been written in the standard language does not become dated so easily, Hotakainen believes.
      On the other hand, naturally William Shakespeare’s main themes of envy, power, revenge, love, and death have not lost their significance in the 400 years since the Bard was writing.
      ”The language changes but the thoughts remain”, Hotakainen notes.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.8.2009


Links:
  Mikael Agricola (Wikipedia)
  The Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
  Academy of Finland
  Finnish language (Wikipedia)

AKI PETTERI LEHTINEN / Helsingin Sanomat