Finlandssvenska or Finnish Swedish is a version of Swedish that exists in Finland. There are people in Finland who have Swedish as their modersmål (which means a native language or their first language). They speak “finlandssvenska” (Finnish Swedish) and they are called “finlandssvenskar” (Finnish Swedes).
📍 Finnish Swedish is mostly spread in the regions close to cities Vaasa and Helsinki. The whole Åland archipelago is Swedish-speaking. There are several dialects in finlandssvenska.
🎶 The most difference from rikssvenska (standard Swedish) can be usually heard in such sounds as sj and tj. Finnish Swedish usually don’t take into account such letter combinations as rs (första, ursäkta) and sk in front of soft vowels (kanske).
🌶 Finlandssvenska appeared because for a rather long time (from 1300s to 1809) Finland was a part of Sweden. Then, after a while Finland became an independent country, but there was anyway a part of its population, which was Swedish speaking. That’s why Finland has two official languages – Finnish and Swedish.
🏤 As Swedish one of the two official languages in Finland, the announcements and signs in Helsinki are usually dubbed in Swedish, even street names are in Finnish and Swedish. It is very convenient for a Swedish speaking people like me. But that is also a reason why I have been to Helsinki several times but still know just three words in Finnish – ravintola 🍴 (a restaurant), tieto 📕 (information) and lentoasema ✈ (an airport). And I can usually understand opening hours in the stores and cafés in Helsinki (They are usually in Finnish).
🎧 Finnish Swedish sounds very different from Swedish in Sweden. There is a difference in sounds, intonations and even in how fast we speak. I always feel like Finnish Swedish is a bit faster.
📽 There are some Finnish Swedish vloggers on YouTube:
1) Cat Cad
2) Gääbi Grön
I will put screenshots in the carousel.👆🏻
✨ I think you’ve heard about a famous Finnish Swedish writer – Tove Jansson. She wrote a book about Moomin (“Mumin” in Swedish).