Toponyms of Finland
The
Historical aspects
A few notable place names – such as a few major hydronyms
Jurisdiction regarding languages in Finland
Finland, except for
In bilingual municipalities, the Language Act requires that all toponyms have both a Finnish and a Swedish name.[4] In addition, many monolingually Finnish municipalities have an official Swedish name, and vice versa. The municipalities have the power to decide their own name but they are required to consult with the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland before the official decision.[5]
Conventions
These are the current conventions recommended by the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland. The conventions have also been adopted by the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names:[6]
- Finnish place names are used in the Finnic languages (such as Finnish and Estonian). Swedish place names are used in the North Germanic languages (such as Swedish and Norwegian). Sami place names are used in the different Sami languages around northern Fennoscandia.
- In other languages, if that language doesn’t already have an established toponym for the place (very seldom), the choice between Finnish and Swedish toponyms is based on the demographic situation. Finnish place names are used when handling a municipality where Finnish is the majority language (90% of all municipalities,[7] 93% of the cities[8]). Swedish place naming is used when handling a municipality where Swedish is the majority language. Concerning the Sami Homeland, toponyms are written in Finnish and appended with the Sami place names.
The convention concerning street names and traffic signs maintains that the majority language toponym is presented topmost and place names in the minority languages are listed below.
Possible deviations in the conventions
A few exonyms (in Medieval or Neo-Latin, not in use in Finland or Sweden) exist for Finland’s provincial structures. These include the names of the nine historical provinces (Fi: maakunta, Sw: landskap) that have given names to some of Finland’s current regions (Fi: maakunta, Sw: landskap, altogether 20 as of 1997). These may fall under the category of "already established place names in foreign languages" mentioned in the above recommendations.
The names of the nine historical provinces in Finnish, Swedish and English :
- 1. Varsinais-Suomi fi; Egentliga Finland sv; Finland Properen
- 2. Uusimaa fi, en; Nyland sv
- 3. Satakunta fi, sv, en
- 4. Häme fi; Tavastland sv; Tavastiaen
- 5. Savo fi, en; Savolax sv
- 6. Karjala fi; Karelen sv; Karelia en
- 7. Pohjanmaa fi; Österbotten sv; Ostrobothnia en
- 8. Lappi fi; Lappland sv; Lapland en
- 9. Åland sv, en; Ahvenanmaa fi
Guidelines for naming new places
In urban planning, new names are needed for different places. Suburbs, streets, parks and other areas must be named. In bilingual municipalities, the task is complicated by the need to use two different languages in the toponyms. As all municipalities in the Finnish capital region, which is the most swiftly developing area in Finland, are bilingual, the problem of devising good toponyms is not a small task.
The
The cases where two municipalities are fused together, create a special case for the construction of toponyms. There are two simple cases for the name selection:
- smaller municipalities joining a city: the name of the city should be used
- municipalities which have been chapel parishes joining the municipality which has been the mother parish: the name of the historical mother parish should be used.[10]
In other cases, the toponym should be selected from the historical toponyms of the area. In many cases, there are historical administrative structures that have encompassed the area of the merging municipalities. If such names are unusable, the name of some the most prominent villages in the area should be used. To reduce the possibility of confusion, the new name should not include the name of the province or the region. In no case should the name be made up of two parts, because the use of such name is grammatically difficult in Finnish language. The names of the merger projects or frivolous names should also be avoided at all costs.[10]
If the merging municipalities will form a bilingual municipality, the Finnish name chosen for the municipality should be such that a Swedish counterpart can be found without difficulty. The Swedish name of the new municipality should be devised according to the same principles as in other toponymical planning.[10]
Finnish Grammar
In Finnish grammar, some toponyms receive external locative suffixes, especially those named for bodies of water, as in (river and town Seinäjoki) Seinäjoella (either on river Seinäjoki or in town Seinäjoki. Case of being in or under the river being Seinäjoessa). The rest receive internal locative suffixes, as in Helsingissä (being inflected form of the town, meaning: in Helsinki).[11]
Literature
- Skärgårdsnamn (1989), Zilliacus, Kurt, published by Society of Swedish Literature in Finland
See also
Notes and references
- ^ Article in Finnish Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ page 9
- ^ Zilliacus, Kurt (1989). Skärgårdsnamn (in Swedish). Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland.
- ^ a b Kielilaki (423/2003) 5 §. Retrieved 3-8-2007. (in Finnish)
- ^ Kuntalaki (365/1995) 5 §. Retrieved 3-8-2007. (in Finnish)
- ^ TOPONYMIC GUIDELINES FOR MAP EDITORS AND OTHER EDITORS, FINLAND, (v. 4.2, 28 February 2006) [1]
- ^ 389 out of 431
- ^ 106 out of 114
- ^ Nimistönsuunnittelu i.e. plan for naming. Retrieved 2015 (in Finnish)
- ^ a b c Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus. Yhdistyvien kuntien nimet. Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine 7-12-2006. Retrieved 3-8-2007
- ^ Examples of inflections of location names in Finnish and in Swedish (noted as "ruots.") where applicable(in Finnish)