Finland Languages

Since Finnish was not an official language in Finland until 1863, most records were written in Swedish. To do research in these records, you will need to know some Swedish and Finnish key words and phrases. Also, remember that Orthodox church records were written in Russian until after Finnish independence. Recently the Sami language (Lappish) has also become an official language in Finland.

When you are looking up names or words in Finnish dictionaries or indexes, it is important to know that the Finnish alphabet has three letters that follow the letter z: å, ä, and ö. The letter å does not occur in native Finnish words, but many personal and geographical names of Swedish origin use this letter.

Language Aids
The Family History Library has published the Finnish Genealogical Word List (35815) and the Swedish Genealogical Word List (31028) to help you in your research.

The following language dictionaries can also help you in your research. You can find these and similar material at many research libraries:

Alanne, V. S. Suomalais-englantilainen suursanakirja (Great Finnish-English Dictionary). 3rd ed. Porvoo: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, 1968. (FHL film 1224706 item 3)

Björkman, C. G. Svensk-Engelsk Ordbok (Swedish- English Dictionary). Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt, 1889. (FHL film 1224734 item 1) Swedish spelling was reformed in 1906; therefore, this book includes words as they were spelled prior to 1906.

Ernolv, Carl. Svensk-Engelsk Ordbok (Swedish- English Dictionary). Stockholm: Svenska Bokförlaget Norstedts, 1947. (FHL film 1124531 item 12)

To find other language aids in the Locality Search of the FamilySearch Catalog, look under:


 * FINLAND- LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES - DICTIONARIES


 * SWEDEN- LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES - DICTIONARIES

You may also find language aids in the Subject Search under:


 * FINNISH LANGUAGE- DICTIONARIES - ENGLISH


 * SWEDISH LANGUAGE- DICTIONARIES - ENGLISH