Scandinavia: Difference between revisions

The geography of Scandinavia is extremely varied. Notable are the [[list of Norwegian fjords|Norwegian fjord]]s, the [[Scandinavian Mountains]] covering much of Norway and parts of Sweden, the flat, low areas in Denmark and the [[archipelago]]s of Finland, Norway and Sweden. Finland and Sweden have many lakes and [[moraine]]s, legacies of the [[Last Glacial Period|ice age]], which ended about ten [[Millennium|millennia]] ago.

The term ''Scandinavia'' (sometimes specified in English as ''Continental Scandinavia'' or ''mainland Scandinavia'') is ordinarily used locally for Denmark, Norway and Sweden as a subset of the Nordic countries (known in Norwegian, [[Danish language|Danish]], and [[Swedish language|Swedish]] as {{lang|sv|Norden}}; {{lang-langx|fi|Pohjoismaat}}, {{lang-langx|is|Norðurlöndin}}, {{lang-langx|fo|Norðurlond}}).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia|title=Scandinavia|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572025/Scandinavia.html|access-date=30 January 2007|date=1997–2007|publisher=[[Microsoft]]|quote=Scandinavia (ancient Scandia), name applied collectively to three countries of northern Europe—Norway, Sweden (which together form the Scandinavian Peninsula) and Denmark.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028073547/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572025/Scandinavia.html|archive-date=28 October 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the ethnic or cultural sense, the term ''Scandinavian'' traditionally refers to [[North Germanic peoples|speakers of Scandinavian languages]], who are mainly descendants of the peoples historically known as [[Norsemen]], but also to some extent of immigrants and others who have been assimilated into that culture and language.{{cn|date=June 2024}} In this sense the term refers primarily to native [[Danes]], [[Norwegians]] and [[Swedes]] as well as descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as the [[Icelanders]] and the [[Faroe Islanders|Faroese]]. The term is also used in this ethnic sense, to refer to the modern descendants of the Norse, in studies of linguistics and culture.<ref name="North Germanic">{{cite book|last=Kennedy|first=Arthur Garfield|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/englishlanguager00leed|chapter-url-access=registration|title=English Language Reader: Introductory Essays and Exercises|publisher=[[Dodd, Mead & Co.|Dodd, Mead]]|year=1963|editor-last=Lee|editor-first=Donald Woodward|editor-link=Donald Woodward Lee|chapter=The Indo-European Language Family|quote=North Germanic, or Scandinavian, or Norse, peoples, as they are variously called, became a distinctive people...|author-link=Arthur Garfield Kennedy}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Spaeth|first=John Duncan Ernst|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013338623|title=Old English Poetry|date=1921|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|quote=The main divisions of Germanic are: 1. East Germanic, including the Goths, both Ostrogoths and Visigoths. 2. North Germanic, including the Scandinavians, Danes, Icelanders, Swedes, "Norsemen." 3. West Germanic. The Old English (Anglo-Saxons) belong to this division, of which the continental representatives are the Teutonic peoples, High and Low Franks and Saxons, Alemanni, etc.|author-link=John Duncan Spaeth}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Stith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLhPAQAAMAAJ|title=Our Heritage of World Literature|date=1995|publisher=Cordon Company|isbn=978-0809310913|quote=The North Germanic, or Scandinavian group, consists of the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, and Icelanders.|author-link=Stith Thompson|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132224/https://books.google.com/books?id=sLhPAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gordon|first1=Eric Valentine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVQKAQAAIAAJ|title=An Introduction to Old Norse|last2=Taylor|first2=A. R.|date=1962|publisher=[[Clarendon Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-811105-4|quote=Norse was the language spoken by the North Germanic peoples (Scandinavians) from the time when Norse first became differentiated from the speech of the other Germanic peoples|author-link1=E. V. Gordon|author-link2=A. R. Taylor|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132232/https://books.google.com/books?id=lVQKAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ränk|first=Gustav|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLvWAAAAMAAJ|title=Old Estonia, The People and Culture|date=1976|publisher=[[Indiana University]]|isbn=9780877501909|quote=Contacts are not impossible also with the Northern Germanic peoples, i.e., with the Scandinavians directly across the sea...|author-link=Gustav Ränk|access-date=23 April 2023|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423142202/https://books.google.com/books?id=tLvWAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Barbour|first1=Stephen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFr2IjGftNMC|title=Variation in German: A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics|last2=Stevenson|first2=Patrick|date=1990|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0521357043|quote=For the period when the existence of the Germanic tribes is first clearly recorded by Roman writers, archaeological evidence suggests five tribal groups, with perhaps five incipient distinct Germanic languages, as follows: (1) North Germanic tribes (Scandinavians)...|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132240/https://books.google.com/books?id=BFr2IjGftNMC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Diringer|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFdiAAAAMAAJ|title=The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind|date=1948|publisher=[[Philosophical Library]]|quote="Old Norse" was spoken by the North Germanic or Scandinavian peoples|author-link=David Diringer}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bolling|first1=George Melville|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7QoAQAAIAAJ|title=Language|last2=Bloch|first2=Bernard|date=1968|publisher=[[Linguistic Society of America]]|quote=Northern Germanic peoples, i.e. the Scandinavians...|author-link1=George Bolling|author-link2=Bernard Bloch (linguist)|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132223/https://books.google.com/books?id=y7QoAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Gwyn|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofvikings00jone_0|url-access=registration|title=A History of the Vikings|date=2001|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0192801340|quote=North Germanic (Scandinavian) peoples...|author-link=Gwyn Jones (author)}}.</ref>

The Scandinavian languages are (as a language family) unrelated to Finnish and the [[Sámi languages]], which as [[Uralic languages]] are distantly related each other. Owing to the close proximity, there is still a great deal of borrowing from the Swedish and Norwegian languages in Finnish and the Sámi.<ref name="Sapmi" /> The long history of linguistic influence of Swedish on Finnish is also due to the fact that that Swedish was the dominant language when Finland was part of Sweden. Finnish-speakers had to learn Swedish in order to advance to higher positions.<ref>{{cite book| author = Suzanne Romaine| title = Bilingualism| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zp5xiFa_TXQC| year = 1995| publisher = Wiley-Blackwell| isbn = 978-0-631-19539-9| page = 323| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132203/https://books.google.com/books?id=zp5xiFa_TXQC| url-status = live}}</ref> Swedish spoken in today's Finland includes a lot of words that are borrowed from Finnish, whereas the written language remains closer to that of Sweden.

Finland is officially bilingual, with Finnish and Swedish having mostly the same status at national level. Finland's majority population are [[Finns]], whose mother tongue is either Finnish (approximately 95%), Swedish or both. The Swedish-speakers live mainly on the coastline starting from approximately the city of [[Porvoo]] (Sw: Borgå) (in the Gulf of Finland) up to the city of [[Kokkola]] (Sw: Karleby) (in the Bay of Bothnia).{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} The Swedish-speaking population is spread out in pockets in this coastal stretch and constitutes approximately 5% of the Finnish population.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Population and Society |url=https://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223155742/http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html |archive-date=23 December 2020 |access-date=18 June 2022 |website=www.stat.fi}}</ref> The coastal province of [[Ostrobothnia (region)|Ostrobothnia]] has a Swedish-speaking majority, whereas plenty of areas on this coastline are nearly unilingually Finnish, like the region of [[Satakunta]].{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} Åland, an autonomous province of Finland situated in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, are entirely Swedish-speaking. Children are taught the other official language at school: for Swedish-speakers this is Finnish (usually from the 3rd grade), while for Finnish-speakers it is Swedish (usually from the 3rd, 5th or 7th grade).{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}<ref>{{Cite web|last=Institute|first=Mercator|date=5 November 2020|title=The Swedish language in education in Finland|url=https://www.mercator-research.eu/fileadmin/mercator/documents/regional_dossiers/swedish_in_finland_2nd.pdf|access-date=5 November 2020|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414152840/https://www.mercator-research.eu/fileadmin/mercator/documents/regional_dossiers/swedish_in_finland_2nd.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>