Finnish ( Suomi )

Tervetuloa - Welcome

The first written documents in Finnish were created by bishop Mikael Agricola who wrote an ABC book in 1542 and a catechism in 1544. Agricola's writing system was based on Swedish, then the official language of Finland, as well as on German, and Latin. The writing system he devised was revised over time.

Finnish is spoken by about 5 million people in Finland, where it is the official languag. It is officially recognized in Sweden and Norway. It is also spoken in Canada, Estonia, Russia, and USA. The total Finnish-speaking population of all countries is estimated to be around 6 million people (Ethnologue).
There are two main varieties of Finnish:

• Yleiskieli is the formal variety used in church sermons, political speeches, and newscasts. Its written form, kirjakieli is used for most formal writing. Finnish children learn kirjakieli in school.
• Puhekieli is the informal variety used in everyday life and in most informal situations.

The differences between the two varieties are quite significant, as can be seen from these examples:

English	Yleiskieli	Puhekieli
my book	minum kirjani	mun kirja
red	punainen	punanen

Select from the languages below:
Egyptian Arabic	Modern Standard Arabic	Cantonese
Croatian	Czech	Danish
Dutch	English	Finnish
German	Greek	Hindi
Icelandic	Italian	Japanese
Korean	Mandarin	Polish
Portuguese	Russian	Spanish
Swedish	Turkish	Hebrew
Ukrainian	Welsh