| Kven | |
|---|---|
| Ruija dialects | |
| kvääni, kainu | |
| Native to | Norway |
| Ethnicity | Kven people |
Native speakers | 2,000–8,000 (2005?)[1] |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Kven language board |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | fkv |
| Glottolog | kven1236 |
| ELP | Kven Finnish |
 | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Kven (kvääni;kainu;[2]Finnish:kveeni;Norwegian:kvensk) is aFinnic language spoken in the northernmost parts ofNorway by theKven people. It is closely related toMeänkieli, spoken inTorne Valley inSweden, and to thePeräpohjola dialects ofFinnish. The status of Kven as a distinct language versus a dialect of Finnish has been debated. In 2005, Kven received the status of a minority language in Norway under theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.[3][4]
There are about 1,500 to 10,000 known native speakers, most of whom are over the age of 60. Middle-aged speakers tend to have a passing knowledge of the language. They use it occasionally, but not frequently enough to keep it off the endangered list. People under the age of 30 rarely speak or know the language. However, children in the community ofBørselv can learn Kven in their primary schools.[5]
The termKven first appeared inOhthere's tales from the 800s, along with the termsFinn andNorwegian. The area that the Kvens lived in was calledKvenland, which possibly referred to the flat areas of theBay of Bothnia.[citation needed]
InNorthern Norway, a small number of Kvens appear in the tax registers in the late 16th century. The Kven population increased in Norway between the 17th and 19th centuries due to migrations from northern parts ofSweden andFinland. By 1875, Kvens made up a quarter of the population in Finnmark and 8% in Troms. In the town ofVadsø (Vesisaari), Kvens accounted for nearly 60% of the population in 1870.[6]
Until the mid-19th century, the Norwegian authorities generally held positive attitudes toward linguistic minorities, such as Kvens and theSámi. However, from the 1850s onward, a policy ofNorwegianization was implemented. Schools discouraged or banned the use of Kven (Finnish) andSámi, andNorwegian was enforced as the sole language of instruction and administration.[7]: 80–84 Because of fears ofFinnish expansion into Norway, the Kvens were seen as a threat to Norwegian society and the attempt to assimilate them was much stronger than with the Sámi people.[8]
Revitalization efforts started in the 1970s. As the Kven community continued to grow and develop a long standing culture, the nameKvens was readopted.[9] In 1992, theEuropean Charter for Regional and Minority Languages was enacted to protect regional and minority languages. It included Kven as a minority language; however, it was only protected under Part II. The Norwegian Kven Association deemed it important that the language be moved to Part III to obtain a stronger protection.[10][11] In 2005, Kven received the status of a minority language in Norway.[4]
TheNorwegian Kven Organization was established in 1987. The organization currently (2024) has over 1200 members and about fifteen local branches.[12][13] The members report to the government about the history and rights of the Kven people. The members also try and highlight Kven news by advancing Kven media coverage. The organization has also been pushing the Norwegian government to establish a state secretary for Kven issues. Moving the language of Kven into kindergarten classrooms, as well as all other education levels is also a forefront issue that the organization is aiming to tackle.[13]
Since 2006, it has been possible to study the Kven culture and language at theUniversity of Tromsø,[14] and in 2007 theKven language board was formed at theKven institute, a national centre for Kven language and culture inBørselv,Norway. The council developed a written standard Kven language, using Finnish orthography to maintain inter-Finnish language understanding.[15] The grammar, written in Kven, was published in 2014.[16] A Norwegian translation published in 2017 is freely available.[17]
Today, most speakers of Kven are found in two places in Norway:Storfjord Municipality andPorsanger Municipality. A few speakers can be found other places, such asBugøynes,Neiden,Vestre Jakobselv,Vadsø, andNordreisa.[citation needed]
In northeastern Norway, mainly aroundVaranger Fjord, the spoken language is quite similar to standardFinnish, whereas the Kven spoken west ofAlta, due to the area's close ties to the Torne Valley area along the border between Finland and Sweden, is more closely related to theMeänkieli spoken there.[citation needed]
In government report from 2005, the number of people speaking Kven in Norway is estimated to be between 2,000 and 8,000, depending on the criteria used, though few young people speak it, which is a major obstacle to itssurvival.[1]
Thephonology of Kven is similar tothat of Finnish. However, Kven and Finnish diverge in the phonemic realization of some words. While Standard Finnish has been replacing/ð/ with/d/, it is retained in Kven. For instance, the wordsyöđä ('to eat') in Kven issyödä in Finnish. In addition, due to loanwords, the sound/ʃ/ is much more common in Kven than in Finnish: for example, Kvenprošekti ('project'), compared to Finnishprojekti.[18]
Kven has 16vowels, if one includesvowel length:
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded | |
| Close | iiː | yyː | uuː | |
| Mid | eeː | øøː | ooː | |
| Open | ææː | ɑɑː | ||
In writing, the vowel length is indicated by doubling the letter; e.g.,⟨yy⟩/yː/ and⟨öö⟩/øː/.
Thegraphemes representing/ø/,/æ/ and/ɑ/ are⟨ö⟩,⟨ä⟩ and⟨a⟩, respectively.
The letterĐ, which is not used in standard Finnish, is used in Kven texts as of March 2025 by theNorwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (e.g.Omavalmhiuđen tarkistuslista),[19]NRK (e.g.Pienemät piđotHortenissa),[20] and Kainun Institutti (e.g.Sillä heiđän kieli oon muuttunu omhaan laihiin.).[21]
Kven has 14consonants found in nativevocabulary, and 4 consonants found inloanwords:
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||||
| voiced | (b) | (d) | (ɡ) | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | (ʃ⟨š⟩) | h | |||
| voiced | ð⟨đ⟩ | |||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Approximant | ʋ⟨v⟩ | l | j | |||||
/b,d,ɡ,ʃ/ are only found in loanwords.
/ŋ/ is represented in writing by⟨n⟩ if followed by/k/, and⟨ng⟩ if geminated; i.e.,⟨nk⟩/ŋk/ and⟨ng⟩/ŋː/.
Gemination is indicated in writing by doubling the letter; e.g.,⟨mm⟩ for/mː/ and⟨ll⟩ for/lː/.
Just like in Finnish, Kven has many noun cases. In Kven, the third person plural verb ending uses the passive form.
| case | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nom. | ruoka | ruovat |
| gen. | ruovan | ruokkiin |
| par. | ruokkaa | ruokkii |
| ine. | ruovassa | ruokissa |
| ill. | ruokhaan | ruokhiin |
| ela. | ruovasta | ruokista |
| ade. | ruovala | ruokila |
| abe. | ruovatta | ruokitta |
| all. | ruovale | ruokile |
| abl. | ruovalta | ruokilta |
| ess. | ruokana | ruokina |
| tra. | ruovaksi | ruokiksi |
| com. | ruokine | ruokine |
The letterh is also very common in Kven; there are rules on where it is used.
| Majuscule forms (also calleduppercase orcapital letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | V | Y | Ä | Ö | Đ | |||||
| Minuscule forms (also calledlowercase orsmall letters) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | v | y | ä | ö | đ | |||||
24 letters are known to be used in native Kven words, with some additional letters used when using words from other languages like Norwegian andEnglish (including C, W, andÅ).[19][20][21] Words taken directly from Norwegian (For instance titles) retain the Norwegian use ofÆ andØ, instead of turning them into Ä and Ö.
According to Katriina Pedersen, most differences with Kven and Standard Finnish are in vocabulary, for example Finnishauto 'car', in Kven ispiili (from Norwegianbil).[8]
| Kven[24] | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
Tromssan fylkinkomuuni oon saanu valmhiiksi mailman ensimäisen kainun kielen ja kulttuurin plaanan. Se oon seppä tekemhään plaanoi. Heilä oon esimerkiksi biblioteekkiplaana, transporttiplaana ja fyysisen aktiviteetin plaana. | Tromssan läänikunta on saanut valmiiksi maailman ensimmäisen kveenin kielen ja kulttuurin suunnitelman. Se on taitava tekemään suunnitelmia. Heillä on esimerkiksi kirjastosuunnitelma, liikennesuunnitelma ja fyysisten aktiviteettien suunnitelma. | Tromsø's county municipality has prepared the first Kven language and culture plan. They are skilled at making plans. They have for example a library plan, transport plan and physical activity plan. |
In the above sample, some Kven terms are shared with not only Norwegian, but alsoSwedish (e.g.biblioteek (bibliotek),transport,kommuun (kommun), andplaan (plan, as in planning to do something)), giving Finns who learned Swedish at school a slight advantage in understanding Kven speakers, as opposed to the other way around.
The above sample from 2017 predates Ruijan Kaiku's adoption of the letter Đ, and as such the letter does not appear in the sample.
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