Meänkieli

== English == === Alternative forms === Mean Kieli === Etymology === From the native Meänkieli term meänkieli, from meän kieli (“our language”). === Pronunciation === === Proper noun === Meänkieli A language spoken by some 40,000–70,000 people mainly in Northern Sweden. It is a variant of Finnish with a structure and grammar similar to Finnish, but the vocabulary considerably influenced by Swedish. Synonyms: North Finnish, Torne Valley Finnish, Tornedalen, Tornedalen Finnish, (see usage notes) Tornedalsfinska ==== Usage notes ==== There seems to be no final agreement on what the language should be called in English: in addition to Meänkieli, the forms Torne Valley Finnish, Tornedalen Finnish, Tornedalen, Tornedalsfinska, and North Finnish are encountered. The ISO 639-3 standard uses Tornedalen Finnish and Finnish, Tornedalen. The speakers of Meänkieli themselves would not want to accept anything with Finnish or -finska in it, because they consider their language distinct from Finnish, even if the languages are largely mutually intelligible. North Finnish is misleading, because it is also used to refer to all northern variants of Finnish as a group. Tornedalen is not ideal either because it is the Swedish name for the Torne river valley, and geographical names are not normally used directly as names of languages in English. ==== Translations ==== === See also === Wiktionary’s coverage of Meänkieli terms === Further reading === Ethnologue entry for Meänkieli, fit ⁠ === Anagrams === animelike, Mainelike