By Antti & Johannes
Introduction
The growing presence of English in Finnish communication is very apparent on social media. The majority of Finnish social media online forum users belong to the generations born close to or after the millenium shift, meaning people who are currently in their teens up to people who are in their 30s. These are the same generations of Finns that have shown growing English proficiency (Tilastokeskus 2006) . This phenomenon could very well be connected to social media. It could be seen as both a cause and effect of the younger Finnish generations’ use of English. We will be looking at how this phenomenon works in practice.
The site we have decided to analyse is Reddit. Reddit.com is currently one of the most used online discussion forums on the internet. The website is made up of tens of thousands of smaller forums called “subreddits”, covering a limitless number of topics ranging from entertainment to politics and anything in-between. The subreddits that we will be discussing are /r/Suomi and /r/Finland, two of the most popular primarily Finnish forums on Reddit.
/r/Suomi’s use of English
/r/Suomi is the most popular primarily Finnish subreddit on Reddit. The communication on /r/Suomi is supposed to be in Finnish. As one might expect, the main demographic of the forum is Finns in their teens to 30s. However, despite the seemingly very homogeneously Finnish nature of the site, English still has a visible role on /r/Suomi. While it is rarely the main language of communication, English still manages to appear on the site through humor, anglicisms, as well as other avenues.
We want to emphasize that the general level of English proficiency of an average /r/Suomi user is quite good. Most of them fall into the category of Finns who were born in a time when use of social media really started to grow. In addition, many of the users also spend time on other subreddits where English is the main language of communication. An example of the users’ English level can be seen below when a foreigner asked for help on /r/Suomi:
Figure 1
Figure 2
The Finnish commenters here exemplify many traits of a skilled English user: fitting and varied vocabulary (e.g. broker, administered), good grammar and even some colloquialisms (e.g. cheers, deep shit). Granted, the above excerpts are not perfect: there are missing apostrophes, lowercase letters in place of uppercase ones, missing commas, etc. This might however simply be due to how shoddy text chatting generally is, even among native English speakers.
Figure 3
Another example of English use would be a chart used for a topic that was completely in English. The poster’s expectation here being that all (or most) of the users will be able to understand the chart even though it is in English.
The point here being that despite /r/Suomi being a Finnish forum, this does not mean that the users lack English skill. The truth, as seen above, is quite the opposite.
One effect that internet culture has had on the Finnish language is the influx of new English-based words appearing in our discourse. However, what is particular about these new words is that they might only be used by Finns on the internet and not in real life.
Figures 4 & 5
In Figures 4 and 5, we have four examples of English words being “Finnishized”: “ultimaattinen”, “keissi” and “meemit”. The spelling of the words has completely transformed: ultimate has become “ultimaattinen”, case has become “keissi” and meme has become “meemi”. We believe that the reason why these words specifically were used in the context of the above posts was the creation of a humorous effect. However, we think they also allude to another practice by Finns that involves opting for anglicisms – the use of anglicisms in some settings is simply seen as more efficient. “Rare” is a much shorter and to-the-point word than the native Finnish, “harvinainen”. “Ultimaattinen” and “keissi” could well be seen as a funnier or more grandiose lexical choices than native Finnish equivalents such as paras (‘best’) or tapaus (‘case’) respectively. And finally, we do not believe a word like “meme” had a proper translation to Finnish before “meemi”.
It is quite evident that English has a degree of influence on /r/Suomi. Even if most of the communication there is in Finnish, sporadic use of English seems to be very much encouraged with the goal of enriching the discourse. This seems to be the case, no matter whether this be through greater information sharing, more striking word choices or simply to make jokes.
Usage of English in /r/Finland
r/Finland is Finland’s English language subreddit which boasts almost 50k members. The subreddit is used by both Finnish people and foreigners to discuss information about Finland and to ask questions about Finnish society. These topics include tourism, immigration and other topics concerning Finland. The role of English on the subreddit is that of a lingua franca that is used to make communication possible between Finnish and foreign people. The use of Finnish on the subreddit is very rare. This is most likely due to a wish to ensure that the forum is more friendly for foreign users. The main demographic of the forum consists of native Finns and foreigners who have interest in the Finnish society and culture for their own reasons; these interests include, for example, tourism, immigration, studying in Finland or just general interest in Finnish culture. The English used on the subreddit is mainly formal as many posts target to be informative about Finland such as: pictures of Finnish scenery, nature, and landmarks. In addition, formal English is used to ask and answer questions about Finland. English is also used informally in memes which are about Finland.
Figure 6 illustrates an example of informal usage of English on the subreddit and additionally demonstrates how Finnish is used within the discourse.
Figure 6
Figure 6 is a prime example of informal usage of English on the subreddit. The post is a meme that discusses the difficulty of learning Finnish. The post is quite unusual to the subreddit, as it and its replies contain some Finnish words like “vaikea” and “torille”. Additionally, the caption utilizes typical English Internet slang with “something be like”.
Figures 7 & 8
Figure 7 displays the English used in threads where users ask questions about Finland and its culture. The English used in these types of posts is formal and informative to help people find answers to their questions. Figure 8 displays a discussion between native and non-native user about the availability of vegetables in Finland and if there are any Mexican markets in Finland. The English used by both participants is very fluent and clear as it is expected from the demographic of the subreddit which is mainly young adults and older.
Comparison of /r/Suomi and /r/Finland
When comparing the usage of English in the two subreddits chosen for this blogpost, they differ from each other in many ways. First, the subreddits differ from each other in their demographic as one is mainly intended for Finnish speakers only and the other for both natives and foreigners. Second, they differ in their language use as /r/Suomi uses Finnish as its main language when /r/Finland uses English. Even so, both subreddits utilize both Finnish and English although for various purposes. As mentioned before users of /r/Suomi use English to enrich discourse for example to ensure greater information sharing, wittier word choices or simply to crack jokes. On /r/Finland, Finnish has a slightly lesser role than English in /r/Suomi, as it is mainly seen in memes or idioms such as “torille”. Third, the role of English differs between the subreddits as on /r/Suomi it is foreign language used for specific purposes and on /r/Finland it is lingua franca. In addition, users of /r/Suomi utilize translanguaging and hybrid forms of English word stems like “keissi” and “meemi”.
In this blog we have analysed and compared the usage of English on the two biggest Finnish subreddits: /r/Suomi and /r/Finland. The English between the subreddits differed from each other by their purpose of use, role, and variety. Although, English usage varied between the subreddits, the influence and status English has in Finland and especially among social media users was displayed in the fluency of language and in the lack of grammatical errors in discourse. All in all, the amount of presence that English has in Finnish social media settings seems to be ever-growing in the digital age.
Sources:
Suomen virallinen tilasto (SVT): Aikuiskoulutukseen osallistuminen [verkkojulkaisu].
ISSN=2489-6918. Kielitaito, Tietotekniikan Käyttö, Ammattikirjallisuus Ja Koulutusmahdollisuudet 2006, 1. Vieraita kieliä osaa entistä useampi suomalainen . Helsinki: Tilastokeskus [viitattu: 20.5.2020].Saantitapa: http://www.stat.fi/til/aku/2006/03/aku_2006_03_2008-06-03_kat_001_fi.html
English in Finland 