Erdélyi kutatóként méenkieli nyelvrokonaink földjén
Transylvanian-Hungarian Researcher on the Land of Meänkieli Speakers

Summary/Abstract: In this study, I have presented a Finno-Ugric linguistic minority quite unknown in the world. These people, living in Northern Sweden are usually called Tornedalian Finns in the international literature. The Tornedalian Finns were separated from Finland in 1809, when Sweden lost the territory of Finland in the favour of Russia after the “War of Finland”. The border was drawn alongside the Tornio, the Muonio and the Könkämä Rivers, dividing a linguistically and culturally homogenous territory into two parts. Since then the Tornedalian Finns have become the victims of a strong assimilation politicy. Their linguistic emancipation started in the 1980s. Their language, they call Meänkieli (’our language’), has been a minority language ofi cially acknowledged in Sweden since 1999. The very same language is spoken in Northern Finland, too, on the Eastern bank of the Tornio River, but in Finland it is not considered to be an independent language. Although an important development of the Meänkieli culture has taken place during the last few decades, the language is a seriously stigmatized and endangered language nowadays, as well.

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