pinin

The Finns ( Finnish : Suomalaiset, Swedish : Finnar) are a major ethnic group , making up most of Finland's population . In addition to Finland , about 600,000 Finnish Americans live in the United States and nearly 130,000 in Canada . About 160,000 people also live in neighboring Sweden . If we include the Finnish descendants who settled in the Torne Valley, the number of Finnish Swedes is close to 710,000. In Norway , although statistics vary, close to tens of thousands of people live there. The Karelians , the nominal representative ethnic group of the Russian Republic of Karelia , are in fact no better relatives than the Finns . In addition, there are about 50,000 Ingria Finns living in the St. Petersburg area (about 30,000 live in Finland and 20,000 live in Russia). In Norway , about 60,000 Finnish ethnic groups , including the traditional forest Finns and Kven people, reside.

The ethnic name means "hunter-gatherer".

In addition to the Finns, other major ethnic groups in Finland include the Swedish-Finnish people (about 280,000 people) and the Sami people who move freely across the border between Norway-Sweden-Finland-Russia.[1] etc. Together with Finns and other naturalized immigrants in Finland, they constitute the Finnish people as a people of Finland.

For reference, the Baltic Finns, which include Estonians , Karelians , Livonians , Izorans , and Vodians, are also called Finns. However, since Finns are in the position of representing the Finns in the English-speaking world , Finn/Finns refers to Finns, excluding Swedish people and other foreigners. Therefore, when referring to the entire Finnish family, it is better to refer to them as Finnic peoples. This is the same as saying Germans when referring to Germans in English , and Germanic peoples when including Tagermanic peoples such as Anglo-Saxons .

It is also said that in the past, the Norse people called the Sami people, not Finns or Baltic Finns , as Finns (finnr, finnas). Therefore, it seems correct to translate all Finns appearing in literature written in Old Norse as Sami. Of course, it is an old story and outsiders call it that at their own discretion, so it is said that it is considered very inappropriate to call the Sami people Finns even in the 21st century. #

The Finn-Ugrian peoples of Europe, including the Finns, were formed by the intermarriage of the original Ural people who migrated from the Lake Baikal basin to Fennoscandia through central Siberia , the central west, and the northwestern region , and intermarried with various European groups. 4,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers living in the Lena River basin in the current Sakha Republic of Russia began a large - scale westward march through the Altai Mountains and Sayan Mountains to Europe, and in the process, it was revealed that they led the Seima-Turbino phenomenon, a sophisticated Bronze Age culture that spread throughout Eurasia . # After reaching Europe, they mixed with various European ethnic groups and have both European and Asian genomes.

In fact, the genetic characteristics of the Finn-Ugrian people are predominantly N, which occurs in Siberians, rather than I and R, the main paternal haplogroups of Scandinavians. In the case of the paternal Y gene haplogroup, 63.2% of Finns had haplogroup N, but this gene does not appear prominently in Europe except in northern Russia, which was heavily influenced by Finland and the Uralic peoples. As for maternal haplogroups, West Eurasian haplogroups such as U (especially U5) and H are most commonly detected, and haplogroups of native Siberian people such as A, C, Y, and Z are rarely detected. This suggests that intermarriage between Ural men and European women was more common than the other way around.

In addition to these reasons, Finns were sometimes classified as yellow people along with the Turkic people until the end of the 19th century, for reasons such as not using the Indo-European language, which was generally accepted as the 'language of the white people'.

Although they are part of the Nordic Union, they are not of Norseman origin and their languages ​​are very different, so they are not as close as other Nordic countries that are usually grouped together and cooperate. Unlike them, who lived on the same peninsula called Scandinavia, were once in the same country several times, and have the same race, the Finns live outside the peninsula and are of northern Asian descent, so they are somewhat out of the ordinary. Long ago, they were the target of blatant racism as “Asians,” and even now, Nordic racists draw a line with Finns.[2] Instead, it is a bit friendlier with countries such as Estonia and Latvia than with the Nordic countries.

As a side note, in old Scandinavian books, Finns are sometimes described as supernatural beings. In the Saga of Olaf II, there is a story that he led the Vikings and invaded Finland, but lost most of his soldiers before they could properly attack him, and when he tried to retreat by ship, the Finns created a huge storm using magic and almost lost his life, but he survived and returned. there is. Some say that for this reason, the Vikings were afraid of Finland and were reluctant to invade.

The Finns of Finland and the Estonians of Estonia have the same origin. Both ethnic groups belong to the Waltfins . The Waltfins, who were ruled by the Danish and German Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the Middle Ages, became Estonians who were closer to the German cultural sphere , while the Waltfins, who were ruled by Sweden in the Middle Ages , became Finns who were closer to the Scandinavian cultural sphere.[3] Before Swedish rule, the Finns, like other Uralic speaking peoples, believed in the native religion of worshiping bears, but after Erik IX 's Finnish Crusade, they converted to Catholicism, and after the religious reform of Gustav I Vasa, they began to believe in the Lutheran Church like the Swedes .

Unlike the neighboring Sami people , who lived a life of hunting and gathering and reindeer herding, the Finns traditionally engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture until the 19th century. There were many Finnish and Sami soldiers in the Swedish army that participated in the 30 Years' War . According to German records, the Finns were generally slim and had pale complexions, while the Sami were considered quite unusual because they were short, stocky, and had a unique appearance.

National language: Uralic language It is a Finnish language belonging to the Baltic Finnish language group . It is very close to the Karelian language in terms of its ancestry, so it is possible to communicate to some extent with Karelian speakers. Because it is a related language to Estonian , limited communication is possible.

Since Swedish is designated as the official language in Finland, most Finns can speak Swedish, and there is a large population who can speak English, which is closely related to Swedish. Some Russian Finns also speak Russian .

※ Among Finnish people, non-Finnish people are marked with ★.[5]