Finnish
Due to the
history of Finland and its neighbours, and the relatively small number of Finns, the term
Finnish can cause confusion:
- It can indicate nationality of the Finns, usually acquired by birth in Finland\n* It can indicate ethnicity, see Finnic, Ethnic Finn and Sweden-Finns\n* It can also indicate citizenship of the Finns; or a similar belonging to the state of Finland\n* It can indicate the mother tongue of a speaker, see Finnish language and Sweden-Finns (often in contrast to Finns speaking Swedish as their mother tongue, see Finland-Swedish and Finland's language strife)\n* It can indicate the Finnish language itself, and often the closely related varieties spoken in Finland's neighbourhood, see Finno-Ugric languages: Veps, Izhorian, Ingrian, Karelian, Meänkieli \n* Finally, it can be a false translation from Scandinavian languages, where the concepts of Finns and Samis haven't always been distinguished: Today Finn in the Norwegian language means a Sami.