Kvens are an ethnic minority living (mostly) in Northern Norway. The Kvens are descended from Finns, who migrated to Norway during 18th and 19th century.<\/p>
Who\u2019s a Kven, who\u2019s not?<\/strong><\/p> If Kvens are Finnish emigrants, can we call a modern day Finnish migrant a Kven? Who\u2019s to decide? How to clarify who is a Kven, and who is not.<\/p> One clarification (we\u2019ve heard) is as follows: \u201da Kven is a person, who\u2019s migrated to Norway before WW2\u201d. However, declaration of one\u2019s Kvenity pretty much depends on the person itself. A modern-day Kven can have distant roots (maybe a relative emigrated in 18th century) and still consider himself\/herself as 100% Kven.<\/p> Kven as a term, politically correct or not?<\/strong><\/p> In 1870s Norway started its own Norwegianization process to unify the nation as one. Norwegianization carried from the olden days to the Second World War, and beyond, hence stigmatizing foreigners. The Kvens had to learn Norwegian to be able to own land, and take a Norwegian surname in order to have a citizenship.<\/p> Nowadays the term \u201dKven\u201d might have a negative sound to it among some people. Having said that, there are official Kven organizations, which proudly name themselves as \u201dKvens\u201d, so we\u2019re bravely using that term, too.<\/p> Where<\/strong><\/p> Population<\/strong><\/p> According to Wikipedia there are approx. 30 000 Kvens in Norway, but the vast majority don\u2019t know the Kven language (somewhat 2000 people know the language in a way or another. This level of knowing the language varies from understanding the basics to being totally awesomely kick-ass fluent.)<\/p> The Kven language<\/strong><\/p> The Kven language is very close to Finnish. Extremely close. However, due to being somewhat isolated from Finnish and being so close to Norwegian and Sami languages (not to mention loaning words here and there), the Kven language has a very unique and distinct tone to it. We\u2019re going to consider Kven as an independent language \u2013 simply because language and the identity of the culture go very much hand in hand.<\/p> Here\u2019s an example of the difference between Kven and Finnish languages.<\/p> Kven<\/strong>Kv\u00e4\u00e4ninkieli oon se kieli mit\u00e4 kv\u00e4\u00e4nitoon puhuhneet ja viel\u00e4 t\u00e4\u00e4p\u00e4n\u00e4ki puhhuuvat,ja mik\u00e4 oon s\u00e4ilyny ruottalaistumisenja norjalaistumisen l\u00e4pi minuriteettikielen\u00e4.Minun mielest\u00e4 Torniolakson \u00abmei\u00e4n kieliki\u00bboon vanhaa kv\u00e4\u00e4ninkieli tahi vanhaalamei\u0111\u00e4n kielel\u00e4 kaihnuunkieli.<\/p> Finnish<\/strong>Kveenin kieli on se kieli, jota kveenitovat puhuneet ja viel\u00e4 t\u00e4n\u00e4 p\u00e4iv\u00e4n\u00e4kin puhuvat,ja joka on s\u00e4ilynyt ruotsalaistumisenja norjalaistumisen l\u00e4pi v\u00e4hemmist\u00f6kielen\u00e4.Minun mielest\u00e4ni Torniolaakson ”meid\u00e4n kielikin”on vanhaa kveenin kielt\u00e4 tai vanhallameid\u00e4n kielell\u00e4mme kainun kielt\u00e4.<\/p> The Kven language gained an official minority language status in Norway in 2005. However, the language is still very much endangered, and being a minority language doesn\u2019t mean the language is protected.<\/p> Status<\/strong><\/p> The status of Kvens in Norway is somewhat weak. There is, however, a wind of change. There are many small organisations established to protect the language and to preserve the culture. In the University of Troms one can study the Kven language, and the Norwegian national broadcasting company NRK has a website devoted for Kvens. There\u2019s even a Kven newspaper. So on, so forth. But are there young generations left to carry on with the language? That\u2019s the million Krone question.<\/p> The Kven identity itself is reforming. What challenges does the identity have? How the culture is preserved nowadays? What measures are to be taken to keep the language alive and kicking? This is what we\u2019re going to question ourselves and from the Kvens as we travel deep into the Norwegian fjords to find out.<\/p> Whoop!<\/strong> Even though we try to be thorough with our facts, the information provided might contain errors. Our primary sources are this<\/a> and this<\/a>. If you find a mistake, please holler us at lonnroots(at)lonnroots.com.<\/em><\/p> Kvens Kvens are an ethnic minority living (mostly) in Northern Norway. The Kvens are descended from Finns, who migrated to Norway during 18th and 19th century. Who\u2019s a Kven, who\u2019s not? If Kvens are Finnish emigrants, can we call a modern day Finnish migrant a Kven? Who\u2019s to decide? How to clarify who is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28","page","type-page","status-publish","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannikainen.net\/lonnroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannikainen.net\/lonnroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannikainen.net\/lonnroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannikainen.net\/lonnroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannikainen.net\/lonnroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannikainen.net\/lonnroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.hannikainen.net\/lonnroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28\/revisions\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hannikainen.net\/lonnroots\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/9\/91\/Kven.jpg\")
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