Are Finns, Scandinavians?

**Moonbird** · 10-04-2010, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by Loki

Isn't it best that ethnic groups self-identify, instead of others telling them how they should slot in?

Yes, I think people in Finland should be allowed to call themselves what they want, whether it's Finns, Finland-Swedes, Karelians, Saamis etc.

**~~Eldritch~~** · 10-04-2010, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Vonnita

Yes, I think people in Finland should be allowed to call themselves what they want, whether it's Finns, Finland-Swedes, Karelians, Saamis etc.

Not that at the moment they aren't.

**Moonbird** · 10-04-2010, 10:02 PM

Originally Posted by Eldritch

Not that at the moment they aren't.

Well, I don't intend to open any can of worms here but there are e.g. Finns who think that Finland-Swedes should call themselves Finns.

**The Ripper** · 10-04-2010, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by Vonnita

Well, I don't intend to open any can of worms here but there are e.g. Finns who think that Finland-Swedes should call themselves Finns.

Of course. And there are Finland Swedes who think all kinds of crazy shit about Finns. Let's be glad they don't get to decide what we call ourselves, eh?

Personally, I'm both.

**~~Eldritch~~** · 10-04-2010, 10:08 PM

Originally Posted by Vonnita

Well, I don't intend to open any can of worms here but there are e.g. Finns who think that Finland-Swedes should call themselves Finns.

Well, basically, my opinion is that they can think what they want, and whoever disagrees is also free to do so. It really isn't much of an issue for me, and you can't really make people drop an opinion just by telling them to do it.

**Motörhead Remember Me** · 10-05-2010, 07:09 AM

Most commonly Scandinavian simply equals Nordic because Nordic often simply equals Scandinavian... Both terms are used to describe a political and cultural affinity.

1. In a strict traditional ethnocultural sense Scandinavian is Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.

During most of the historical time there were only two nations in Scandinavia, Denmark (which controlled Norway, Iceland and parts of what is now Sweden ) and Sweden (which included Finland of various size and sometimes parts of what was Norway and Denmark which now is within Swedish borders).

2. In a strict geographical sense Scandinavia is Norway, Sweden and northern Finland.

3. In a strictly linguistic sense, Scandinavians are the speakers of the Germanic Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic languages called the Scandinavian language group.

4. There is a Scandinavian minority in Finland. This minority is "most" Scandinavian in the Åland island and Swedishspeaking Ostrobothnia.

There is a traditional millenia old non-Scandinavian Nordic minority (Finns and Saamis) in Sweden and Norway, and a non Scandinavian German minority in Denmark.

5. In a racial sense the term Scandinavian is pseudoscience. Nordic peoples are a wonderful cocktail of speakers or Germanic, Saami and Finnic languages. There is a substantial Scandinavian compound in Finland and there is an equally substantial Finnish, and to a lesser degree, Saami compound in Norway and Sweden.
This together is the essense of the Nordic peoples.

**asareidin** · 06-10-2011, 07:33 PM

Silly thread... Maybe you should start thread "Are Polish/Russians/Czechs/Belarussians etc. Scandinavians?" FINNS AREN'T SCANDINAVIANS. Stupid thing is even including Finland to Scandinavia, but Finns ??? It's completely nonsense. Scandinavians are NORTHERN-GERMANIC people, Scandinavians are: Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Icelandic People and people from Faroe Islands. Finns are URALIC, NOT GERMANIC PEOPLE with non-scandinavian, Uralic, language! It's enough for say that Finns aren't Scandinavians, at all. This is a definition of word "Scandinavians": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavians FINNS AND OTHER URALIC PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH SCANDINAVIANS. FURTHERMORE! They have less in common with Scandinavians than Italians or Spanish People, because Finns even aren't Indoeuropeans.
Of course, there are some scandinavian influences in Finland, caused by fact, that Finland was Swedish colony by centuries (however Finland also was Russian colony), it's similar like French, English and German influences in India or African's colony, however it doesn't make Hindi People English, Namibian People German or Finnish People Scandinavian. Being of Swedish colony is only reason that some (silly) people today include Finland to Scandinavia, and what is more stupid- Finns to Scandinavians, but it's nonsense and I hope that most of people know the true.
Finns aren't Scandinavians, they don't speak Scandinavian language, they even don't look like Scandinavians. Finns are Finns.
It's ridiculous that some Finns (especially Swedish-Finnish mixes from the cost) like to be recognise to Scandinavia/s, they can't be proud of their culture so they want be more western and less Finnish, stupid... But I think that most Finns are proud and they haven't problem with the identity.

More informations about ethnicity and race of Finns:
http://www.theapricity.com/forum/sho...660#post433660