Language
On the Swedish side of the valley, Finnish was still the majority language until the 20th century. This is obvious in the many Finnish village and other place names on the Swedish side of the border. The number of Finnish speakers has now declined drastically, because of national Swedish influence and compulsory schooling in Swedish. People in the younger generations mostly have Swedish as their mother tongue.
The local dialect of Finnish, Torne Valley Finnish or, with a neologism, Meänkieli, has today been acknowledged as a minority language in Sweden. The people who speak it are often referred to as Tornedalians, although this term could also be defined as referring to people living in the Torne Valley, who are not all speakers of Meänkieli. The originally Finnish-speaking land area is far greater than the actual river valley; it extends as far west as Gällivare. Although confusing from a geographic point of view, this whole area is often referred to as Torne Valley.
The area where meankieli is spoken is also called Meänmaa. Since June 15, 2006, the Tornedalians have their own flag.
Read more about this topic: Torne Valley
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