Category talk:Swedish-speaking Finns

Untitled
is there a chanse that international readers think this category just means people in Finland who are able to speak swedish to some good extent, because if so it should contain far more people (tarja halonen, jarkko nieminen...)

Also having this subcategorized to people of swedish descent is also probably a b it missleading as dare i say a great part of all the people have little or no swedish descent (Finns and immigrants from for instance germany, norway and russia just just chose to convert to speakign swedish, for instance "donner" sounds like a german surname not a swedish)

Gillis 23:33, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

The correct term should be Finland-Swedes (Finlandssvenskar), since that is what the members of the group call themselves. "Swedish-speaking Finns" is a term that is only used by Finns (ie the native Finnish-speakers in Finland) and it is regarded as highly offensive by many Finland-Swedes, who regard the term as an attempt by the Finns to steal or hijack the achievements, cultural and other, of the Finland-Swedes (who have lived as a minority in Finland since pre-historic times). A quick look at Finnish history even after the separation of Finland and Sweden show that many, if not most, of the really big names in Finland were Finland-Swedes, from the national poet J L Runeberg (who wrote the original Swedish-language text of the Finnish national Anthem) and the national composer Jean Sibelius to president and national hero Gustav Mannerheim (who didn't learn to speak Finnish until he was well into his 50's).

I could add that a Finn (finne in Swedish) is a native Finnish-speaker in Finland, while the native Swedish-speakers in Finland are always called Finland-Swedes (finlandssvenskar in Swedish), and the two groups together are called Finlanders (finländare in Swedish). So "Swedish-speaking Finns" literally means "native Finnish-speakers who also speak Swedish". Allan Akbar (talk) 17:13, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

I think Antti Ahlström was originally Finnish-speaking.81.17.197.132 (talk) 14:37, 9 October 2009 (UTC)