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Feb 26, 2018 · But nowhere did I find any mention of the name ‘Suomi’, or why modern-day Finns still prefer to use it over ‘Finland’. “There is no certain knowledge about the real origin of the name ...
The name Suomi (Finnish for 'Finland') has uncertain origins, but a common etymology with saame (the Sami) has been suggested. [37] [38] In the earliest historical sources, from the 12th and 13th centuries, the term Finland refers to the coastal region around Turku .
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The oldest surviving mention of the word Suomi (Finland in Finnish) is in the annals of the Frankish Empire written between 741 and 829. At 811, annals mention a person named Suomi in connection with a peace agreement. The name Suomi as the name of Finland is nowadays used in Finnic languages, Sámi, Latvian, Lithuanian and Scottish Gaelic.
Finnish ( endonym: suomi [ˈsuo̯mi] ⓘ or suomen kieli [ˈsuo̯meŋ ˈkie̯li]) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ).
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- Overview
- Land
- Relief
- Drainage and soils
- Climate
Finland, country located in northern Europe. Finland is one of the world’s most northern and geographically remote countries and is subject to a severe climate. Nearly two-thirds of Finland is blanketed by thick woodlands, making it the most densely forested country in Europe. Finland forms a symbolic northern border between western and eastern Europe: dense wilderness and Russia to the east, the Gulf of Bothnia and Sweden to the west.
A part of Sweden from the 12th century until 1809, Finland was then a Russian grand duchy until, following the Russian Revolution, the Finns declared independence on December 6, 1917. Finland’s area decreased by about one-tenth during the 1940s, when it ceded the Petsamo (Pechenga) area, which had been a corridor to the ice-free Arctic coast, and a large part of southeastern Karelia to the Soviet Union (ceded portions now in Russia).
Throughout the Cold War era, Finland skillfully maintained a neutral political position, although a 1948 treaty with the Soviet Union (terminated 1991) required Finland to repel any attack on the Soviet Union carried out through Finnish territory by Germany or any of its allies. Since World War II, Finland has steadily increased its trading and cultural relations with other countries. Under a U.S.-Soviet agreement, Finland was admitted to the United Nations in 1955. Since then, Finland has sent representatives to the Nordic Council, which makes suggestions to member countries on the coordination of policies.
Finland’s international activities became more widely known when the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which resulted in the creation of the Helsinki Accords, was held in that city in 1975. Finland has continued to have especially close ties with the other Scandinavian countries, sharing a free labour market and participating in various economic, cultural, and scientific projects. Finland became a full member of the European Union in 1995.
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Finland is bordered to the north by Norway, to the east by Russia, to the south by the Gulf of Finland, to the southwest by the Gulf of Bothnia, and to the northwest by Sweden. Its area includes the autonomous territory of Åland, an archipelago at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia. About one-third of the territory of Finland—most of the maakunta ...
Finland is heavily forested and contains some 56,000 lakes, numerous rivers, and extensive areas of marshland; viewed from the air, Finland looks like an intricate blue and green jigsaw puzzle. Except in the northwest, relief features do not vary greatly, and travelers on the ground or on the water can rarely see beyond the trees in their immediate vicinity. The landscape nevertheless possesses a striking—if sometimes bleak—beauty.
Finland’s underlying structure is a huge worn-down shield composed of ancient rock, mainly granite, dating from Precambrian time (from about 4 billion to 540 million years ago). The land is low-lying in the southern part of the country and higher in the centre and the northeast, while the few mountainous regions are in the extreme northwest, adjacent to Finland’s borders with Sweden and Norway. In this area there are several high peaks, including Mount Halti, which is, at 4,357 feet (1,328 metres), Finland’s highest mountain.
The coastline of Finland, some 2,760 miles (4,600 km) in length, is extremely indented and dotted with thousands of islands. The greatest number of these are to be found in the southwest, in the Turun (Turku; Åbo) archipelago, which merges with the Åland (Ahvenanmaa) Islands in the west. The southern islands in the Gulf of Finland are mainly of low elevation, while those lying along the southwest coastline may rise to heights of more than 400 feet (120 metres).
The relief of Finland was greatly affected by Ice Age glaciation.The retreating continental glacier left the bedrock littered with morainic deposits in formations of eskers, remarkable winding ridges of stratified gravel and sand, running northwest to southeast. One of the biggest formations is the Salpausselkä ridges, three parallel ridges running across southern Finland in an arc pattern. The weight of the glaciers, sometimes miles thick, depressed the Earth’s crust by many hundreds of feet. As a consequence, areas that have been released from the weight of the ice sheets have risen and continue to rise, and Finland is still emerging from the sea. Indeed, land rise of some 0.4 inch (10 mm) annually in the narrow part of the Gulf of Bothnia is gradually turning the old sea bottom into dry land.
Finland’s inland waters occupy almost one-tenth of the country’s total area; there are 10 lakes of more than 100 square miles (250 square km) in area and tens of thousands of smaller ones. The largest lake, Saimaa, in the southeast, covers about 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km). There are many other large lakes near it, including Päijänne and Pielinen, while Oulu is near Kajaani in central Finland, and Inari is in the extreme north. Away from coastal regions, many of Finland’s rivers flow into the lakes, which are generally shallow—only three lakes are deeper than about 300 feet (90 metres). Saimaa itself drains into the much larger Lake Ladoga in Russian territory via the Vuoksi (Vuoksa) River. Drainage from Finland’s eastern uplands is through the lake system of Russian Karelia to the White Sea.
In the extreme north the Paats River and its tributaries drain large areas into the Arctic. On Finland’s western coast a series of rivers flow into the Gulf of Bothnia. These include the Tornio, which forms part of Finland’s border with Sweden, and the Kemi, which, at 343 miles (550 km), is Finland’s longest river. In the southwest the Kokemäen, one of Finland’s largest rivers, flows out past the city of Pori (Björneborg). Other rivers flow southward into the Gulf of Finland.
The part of Finland north of the Arctic Circle suffers extremely severe and prolonged winters. Temperatures can fall as low as −22 °F (−30 °C). In these latitudes the snow never melts from the north-facing mountain slopes, but in the short summer (Lapland has about two months of the midnight sun), from May to July, temperatures can reach as high as...
About 10% of its area is occupied by lakes, rivers and ponds. Halti Mountain at 1,324 m is Finland’s highest point. A population of 5.5 million people (in 2017) making Finland one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe, about half of the population live in the southern coastal region.
Finland or Suomi? In the mosaic of global nomenclature, Finland stands as a land with dual identities: “Finland” to the world and “Suomi” to its own people – the Finns. Beyond mere names, these labels encapsulate a rich tapestry of historical, cultural, and geographical significance.
