Vermlannin murretta “Värmland dialect” Dialect of Savonian Finnish spoken by Forest Finns. Person in the interview is Johannes Johansson-Oinoinen, one of the last people to speak this dialect before extinction. To listen to audio file, go to IE/Safari, download the file, and use a WMA-MP3 converter.
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Hello everyone, this is my first post on this subreddit. Ever since I found out me and my mom had Forest Finnish ancestry, I joined this subreddit to see what modern Finnish culture is like. All of these posts have inspired me to visit one day 🙂
In case people don’t know, the Forest Finns were immigrants from the Savolax-Karelia area that immigrated to Sweden in the 16th century. One of their main defining characteristics was that they practiced slash-and-burn agriculture to cultivate rye and turnips in the forest. They also brought with them their smokehouses, drying sheds, and smoke saunas to keep warm in the coldest winters. Since their settlements were so deep into the forest, it took a long time for them to walk to the nearest church. Because of this and the fact that they retained some of their pagan practices, the Swedes labeled them as magicians and sorcerers. Once the Swedish government banned their slash-and-burn agriculture practices to make way for charcoal and mining, the Forest Finns began to be assimilated into Swedish society. In the 1800’s, an explorer named Carl Axel Gottlund explored the Finnish forests and collected some of their folklore. He is probably the reason why the Forest Finnish language and culture did not completely die out. This person in the interview and Karl Persson were the last people to speak the Forest Finnish dialect before it disappeared in 1969.
For those who speak Finnish (preferably a Savonian or Karelian dialect), if you can understand what he is saying, how is it different from your dialect? Before I found out this dialect died out, I wanted to learn it, but now I’m studying standard Finnish on Duolingo. Ancestry and 23andMe have helped me trace back my Finnish heritage and I have been fascinated by Forest Finnish culture ever since this discovery. Some of my Finnish ancestor’s surnames were Heiloinen, Puttoinen, Rikkinen, Sormuinen, and Värri. I’d love to hear what you think about this dialect and thank you so much!