Kven language

Common card · No. 260857

Kven (kvääni; kainu; Finnish: kveeni; Norwegian: kvensk) is a Finnic language variety spoken in the Troms and Finnmark counties of Norway by the Kven people. Its status as a distinct language versus a dialect of Finnish has been debated. It is closely related to Meänkieli, spoken in the Torne Valley in Sweden, and to the Peräpohjola dialects of Finnish spoken in Finland. Kven is treated as a separate language in Norway, where it received the status of a minority language in 2005 under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. There are about 1,500 to 10,000 known native speakers, most of whom are over the age of 60. Middle-aged speakers tend to have a passing knowledge of the language. They use it occasionally, but not frequently enough to keep it off the endangered list. People under the age of 30 rarely speak or know the language. However, children in the community of Børselv can learn Kven in their primary schools.

Read on Wikipedia · Image ValtteriLahti12, CC BY-SA 4.0