Suomen kielen poliittiset sanavarat 1800-luvun puolivälin Suomessa

Authors

• Marja Paavilainen

Abstract

The article examines the development of Finnish political terminology in the middle of the 19th century. The Finnish nationalists emphasized the political factor of native language. They were the first to develop the Finnish language and thus also Finnish political terminology. Before the 19th century political discussion didn’t exist in Finnish. The language of intellectuals was either Swedish or Russian. As the nationalists began to publish the Finnish language newspaper Suometar, they had to develop the use of political terminology at the same time. One of the main questions of the article is: Did the nationalists transport their own ideology to the Finnish political terminology created? Essential political terms are examined in their historical political context. The article concentrates on the meaning of words such as nation, nationality, citizen, state, revolution, republic, party, socialist, communist, and constitution.