Logo

The Institute for the Languages of Finland

The Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotimaisten kielten keskus or Kotus) is a national expert institute specialised in languages. Our tasks include the planning of Finnish and Swedish and the coordination of the work of the Sami, Romani, and Sign Language Boards.


The Institute for the Languages of Finland carries out language and name planning, compiles dictionaries, and conducts different research projects supporting these operations. We also maintain various linguistic corpora and archives.


Names of countries in seven languages
– Each name is presented in Finnish, Swedish, North Saami, English, French, German and Russian.

Our on-line data service ‘Kaino’ is available at kaino.kotus.fi.

The Etymological database of the Saami languages Álgu is available through English and German interfaces. The database was first published in Finnish and Saami at the end of 2006.

Kotus Books – on line shop



Copyright © Institute for the Languages of Finland