Who are we?

The Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotus) is devoted to the study and language planning of Finnish and Swedish. We also coordinate the activities of the Sami, Romani, and Sign Language Boards.

Most of our research is published as dictionaries, research papers, and monographs. The language planning and name planning functions provide a variety of services to those interested, and the Language Office offers telephone counselling and organizes courses. The general public can also access our extensive linguistic archives.

The Institute for the Languages of Finland

• Is the leading language planning authority, steering and developing the Finnish and Finland Swedish standard languages.
  
  
• Coordinates the activities of the Sami, Romani, and the Finnish Sign Language Boards.
  
  
• Compiles mono- and multilingual dictionaries of the languages that belong to its sphere of activities.
  
  
• Supports language planning and dictionary compilation by studying Finnish and Swedish from many perspectives: vocabulary, language use in different situations, different texts, the past and present of the languages, their variation and established qualities.
  
  
• Provides linguistic guidance and counselling services;
  
  
• Offers researchers access to its archives, corpora and extensive library resources.
  

At the beginning of 2012, the Institute for the Languages of Finland employed a total of 74 permanent employees.

The Institute for the Languages of Finland is an institute of expertise under the auspices of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture.  Its activities are laid down by the Act on the Institute for the Languages of Finland 1403/2011, which has replaced the Act on the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland of 1976 (48/1976, 591/1996) (www.finlex.fi). The Institute’s activities are supported by the Council of the Institute for the Languages of Finland.