Sirkka Paikkala and Mikael Reuter:
What’s Jakobstad in English?
It is evident that we use Finnish place names in Finnish texts and Swedish place names in Swedish texts. But how do we deal with place names when the texts are written in another language? Should we write Nyslott or Savonlinna in Norwegian, Jakobstad or Pietarsaari in English? The Research Institute for the Languages of Finland has been faced with this question several times lately, and it has been discussed at a joint meeting of the Finnish and Swedish language Boards. The recommendation presented here is, therefore, the official one issued by the Research Institute. Sirkka Paikkala is a Senior onomastic researcher at the Language Planning Department and Mikael Reuter is the Manager of the Swedish Department of the Research Institute.
As regards the use of Finnish or Swedish place names in Finland, the principle has always been clear. Those who speak Swedish use Swedish place names and those who speak Finnish use Finnish place names. The Saami-language place names are used to the extent to which the places have Saami-language names. There may sometimes be uncertainty of whether e.g. a monolingual Finnish place has a Swedish name, but in most cases both names are well-established. In uncertain cases one can consult Svenska ortnamn i Finland (Swedish place names in Finland), published by the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland.
Nevertheless, it has so far been unclear how place names should be used in texts written in a foreign language. Should we use Finnish or Swedish place names in brochures, scientific articles, reports, etc. written in English, German, French, Russian, Danish, Estonian, etc.? Which names should be used in reports to the European Union? Should we perhaps give the names both in Finnish and Swedish (and in the case of places in the Saami region, in the Saami language)? Should the starting point be the speaker’s or the author’s mother tongue, or should it be the lingual status of the place? In official contexts place names should, of course, be used consistently and objectively, and they should function so that even foreigners not familiar with Finland would not be faced with unreasonable problems of understanding.
A Few Examples
In the mid-1980s there was a college student in the eastern part of Nyland who wondered why Finnish and Swedish place names were used in the teaching of German without any consistency, even if the German teacher used mostly Swedish place names, having learnt them among Swedish-speaking people in Karis. In a course in German reading comprehension for Finnish-speaking students at the University of Helsinki, the teacher said that Lapporörelsen (fi. lapuanliike) was called Lappo-Bewegung in German. As the students asked why it was not called Lapua-Bewegung, the answer was that place names were chosen arbitrarily.
In 1990, there was an international conference on onomastics in Helsinki. The conference report included articles written by Finnish onomastic researchers and translated into English or German. The articles that were written by Finnish-speaking researchers were translated using the names Houtskari, Korppoo, Nauvo, Parainen and Turunmaa, whereas the originally Swedish-language articles included names such as Borgå, Nyland, Närpes, Nådendal, Raumo, Ulfsby, Viborg, Åbo and Åboland.
This question was recently brought up again, as the name counselling services of the Research Institute received an inquiry from a municipality about which names they should use in their English brochure. Finnair’s magazine Blue Wings was criticized last autumn for using the title "Timeless Tammisaari". The editorial board contacted the name planning services to find out how this "perpetual problem" was to be tackled. A translator explained in the Översättaren (8/96) ("Translator") magazine that she had until then solved the problem by using the Finnish or Swedish names of the source text and giving the name in the other language in brackets as a translator’s note.
The uncertainty is understandable. So far, there have been no recommendations in the question. However, there is a clear need for consistent guidelines, at least as regards official publications.
Many translators are familiar with the problem also in the case of texts from a foreign source language into Finnish or Swedish. When the texts that are translated into Swedish or Finnish are translations as such, the names in the texts can be different from the original source language names. Years ago, there was a piece of news in one of our newspapers, reporting e.g. a heavy snowstorm in Elsinore. Only those who had read their Hamlet, knew that the article actually was about Helsingør.
Language Legislation
The Finnish language legislation is based on §14 in the Finnish Constitution, which establishes Finnish and Swedish as the national languages of Finland. According to the Constitution, the term national language entails that both Finnish and Swedish are official languages in the Republic of Finland. One of the core principles of the language legislation is that the national languages are equal.
As the Constitution’s provisions for the Basic Rights were reformed in 1995, the wording of § 14 was changed, as well. In addition to the provisions concerning the status of Finnish and Swedish as the national languages –– where the bilingual principle was confirmed and reinforced –– there was a new paragraph establishing the right of the different language groups to maintain and enhance their own cultures. This paragraph mentions especially the Saami people as an indigenous people and includes a reference to the legislation on the right of the Saami people to use the Saami languages in their encounters with the authorities.
The Language Law of 1922 with its later amendments includes more specific provisions for the authorities’ use of Finnish and Swedish. According to the Language Law, the administrative districts and autonomous areas (provinces, municipalities, etc.) are either solely Finnish or Swedish or bilingual with a Finnish or a Swedish majority.
A municipality is considered bilingual if the lingual minority exceeds 8 per cent of the inhabitants or if it consists of at least 3,000 people. A bilingual municipality cannot be declared monolingual if the proportion of the minority has not decreased under the level of 6 per cent. The Council of State re-establishes the lingual situation of the areas outside the official statistics every ten years. The most recent decision covers the period from 1993 to 2002.
The general rule concerning the exterior administrative language is that the official announcements and communications, as well as other documents issued by the authorities to the citizens in the monolingual areas, should be drafted in the language of the area, and in bilingual areas in both languages.
The language legislation, and especially the provisions for the exterior administrative language, is thus based on the complete equality between people from different language groups. The only exception is the legislation on the autonomy of Åland, securing the monolingual Swedish status of the province.
The Choice of Names
The legislation does not mention the use of names in other languages than Finnish and Swedish. Nevertheless, there is a Decision of the Council of State from 1982 on the names of administrative districts and autonomous areas, as well as certain traffic points, with the following, somewhat confusing wording in the first paragraph:
"In a monolingual Finnish administrative district or autonomous area, as well as at railway operating points, the form chosen should be based on the Finnish name form and in a Swedish monolingual area on the Swedish name form. There should also be in use, in the monolingual administrative district or autonomous area or at a monolingual traffic point, a name based on the parallel form of the name in the other language, if the name includes the name of the province or one of the following place names:"
The list over the above-mentioned "following place names" is, therefore, an official listing of the parallel names of the monolingual municipalities in the other language. It tells us, e.g. that Idensalmi is the official Swedish name for fi. Iisalmi and, respectively, that Maarianhamina is the official Finnish name for Mariehamn.
The second paragraph of the decision presents the general principle that the names of bilingual areas are in Finnish in Finnish texts and in Swedish in Swedish texts.
The number of municipalities with official names in both languages is, therefore, considerably bigger than that of bilingual municipalities.
If we were now to adopt the practice that both official name forms should be given in a text written in a foreign language, we would end up with an excess of double names. Furthermore, we would have to decide when the Finnish or the Swedish name should be first in order. According to the principle of equality, this could only be decided on the basis of the lingual status of municipalities and towns, so that the language of the majority should be represented first. This might be a useful practice in strictly official contexts, but hardly in normal texts.
