Sweden Finnish Family Language Policies and Practices in Cases of Successful Language Maintenance
Presenter(s)
Affiliation
Topic
Good practices, methodologies, and strategies
Type
Papers
Abstract
This study examines family language policies (FLP) among Sweden Finnish families, focusing on the internal factors influencing heritage language maintenance. Minority language transmission occurs at multiple levels, shaped by socio-psychological and structural factors within the community. While research on FLP has expanded in recent years, studies on Sweden Finnish families remain limited. This study applies Curdt-Christiansen and Huang’s (2020) Family Language Policy Model, concentrating on emotional, identity, and cultural factors, as well as parental impact beliefs and child agency.
Despite Sweden’s formal commitment to minority language preservation, national minority languages, including Finnish, remain at risk due to insufficient educational provision and historical linguistic assimilation policies. Families thus play a crucial role in resisting external pressures and sustaining intergenerational language transmission. This research addresses the following question: How do Sweden Finnish family members describe their language policies, and how do emotional, identity, cultural factors, parental impact beliefs, and child agency influence language practices within families where Finnish has been successfully passed on?
The study is based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 Sweden Finnish families across Sweden between 2022 and 2025. The broader dataset comprises 100 interviews with Sweden Finns and Tornedalians as part of the project One Hundred Sweden Finns and Tornedalian Linguistic Biographies. Interviews explore family language use and perceived influences on linguistic choices. Data collection adheres to ethical guidelines set by TENK (2023) and the Swedish Research Council (2017).
Preliminary results indicate that Finnish language maintenance is driven by deliberate parental strategies, strong emotional ties, and identity reinforcement. Parental impact beliefs shape language use, with a commitment to Finnish at home, while child agency also plays a role. The study highlights the importance of FLP in minority language preservation, offering insights relevant to heritage language revitalisation.
