FINNISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

The Finnish language belongs to the Ugro-ITinnic division of Turanian or Ural-Altaic family of languages, and is most nearly allied to the languages of the Esths, Lapps, Mordvins, Voguls, and Magyars. It is agreeable to the ear, rich in vowels and diphthongs, copious, and uncom-~ monly flexible. The language is remarkably rich in declensional forme, there being as many as fifteen different 443 FINS cases, expre ing such relations as are expre ed in English by near, to, by, on, in, with, without, along, . There is no distinction of gender in nouns. The verb resembles the noun in its capability for expre ing shades of meaning by corresponding inflections. Finnish literature is valuable chiefly for its rich stores of national poctry. These poems, which had been preserved by oral tradition from the times of heathendom, were gradually dying out till 1835, when Lonnrot grouped together in one whole all the fragments he could lay his hands on and published them, under the title of Kalevala, as the national epic of the Finnish people. A second edition, inereased almost by one-half, was published by him in 1849. He also published a collection of 592 ancient lyric poems and 50 old ballads, and collections of proverbs and riddles. A great impulse was given to the cultivation of the language in modern times. Recognized as an official lanFins—Perch DJ, First dorsal. D2, Second dorsal. P, Pectoral. V, Ventral. A, Anal. C, Caudal. guage side by side with Swedish, it is becoming more and more the vehicle for imparting instruction. Works on science and history as well as pootry have been written in Finnish in recent years; a great Finnish-Swedish Dictionary has been published, and there are now a considerable number of newspapers, The centre of this literary life is Helsingfors. Among modern writers may be mentioned Johannes Linnankoski (d. 1913) and F. KE. Sillanpéa, author of numerous stories dealing with peasant life. Manninen, Koskienniemi, L. Onervaand Maria Jotuni are others. Hino Leino was a_ distinctively national poet who died in 1925. Mme. Aino Kallas has written novels and Short stories which have been translated into many languages, including English (The White Ship, 1924; Eros the Slayer, 1927; and The Wolf’s Bride, 1930), BiBLrioGRAPHY: Eliot, Finnish Grammar; C. J. Bills on, Popular Poetry of the Finns; Comp arett i, Traditional Poetry of the Finns.