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		VOCABULARY DATABASE > FINNISH > INFORMATION
						Finnish is a member of the Finno-Ugric family of languages spoken by some 6 million people in Finnland. Literature in Finnish had its origin in 16th c. Reformation, but it really came into being in the 19th century with the publication of the Kalevala, a compilation of the national oral tradition. Having reached its peak in the works of Aleksis Kivi, it has shown a considerably dynamic character ever since. The language is both agglutinative and inflective, and it uses twelve cases for nouns and adjectives. Finnish has borrowed vocabulary from other languages, including Baltic languages, Swedish, German, Russian, and, more recently, English. Its spelling is very regular and closely matches pronunciation. As in other Finno-Ugric languages, its features include 'vowel harmony' (vowels in the same word must harmonize).
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