The terms Finns and Finnish people (Finnish:
suomalaiset, Swedish: finländare) are
used in English to mean "a native
or inhabitant of Finland". They are also used
to refer to the ethnic group historically associated with Finland or
Fennoscandia, and they are only used in that sense here.<10> <11>
As with most ethnic groups, the definition of Finns may vary.Smaller populations that may or may not be seen to
fall under the term Finns include the Kvens in Norway, the Tornedalians
of Sweden and the Ingrian Finns of Russia.
Finns can be divided according to dialect into subgroups sometimes
traditionally called heimo, but such divisions have become less
important with internal migration.
Linguistically, Finnish, spoken by most Finns, is closest related to
the other Baltic-Finnic
languages Estonian and Karelian, while Swedish,
spoken by Swedish-speaking Finns, is unrelated to the Finnish
language and a member of the Indo-European language family.
Finnish has loanwords from Swedish, other Germanic and broader
Indo-European languages in different chronological layers while Swedish
has few loan words from the Baltic-Finnic languages.
Genetically, Finns seem to be a fairly homogeneous group with a genetic
heritage mostly in common with the other European ethnicities.
More summaries about the What is a Finn? - Definition