The Nordics
For people living in the Nordics or have any relation to Nordics of any kind or if your a fan of Nordics
Finland?
Return to DiscussionsFinland is part of political Scandinavia, called "The Nordic" or "Norden" usually. So members of a political body called Nordic Council form the political Nordic.
Linguistically Finland is also part of Scandinavia as Swedish is the other official language in Finland and the only official language on Aaland islands that are an autonomous part of Finland.
Strictly geographic Scandinavia is only Norway and Sweden as they the only countries on Scandic peninsula.
Scandinavia usually (in English usage) refers to Denmark, Norway, Sweden or just to the Scandinavian Peninsula. However, more boadly it can also include the Aland Islands, the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland too. Conversely, the Nordic Region or Norden, besides all those countries and territories can include Greenland as well. Sometimes Finland is exluded because Finnish is not a Scandinavian language (Uralic, Finnic branch), so ethnically they are different from the rest of Scandinavians. At one time Finland was part of the Swedish Kingdom or Swedish Empire (17th and 18th centuries), Finland is a bilingual country, with both Finnish and Swedish being official languages and are being taught in school. When I lived in Finland back in the early 60's, I had to learn both. So the bottom line is, Finland geographically could and should be included in Scandinavia.
In Germany Scandinavia (Skandinavien) is the geographical name of the nordic countries Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The term Scandinavia is derived from the area of Skane (in German Schonen) in the south of Sweden as I have heard there.