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LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and AndrewLinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and AndrewPosted Aug 31, 2010 23:29 UTC (Tue) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630)Parent article: LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew
...much to Linus's chagrin, that language wasn't Finnish. I thought Linus's native language was Swedish. Am I wrong? (I guess he's fluent in Finnish too, having been brought up in Finland.)
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LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Aug 31, 2010 23:38 UTC (Tue) by jake (editor, #205) [Link]
> I thought Linus's native language was Swedish. Am I wrong?
No, you aren't wrong. I asked Jon the same question when I reviewed the article and that's what Linus said. Our presumption is that it is too complicated for him to explain a "Swedish" reference when he is known to be from Finland. Swedes and Finns would probably understand, but the rest of us might be puzzled :)
jake
LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Sep 1, 2010 0:16 UTC (Wed) by cesarb (subscriber, #6266) [Link]
I agree, unless I misheard Linus clearly said "Finnish".
LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Sep 1, 2010 6:00 UTC (Wed) by tajyrink (subscriber, #2750) [Link]
It's probably indeed easier to use "Finnish" as in "the languages spoken in Finland". Swedish is the native language of 5.5% of Finnish people, but most of the ones living in eg. metropolitan area have in practice native kind of Finnish as well. I guess it changes from person to person how one categorizes those, ie. is Swedish a specialty talked with Swedish speaking friends, or is Finnish a specialty but just talked with a majority of people. Usually if one categorizes oneself as Swedish-speaking Finn (usually when both parents have always spoken Swedish) like Linus and not bilingual, then it's Swedish that is the "normal" language.
LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Sep 1, 2010 0:01 UTC (Wed) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]
I've read somewhere he was brought up in a Swedish-speaking part of Finland.
Swedish is one of the official languages of Finland. Finnish is also one of the official languages of Sweden. It's an interesting mix since Finnish is not even an Indo-European language.
Wikipedia has an incredible amount of information about natural languages.
LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Sep 1, 2010 1:32 UTC (Wed) by Jonno (subscriber, #49613) [Link] Correction Finnish is not an official language in Sweden. Finnish is an official minority language in parts of Sweden. See Wikipedia for more information (The Swedish article is better and has a map of affected areas.). Swedish is however an official language in Finland, legally on equal footing with Finnish, but in practice the secondary language in most of Finland, and the primary language only in a few municipalities.
LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Sep 1, 2010 5:53 UTC (Wed) by busman (subscriber, #7333) [Link]
> I've read somewhere he was brought up in a Swedish-speaking part of Finland.
Linux was brought up in Helsinki (Finnish capital) and while being officially a bilingual city (all street signs are in finnish and swedish) only ~7% of the population speaks swedish as their mother tongue. So it hardly qualifies as a "swedish-speaking part of Finland" ;)
LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Sep 1, 2010 12:58 UTC (Wed) by BenHutchings (subscriber, #37955) [Link]
I'm thankful for those Swedish signs as they're a lot easier to decipher for those of us who know English and German.
LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Sep 9, 2010 14:17 UTC (Thu) by engla (guest, #47454) [Link]
And this is maybe Linus' point. Swedish has a closer relasionship to big western languages, such as english, and finnish is way more obscure (is said to be impossible to master if you are not born in a finnish-speaking family). A finnish-speaking linux kernel mailing list would truly be impossible for outsiders to understand.
LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew Posted Sep 9, 2010 14:15 UTC (Thu) by engla (guest, #47454) [Link]
Helsinki is an area where you are likely to find swedish-speaking finns; unlike inland Finland. See map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Svenskfinland_municipal...
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