Lainasanasto

Lainasanasto refers to the portion of a language’s vocabulary that has been borrowed from other languages and adopted with minimal native morphological changes. In Finnish linguistic usage, it denotes those words that have entered common use from abroad, as opposed to native neologisms formed from existing Finnish morphemes.

In Finnish, major sources of loanwords include Swedish (due to historical rule and close contact), Russian, German, French, Latin and Greek, and in the modern era English. Many early loanwords entered via Swedish, shaping core vocabulary for everyday terms, administration, law, and technology. The impact of English has grown dramatically since the 20th century, contributing terms across technology, science, business, and popular culture.

Lainasanasto encompasses direct loans that retain some original phonology and spelling, as well as words that have been adapted to Finnish phonology and morphology. It also includes calques (käännöslainat) where the semantic structure is translated rather than the form. The adoption process often results in Finnishizing spelling, adding Finnish suffixes, and integrating nouns into Finnish inflection patterns.

Dictionaries and corpora analyze lainasanasto to track language contact, prestige, and vocabulary growth. The study of lainasanasto helps explain how Finnish maintains its distinct grammar and word formation while expanding its lexicon through external influence.