virolainen

Virolainen is the Finnish demonym for a person from Estonia. The term is formed from Viro, the Finnish name for Estonia, with the suffix -lainen, which denotes origin or affiliation. As an adjective, virolainen describes things related to Estonia, for example virolainen kulttuuri or virolaiset perinteet. In standard Finnish, the Estonian language is usually referred to as viron kieli; virolainen kieli is understandable but not the usual term.

In contemporary usage, virolainen primarily denotes a person: Hän on virolainen. The word can also appear in broader cultural or regional descriptions, but it does not imply citizenship on its own, and it is most commonly used to identify ethnicity or nationality in reference to Estonia.

Finland and Estonia share historical ties and belong to the Finno-Ugric, or more specifically Finnic, branch of the Uralic language family. Finnish and Estonian are closely related languages with many cognates, though mutual intelligibility is limited without study. There is a minority of people in Finland of Estonian origin or with close ties to Estonia, and cross-border exchange remains active in education, business, and culture.