“We Say Shlōnk!”: Diversity of Arabic in Finland

Although the community of Arabic speakers in Finland has grown significantly during the past decade, it is still rather small compared to other Nordic countries. The largest group of Arabic speakers in Finland are Iraqis, most of whom arrived as asylum seekers in 2015. Arabic, with all its variations, is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is a macrolanguage with at least twenty-eight varieties. The rapid increase of Arabic speakers during the past years has been the source of challenges to Finnish immigration services because of the lack of competent interpreters and translators. This is also the case at schools attempting to provide home language tuition in Arabic.