The Abridged history of Quethan people
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A short overview of the history of the Quethan people
This private article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 20 Mar 2019, 09:53.
[comments] eqs Quick Disclaimer: I'm widely known for not knowing what I'm talking about. There are probably also quite a lot of mistakes in my English. I apologize beforehand for all the mistakes I've made in historical facts and English language.
The Quethan language is spoken in the deep forests of Finland, to be more precise: from Finnish Kainuu, Northern Savonia and Central Finland to (Northern) Ostrobothnia. Many speakers have assimilated into Karelians and Russians in east, Finns in south-east and Swedish speakers in south-west. The most assimilated areas are Southern Central Finland and Ostrobothnia.
The first Quethan speakes were hunter-gatherers who came from the east. The first signs of people in the area that is nowadays known as Finland are over 9000 years old. It's uncertain if these are left from early Proto-Apiarlic speakers but according to the current view they probably spoke some language related to it. It isn't known if they settled permanently on the area.
About 8000 years ago the Ancylus Lake became first Mastogloia Sea and then Littorina Sea because of the rapid rising of the global sea level. This made the climate warmer and population denser. Denser population meant that many new peoples arrived the Fenno-Scandian Pennisula from east and south. It's likely that the first Finnic people came among them. We don't know if the first meeting of the Proto-Apiarlic speakers and newcomers was friendly or not, but for certain we know that their migration made Proto-Apiarlic speakers move westward and northward and adopt Pit-Comb Ware culture.
The biggest cultural and technological difference between Finnic and Proto-Apiarlic people occured 4400 years ago when Baltic people arrived the south and south-east coasts of Finland bringing the Corded Ware culture with them that lived simultaneously with the Asbestos-ceramic culture of the inland Finland. In the beginning of Iron Age most of the inhabitants of Southern Finland had adopted agriculture but the Proto-Apiarlic speakers remained as hunter-gatherers.
The split between Old Quethan and Old Aphenian probably occurred around year 300. The split was slow and different dialects formed a dialectical continuum for centuries.
The western areas of speakers' were naturally influenced by Swedish taxation earlier than the eastern areas. According to Swedish traditional legend Swedish Erik Emundsson ruled a huge area from Finland to Courland but this cannot be verified. Finland's coastal areas had been affected by Christianity and via that by Swedish power since 12th century and Tavastia in inland since 13th century. However, Old Quethan speakers' areas weren't affected greatly except individual missionaries from both western and eastern churches. However, there had been small-scale trade earlier.
In 1323 Treaty of Nöteborg (Pähkinäsaarenrauha) not only regulated the border between Sweden and Novgorod but also split Old Quethan speakers between two countries. Most of the speakers lived in Novgorod's area but some of the southern speakers were under Swedish taxation. But the hunter-gatherers Quethans were, they crossed the border quite freely since it was not very precise. The treaty drove also some tax avoiding Finns northwards who were mostly assimilated into Quethan speakers.
After Middle Ages Christianity's grip of the Swedish (and for that also Quethan) society tightened. The Finnish and Swedish settlements spread northwards up to the Southern Torne Valley (Meänmaa). This pushed the Quethan speakers north- and eastwards and disconnected the Old Quethan and Old Aphenian ultimately. Old Aphenian which was spoken in Southern Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa was completely extint in 20th century. Quethan however, hung on in the deep Savonian forests.
Unlike Sámis who started to shift from hunter-gatherers into reindeer herding, Quethan speakers remained as they were. In 18th century the tar trade was rapidly growing especially in wealthy Ostrobothnia. The Ostrobothnian tar traders travelled further and further east and northwards and met Quethan speakers. According to descriptions and loan words there was some minor trade between the two groups.
In the beginning of the 19th century occurred probably one of the biggest event in Finland's history so far: in 1809 Finland was conquered by Russia after Sweden lost the Finnish war. Most of the Quethan speakers didn't probably even know about this before the Finnish population in the area got denser and railroad connected the area and the rest of the world in the end of 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century.
This was the beginning of the downfall of the lifestyle of Quethans. The authorities saw their lifestyle and culture primitive and suggested that they should abandon it completely in order to live proper life. The assimilation politics were getting stronger and stronger but the abdication of Czar Nicholas II, Finland's declaration of independence and Finnish civil war caused so much problems that the plans were temporally postponed.
The time between World Wars was the rise of the Finnish nationalism and downturn of the Quethan culture. New circumstances made it harder and harder for Quethans to practice their traditional lifestyle. Many children were forced to go to schools far away from their homes. They were prohibited to speak their native language and practice their traditional lifestyle. This caused many to abandon their language and heritage: the amount of Quethan speakers crashed down for many Quethan parents didn't want their children to go through the same ordeal as they had to go in school so they decided to speak Finnish to their children instead of their native language.
Many were evacuated from their homes to Western Finland away from the raging World War II. Most of them, especially young children, lost contact to their language, lifestyle and families. This furthered the progress of assimilation of Quethans into Finns. After the war many stayed where they had been evacuated since their homes were either behind the Russian border or destroyed by war.
After WW2 most of the Russian Quethan speakers have assimilated into Karelians and Russians. There may still be some individual native speakers of older generation but the language is practically extinct in Russia. In Finland language's number of speaker is getting fewer and fewer. The government has lately become more conscious about Quethan people's rights to have their own language and lifestyle.
The Quethan language is severely endangered and on this course it's only the matter of time when it will become extinct. In order to prevent this there should be a drastic change of attitude among both native and Finnish speakers but only time will tell if the attitudes towards the language can be changed before it is too late.
Bibliography on Finnish history: (in Finnish)
Zetterberg, Seppo (toim.); Suomen historian pikkujättiläinen; WSOY; 6. painos; 1995, Porvoo
Meinander, Henrik; Suomen historia: Linjat, rakenteet ja käännekohdat; Kustantamo S&S; 2017, Nørhaven, Tanska ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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