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Due to the history of Finland and its neighbours, and the relatively small number of Finns, the term Finnish can cause confusion:
- It can indicate nationality of the Finns, usually acquired by birth in Finland
- It can indicate ethnicity, see Finnic, Ethnic Finn and Sweden-Finns
- It can also indicate citizenship of the Finns; or a similar belonging to the state of Finland
- It can indicate the mother tongue of a speaker, see Finnish language and Sweden-Finns (often in contrast to Finns speaking Swedish as their mother tongue, see Finland-Swedish and Finland's language strife)
- It can indicate the Finnish language itself, and often the closely related varieties spoken in Finland's neighbourhood, see Finno-Ugric languages: Veps, Izhorian, Ingrian, Karelian, Meänkieli
- Finally, it can be a false translation from Scandinavian languages, where the concepts of Finns and Samis haven't always been distinguished; Until recently Finn in the Norwegian language meant a Sami.
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