Institute for the Languages of Finland

The tasks of the Institute for the Languages of Finland include the planning of Finnish and Swedish, providing linguistic counselling services, compiling dictionaries, as well as conducting research related to language planning and dictionary compilation. The Institute also maintains extensive linguistic corpora and a library, and coordinates the work of the Finnish, Swedish, Sami, Romani, and Finnish Sign Language Boards.

Senior specialist (language planner, dictionary editor, corpus specialist, informatician, archives specialist), specialist, librarian, information systems specialist.

The Institute for the Languages of Finland (ILF) belongs under the Ministry of Education and Culture. It was founded in 1976. The Institute has 84 employees, most of whom have an academic degree in Finnish, the Finno-Ugric languages, or the Nordic languages, or a degree in computer science, language technology, or administration. We boast a high level of education, as over 90% of our employees have an academic degree and ca. 18% have a doctoral degree. Most of our employees have permanent posts or employment contracts.

The employees of the Institute for the Languages of Finland carry out diverse tasks requiring special expertise. They compile historical and modern language dictionaries of the Finnish and Swedish languages, work as language planners, or develop the availability and usability of linguistic corpora.
A language planner’s work mainly covers standard language; however, even administrative language and EU language are given special focus. Usually the work takes place in teams of a couple of employees. Our employees are deeply committed to their tasks and stay with us for a long time. 

The work we do is interesting and significant for the linguistic climate and language use in the entire Finnish society. The Institute works in close cooperation with the Nordic countries and Estonia in particular, but also with other relevant linguistic institutes in Europe.

We take care of our employees’ wellbeing by, e.g., organizing staff training, supporting them in their endeavours to attain qualification, and offering opportunities to do sports. Our employees also have the option of doing distance work.

The Institute for the Languages of Finland is located in Hakaniemi, in Helsinki.