[weasel words][citation needed] Any language adopts features, especially pronunciation habits, from dominant languages it comes in touch with, but many of the traits of Finland Swedish exist also in monolingual areas and some are in fact preserved features of Old Swedish, as with Scots in comparison with English or Afrikaans in comparison with Dutch.

In 1809, when Finland was conquered by the Russian Empire and became an autonomous Grand Duchy, Swedish remained the only official language.

[citation needed] The autonomous island province of Åland is an exception, being monolingually Swedish-speaking according to international treaties.

Most Swedish-speaking Finns and linguists consider them to be closer to some of the dialects spoken in nearby parts of Sweden.

The status is reviewed once in a decade, and enacted by a government decree issued by the Finnish Council of State.

The highly variable sj sound /ɧ/ varies between [ʂ] and [ɕ ~ ʃ] on the Finnish mainland, often close to sh in English shoe.

In the Åland Islands, its realization is similar to the velar (and often labialized) pronunciations of nearby parts of Sweden.

The historic k sound before front vowels and the tj sound, in modern Central Swedish a fricative /ɕ/, is an affricate [t͡ɕ] or [t͡ʃ] in all Finland Swedish dialects, close to ch in English chin, except for some[8] Åland dialects, in which it is a simple fricative [ɕ].

[citation needed] Hence, Central Swedish minimal pairs like /ˈandɛn/ ("the duck") and /ǎndɛn/ ("the spirit") are both pronounced [ˈandɛn] in Finland.

Nevertheless, there are differences, which generally fall into two categories: words now considered archaic in Sweden, and loanwords and calques from Finnish or independently borrowed from other languages (nowadays mostly English).