This volume addresses the current situation of Finnic minority languages by introducing the legal situation, threat to and revitalisation of Me nkieli, Sweden Finnish, Kven, Viena Karelian, Olonets, Tver Karelian, Karelian Finnish, Vepsian, Votic, V ro, Seto and Livonian. The book contains eight articles dealing with the problems of creating a new standard language, the influence of modernisation on small languages, language nests, language attitudes as well as minority media and literature. Theoretically the book relates to the globally current research that focuses on the linguistic diversity of the world. The authors are researchers from the universities of Oulu, Helsinki and Troms.