Malax

Malax (Finland Swedish: [ˈmɑːlɑks]; Finnish: Maalahti, Finnish pronunciation: [ˈmɑːˌlɑhti]) is a municipality in Finland, located on the west coast of the country. Malax is situated in Ostrobothnia, along the Gulf of Bothnia. The population of Malax is approximately 5,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 111,000. It is the 160th most populous municipality in Finland.

Malax Malax – Maalahti
Municipality
Malax kommun Maalahden kunta
Coat of arms
Location of Malax in Finland
Coordinates: 62°56.5′N 021°33′E
Country	Finland
Region	Ostrobothnia
Sub-region	Vaasa
Charter	1607
Government
• Municipal manager	Mats Brant
Area  (2018-01-01)[1]
• Total	1,954.94 km2 (754.81 sq mi)
• Land	522.11 km2 (201.59 sq mi)
• Water	1,433.95 km2 (553.65 sq mi)
• Rank	169th largest in Finland
Population  (2025-06-30)[2]
• Total	5,423
• Rank	160th largest in Finland
• Density	10.39/km2 (26.9/sq mi)
Population by native language [3]
• Swedish	84.8% (official)
• Finnish	9.4% (official)
• Others	5.9%
Population by age [4]
• 0 to 14	15.2%
• 15 to 64	56%
• 65 or older	28.8%
Time zone	UTC+02:00 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+03:00 (EEST)
Website	www.malax.fi/en/

Malax covers an area of 1,954.94 square kilometres (754.81 sq mi) of which 1,433.95 km² (553.65 sq mi) is water.^[1] The population density is 10.39 inhabitants per square kilometre (26.9/sq mi).

Malax is a bilingual municipality with Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. The population consists of 9% Finnish speakers, 85% Swedish speakers, and 6% speakers of other languages.

Name

The town's Swedish name has been recorded as Malax (by) and Madelax (by), beginning in the 15th century. The name is incorrectly attributed to various Finnish sources, but most likely the name stems from a Proto-Germanic *Madwōlaguz ("meadow lake, wet meadow"). All old place names in the region derive from Proto-Germanic, with some having an unknown origin, and only modern place names derive from Swedish or Finnish. "Några österbottniska vattennamn" by Ralf Norrman provides a basic hypotheses for many of the older place names through comparison with established study of old Germanic place names. Two common elements include -lax (from PG. *laguz "water, lake") and -ne (from PG. *nibją "wetland").

Similar place names include Helne, Helene (*Haljōnibją "Hel's wetland"), Kalarsar (*kaliz and potentially *saiwiz>*sār "sea, water"), Telsar (*þelô "frost"), Vias (*wīhą "sanctuary"), Petalax (*Piþanlaguz "pith-lake"), Pixne, Kolne (potentially *kōlaz "cool"), Närpes (*narhwiz "scar", referring to the river and potentially loaned through Finnish, cf. *arwiz>arpi), and many more. Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina from 1539 potentially shows Malax listed as "Vesikylä" ("water town"), which would have been the older Finnish name for the town and likely in reference to the notion of a wet meadow.

Due to political interest and tension the status of Ostrobothnian languages and toponymy is often undermined and ignored.

Language

The spoken language of Malax (Malax mål), Korsnäs, and Närpes makes up the southern language of Ostrobothnian and preserves many archaic features. It also bears some similarity to other East Norse languages such as Westrobothnian and Dalian, and superficially some with Gutnish and Icelandic. One prominent feature is the preservation of the archaic diphthongs ai [ɑ̟j], au [ɒ̟w], and ay [ɒ̟ɥ], although their spelling may vary due to a lack of standardisation. A literal spelling based on Klockars-Hagback is the most common form of writing, but other stricter and more etymological writing systems exist. Due to a lack of standardisation and teaching Finland Swedish has influenced the language in modern times and in particular vocabulary and some parts of inflection has slowly eroded.

As late as the 1900s these languages was called skovelsvenska ("shovel Swedish") by the ruling upper class, considered vulgar and uncivilised, and discouraged from use in any domain, similarly to how regional languages in Sweden were considered speech impediments and something to have removed from society. Some of the older generations may still feel a need to switch to Finland Swedish when meeting someone they feel is of a higher status.

Politics

Results of the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election in Malax:

• Swedish People's Party 82.7%
• Social Democratic Party 7.8%
• Christian Democrats 2.9%
• Finns Party 2.5%
• Centre Party 1.5%
• National Coalition Party 0.9%
• Left Alliance 0.8%
• Green League 0.3%