kansalaissota

kansalais- (“citizens'”) +‎ sota (“war”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnsɑlɑi̯sˌsotɑ/, [ˈkɑ̝ns̠ɑ̝lɑ̝i̯s̠ˌs̠o̞t̪ɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -otɑ
• Syllabification^(key): kan‧sa‧lais‧so‧ta
• Hyphenation^(key): kan‧salais‧sota

kansalaissota

1. synonym of sisällissota (“civil war”)
2. (especially) The Finnish Civil War fought in the spring of 1918.

   Synonyms: sisällissota, Suomen sisällissota (“Finnish Civil War”), veljessota, vapaussota (politically charged), punakapina (politically charged, pro-White term), luokkasota (politically charged, pro-Red term), torpparikapina (politically charged)

The Finnish Civil War continues to be a controversial issue among Finns, and the conflict has multiple names. kansalaissota, sisällissota (“(the) Civil War”) and Suomen sisällissota (“The Finnish Civil War”) are the most common neutral names, used by those who want to emphasize that the conflict was by nature a civil war. More ideologically influenced names include luokkasota (“Class War”) used by Reds or their supporters, punakapina (“Red Rebellion”) used by Whites or their supporters, and torpparikapina (“Crofter Rebellion”). Others may prefer the term vapaussota (“War of Liberation”), which refers to the fact that in the beginning of the war, there were still 40,000 Russian troops in the country, despite the declaration of independence on December 6th, 1917. Some lesser used terms, generally rather neutral, include veljessota (“War of Brothers”), vallankumous (“revolution”) and kapina (“rebellion”). To learn more about this war, see Finnish Civil War in Wikipedia.

• “kansalaissota”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023