kaupunki

Borrowed from Old Gutnish kaupungr (“marketplace”), from Old Norse kaupangr (whence also Swedish köping), derived from Proto-Germanic *kaupô (compare Swedish köpa (“to buy”), German kaufen (“to buy”), English cheap), itself borrowed from Latin caupō.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑu̯puŋki/, [ˈkɑ̝u̯puŋk̟i]
• Rhymes: -ɑupuŋki
• Syllabification^(key): kau‧pun‧ki
• Hyphenation^(key): kau‧pun‧ki

kaupunki

1. town, city (larger settlement with significant amenities)

• Finnish does not distinguish between a town and a city, but depending on the context, terms like pikkukaupunki (“(small) town”) and suurkaupunki (“(large) city, metropolis”) may be used.
• The term kaupunki was historically used of Finnish cities which had been granted city rights by the Swedish Crown (and later by the Finnish autonomous and independent governments). In effect, places were divided into cities (kaupunki) and rural municipalities (maalaiskunta), with an additional intermediate form (kauppala) for rural market towns that were not quite cities. The governance for each of these types was significantly different. However, since 1977, these differences are no more. Nowadays, all Finnish municipalities are named either kaupunki (“city, town”) or kunta (“municipality”). The only difference between the two is the word used, and each municipality can freely choose which one to use. Generally speaking, kaupunki implies a higher population, but this is not always the case. As of 2023, the kaupunki with the smallest population is Kaskinen (population in 2022: 1,257), and the kunta with the largest population is Nurmijärvi (population in 2022: 44,437).

• kauppa (“shop”)

• “kaupunki”, 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

• paikkuun