kirkonkylä

kirkon (“of church”) +‎ kylä (“village”), calque of Swedish kyrkby, from kyrka (“church”) + by (“village”), cognate with German Kirchdorf, from Kirche (“church”) + Dorf (“village”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈkirkonˌkylæ/, [ˈk̟irko̞ŋˌk̟ylæ]
• Rhymes: -ylæ
• Syllabification^(key): kir‧kon‧ky‧lä
• Hyphenation^(key): kirkon‧kylä

kirkonkylä

1. (historical) The village in a rural municipality in which the main church and the vicariate were located.

   Synonyms: kk, pokosta (dialectal)

The boundaries of municipalities and parishes used to be the same. Usually the kirkonkylä was also in other respects the most important village in a municipality, e.g. by being the location of municipal offices. Industrialization and railways changed this to a certain extent, and the reduction in the number of municipalities (through mergers) that has progressively taken place since the 1960s has further eroded this connection. The central township of a municipality is currently officially called kuntakeskus, but the term kirkonkylä is frequently used in common language and in place names.

• “kirkonkylä”, 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