Meänkieli (lit. "our language") is a group of distinct Finnish dialects spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden along the valley of the Torne River.Linguistically, Meänkieli consists of two dialect sub-groups (Tornio and Jällivaara dialects) of the Peräpohjola dialects, which belong to the Western dialects of Finnish. For political and historical reasons it has the status of a minority language in Sweden.