These are a few of my favorite (and often inappropriate) tidbits about the Finnish language:
1) "Rintaliivit," the Finnish word for bra, literally translates as "breast vest." How I wish they really were called that in English.
2) "Pussi" means "bag." It might be funnier if it meant "box," but what can you do?
3) "Ymmärrätkö?" or "Do you understand?" is just about my favorite word/phrase. Have fun wrapping your lips around those vowels, drawing out those double consonants, rolling those "rs." (A lesser favorite of mine is "äyriäinen," or "shellfish," but it just doesn't have the consonants to compete.)
4) While I think Finnish is quite a complex language, (I'm still trying to find a good source for rules on forming the monikon partitiivi, and suggestions are welcome) it's not without its blessed elements of simplicity. a) There are no genders. This is sort of well known, since Finnish doesn't even have gendered personal pronouns. No "he" or "she" to bother yourself about, as "hän" will do just fine for either. b) No articles. It's the little things, right? You could argue that this makes things more complicated in the end, but I won't. And besides, you wouldn't need to worry about their genders even if they existed.
5) The first word I ever learned in Finnish was "vittu." After that came "paska," and Rami ruthlessly criticized my English-directed aspiration of the "p" + vowel. I'm proud to say that I no longer aspirate. And I owe it all to Finnish curse words.
6) Speaking of fun words to say, curse words, and aspiration-avoidance, "perkele" is also among those I most relish.
Well, I've got to get some sleep if I'm to study this language tomorrow. Hyvää yötä ,* kaikille.
I have not yet learned where to place commas in Finnish.*
dear god, that seems like a difficult language. you should be so proud of yourself!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I think I'll be more proud of myself once I can communicate without stopping to think, "Hmm, wait, how do I conjugate that? Okay, I know it's this type of verb...okay, let me work out the consonant gradation...which case do I use here?? etc. etc." As you might imagine, it takes a long time to say anything. And, here's a small secret: I make a lot of mistakes! ;)
Delete"Perkele" really is a satisfying word to say. English-language swear words just don't have the same ring to them.
ReplyDeleteThe first "bad" word I learned in Finnish was "paskiainen" - a girlfriend and I had had a few drinks and she decided to make me a list of survival phrases for use in Finnish bars. Top of the list was "Sinä olet paskiainen!" My then-boyfriend (now my husband) was not impressed...
You know, almost every Finnish-speaking foreigner I've spoken to started with the swears. That must be because Finnish curse words really are the world's best.
DeleteOff the top of my head, I would say that commas are used in lists, to separate clauses in a sentence, when explicitly addressing someone, in parenthetical expressions in place of dashes, in lastname-firstname expressions, in detached additions, with interjections and as decimal separators.
ReplyDeleteExamples of those:
- One, two, three, four (a short, simple list)
- This is the 1st clause in the sentence, whereas this is the 2nd one.
- Elena, you must have guessed *this* usage at least.
- Madonna, like the virgin she is, sings her songs.
- Niinistö, Sauli and Haavisto, Pekka.
- Sauli, the new president, was the National Coalition party candidate.
- Hey, I'm desperately trying to think of examples!
- The turnout was 66,0%.
Probably forgot something.
I particularly like examples three, four, and seven (ah, the Oxford comma).
DeleteI think my confusion stems from the fact that Finnish uses commas before subordinate clauses. "Minä luulen, että se on erilaista englanniksi." I'm not even entirely sure about this, though.
Yup, that's how it goes. Basically, it is used between all clauses in a sentence except for independent (=main) clauses that share a constituent, any parallel(?) subordinate clauses and when using lauseenvastike, which technically isn't a clause.
DeleteIf you feel like a translation exercise this article may clarify things. (Google Translate absolutely butchers it!)
The article looks to be just what I need. It will take some effort to translate, but that'll only provide for more practice. Thank you!
DeleteIndonesian language has no "he" or "she", either. It uses one word "dia" which is like "hän". So after learning more Finnish, when I speak English I tend to mix up "he" and "she" again. Doh!!!
ReplyDeleteFor declensions of words, including monikon partitiivi, it's really handy using wiktionary. For example this: Joka
Click on "declension of joka" and you can see all the other possible forms there.
For grammar, I have also a book "Finnish: An Essential Grammar" by Fred Karlsson, which has been very handy. It's written in English.
About aspiration in English...I had to learn that separately in the lab for hours at the uni, 'coz as I've probably told you before, Finnish pronunciation is more similar to Indonesian. So it's like backward learning for me.
One other similar thing with Indo language...the way Finnish say "half past three" for example is the same as in Indo langauge --- "puoli neljä" = "setengah empat" (half four). So when we learn English, we have to turn it all back around he he...
Oh yeah, when it comes to a fave Finnish word, lämpimämpi is a cute word for me 'coz it sounds cute in my ears. :-D
P.S. Have I told you about this online course in Facebook? I've told Katriina about it but maybe I haven't told you about. There's a REALLY great teacher there offering free online courses as well as explanations about ANYTHING concerning Finnish language. You can join it for free if you want. Here's the link: First Steps
Oh yeah, forgot to say that R2 corrects me A LOT about pronouncing words with double consonants 'coz Indo words don't have double consonants nor vowels like in Finnish.
DeleteFirst of all, thank you for all these great resources! I have the Karlsson book, and it has become more and more helpful as I learn. I have used Wiktionary, but for some reason I had no idea it offered all the declensions! So glad you pointed that out. Also, I requested to join the FB group, which looks great.
DeleteOh, and thanks for the Indo perspective, both on English and Finnish; I never really thought about how hard it must be to learn to aspirate. It's probably even harder than learning to STOP aspirating! It's also interesting Indonesian doesn't have genders. Now I want to go read about the Indonesian language... Just out of curiosity, on which syllable in a word do you usually place the stress in Indonesian? And it uses Roman script, right? :)
Ah, you have the book already? COOL!!! You're very welcome about the resources.
DeleteActually, I don't think stress in words is important at all in Indo language. That's also one tough thing to learn when I had to learn English at the uni - because in English, stress is REALLY important and it'll sound weird if you stress the syllables in the wrong places.
Yeah, learning to aspirate was really tough. But I think what's tougher is learning to pronounce "th" like in "father", "mother" (the tendency is to pronounce it like "dh"). We have different things to learn, as well like "sh" like in "ship" (you probably notice that many Finns have trouble pronunciating "sh" as well).
In general, actually, learning to read English is tougher than learning to read Finnish for us. Fortunately, though, English is really a common language and we have lots of English-speaking movies/series, so it's not all that bad. But I think for most Indonesians, they'll say that reading Finnish easier than reading English (I mean if you really want to do it correctly).
Actually I can send you some of the FB notes I've written comparing English and Finnish via email. :-D
The bitter truth is:
ReplyDeleteConcerning monikon partitiivi we are on our own.
No help will come our way.
It´s down to learning by hearing, trial and error...
Yeah, I was afraid of that...
Delete