Finnish lesson

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 10:08 am

That's why I avoid fish in my menu

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 1:38 pm

So, Samplaire you are gay!

I' ll explain myself...It is simple logic... If you dont like to have fish in your menu it means that you dont like fish. If you dont like fish, it means that you dont like the sea. If you dont like the sea, it means that you dont like the beach. If you dont like the beach, it means that you dont like whatever is there. If you dont like whatever is on the beach, it means that you dont like women too. If you dont like women, it means that you like men. Which finally means that you are gay!

You see? Simple logic!!

P.S. Wojtek, of course I am kidding!!! I hope I have not insulted you!

Vassilis

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 1:42 pm

BTW, greek works in the same manner as Polish in that respect.

For a question you just have to change the pitch/intonation of the phrase... Which, sometimes when used correctly, may be very ambiguous. Was that a yes? Was it a no?

Like the "maybe" answer in Japan. I dont remember the word that you use, but what impressed me is that it is accepted as a totally valid answer!

Man, I love languages!

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:53 pm

On 2004-06-09 14:08, spoimala wrote:
I heard 'nordästersjökustartilleriflygspaningssimulatoranläggningsmaterielunderhållsuppfö ljningssystemdiskussionsinläggsförberedelsearbeten' is the longest word of swedish, what the hell is that?)

parts of it look like dutch actually

longest dutch word:

hottentottententententoonstellingterreinwagensmeerbrugfabriekseigenarenhondjeskennel

(well, ok that's not a real word but it's fun to say anyway

)

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 3:26 pm

@Rodos

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:10 am

Borg wrote:

very strange as well: finnish and hungarian seem to be related to each other, and have lots of simularities... no other language comes even close to these two, if i recall correctly.

Yes, they are relatives. Fenno-ugrian languages. There some other too.. I just can't remember their names

. Oh, Estonian is one.

rodos1979 wrote:

Oh my God!! So, do you actually pronounce ALL these letters?

Yes we do! Every single letter.

By the way, you are from Greece? Is there a word 'perse' in greek?

kensuguro wrote:

the pitch keeps dropping as the sentence is spoken.

Does it? I didn't know

samplaire wrote:

Do Finnish people understand Hungarians?

NO! Not a single word

The closest relation I've found is

viz = vesi = water
(hun) (fin)

I haven't studied hungarian, so I don't know about grammar.
But many foreigners say that these two languages SOUND the same.

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:36 am

Do Finnish people understand Hungarians?
NO! Not a single word

I think the proper question is: does *anyone* understand the Finns?!?

Now I don't speak Finnish but I come from a long line of knife-fighters and sauna-bathers so... I've heard that the numbers, at least, are very similar. No?

Here are some numbers in "Hungarian" (Magyar) -- sorry for the lack of accents:

egyszer
ketto, ket
harom
negy
ot

Johann Tienhaara

P.S. Does anyone speak the mother-of-all-bizarre languages... Icelandic?

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 5:22 am

I've got a friend from Iceland and I once heard him speaking by telephone. The only words I understood were Polish city names

paulrmartin · Post by **paulrmartin** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 7:36 am

On 2004-06-10 08:58, samplaire wrote:
In Polish usually questions are the same as sentences only the pitch differs them

Idziesz do domu.
You are going home.
Idziesz do domu?
Are you going home?

So for us it is a bit difficult to get used to the form. Or:

What are you looking at?

in Polish has such form:

At what you are looking?

And it's a simplification because in Polish we don't have to use you, they, I. Or at least not all the time. So the question should look like:

At what are looking?

@@@@@@@@
Do Finnish people understand Hungarians?

[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2004-06-10 09:01 ]

Samplaire, same words, different meaning. Is it a matter of inflection(how the words in the sentences are accented)?

I remember learning the word for drinking when I lived in Turkey. The word is içmek, pronounced each-mek. Now someone asked me if I "içmek"(içmiyormusun?) and that's when I found out that it also meant smoke!

All languages have their quirks which is probably why I find them so interesting.

Maybe Ken can answer this one:
Is it true in chinese that depending on the length of inflection on certain syllables the meaning of words drastically change?

About hungarian(magyar) and finnish being similar, I have heard that turkish also has the same roots as those languages. This I have got to research as they seem so remote to my ears.

Nisse · Post by **Nisse** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:17 am

I dont think Turkish is related to finnish/Hungarian. Turkish I know is related to mongolian, bacause the turks were originally central asian nomads that moved (and plundered) westward and finally settled in what we today call Turkey. Greek speaking people lived there originally.

_________________
An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind.

/Mahatma Gandhi

[ This Message was edited by: Nisse on 2004-06-11 11:18 ]

Plato · Post by **Plato** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:38 am

For your interest, the longest word in the English dictionary (I think)

FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION
The action or habit of judging something to be worthless.

Cynics of the world, take note

EDIT:
Actually, i was wrong -
(it was the longest in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary but was supplanted by pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in the second).

[ This Message was edited by: plato on 2004-06-11 14:22 ]

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 1:42 pm

I dont think Turkish is related to finnish/Hungarian. Turkish I know is related to mongolian

Ah, the languages are distinct. But maybe the people aren't!

There is a theory that the Mongolian hordes invaded Russia all the way up to Finland. Thus you have your blonde-haired, blue-eyed Finns and also your dark-haired, dark-eyed Finns.

Also the Mongolians are reputed to have green tailbones. I've never had the opportunity (or desire, to be honest

) to find out whether this is true. But I wonder if Finns and Turks have green tailbones...

valis · Post by **valis** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 2:51 pm

antidisestablishmentantarianism used to give a fair fight for being one of the longest english words...think that those other 2 have it beat though...

Post by **hubird** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 6:20 pm

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 8:05 pm

The Finnish, Hungarian and Turkish languages ARE relative in the sense that they all are Uralo-Altaic languages.
All the Uralo-Altaic languages are the following:
Balto-Finnish, Hungarian, Volgaic, Uralien, Sarnoyedic, Turkish, Mongolian, and Eskimo.
(the Finnish is in the Uralic branch, and the Turkish on the Altaic branch. the Hungarian not sure...)

These languages and the Vasque language (in Northern Spain, Southern France) are the ONLY European languages that are not Hindo-European...

Of course the similarities are way deep and are not visible on the surface of the languages...

Spoimala, I dont know of any word "perse" in Greek. There is "pérysi" or "pérsi", which means last year and "Pérsis" which means Persian...

On 2004-06-11 11:38, Plato wrote:
(it was the longest in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary but was supplanted by pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in the second).

Which is a medicine term and is actually in Greek and Latin!

pneumono-ultra-microscopic-silico-volcano-coniosis

pneumono (lung), microscopic (tiny) and coniosis (dustification (?), to become dust) are Greek words.
ultra, silico and volcano are Latin words.

[ This Message was edited by: rodos1979 on 2004-06-11 21:09 ]

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:13 am

I've heard that the numbers, at least, are very similar. No?

Similar to what?

egyszer

ketto, ket

harom

negy

ot

To these? No. Finnish numbers from one to five :
yksi
kaksi
kolme
neljä
viisi

[ This Message was edited by: spoimala on 2004-06-12 10:14 ]

spoimala · Post by **spoimala** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:15 am

Spoimala, I dont know of any word "perse" in Greek. There is "pérysi" or "pérsi", which means last year and "Pérsis" which means Persian...

How about 'paska'? I was sure that either of these were greek...

paulrmartin · Post by **paulrmartin** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 10:39 am

On 2004-06-12 10:13, spoimala wrote:
I've heard that the numbers, at least, are very similar. No?
Similar to what?

egyszer

ketto, ket

harom

negy

ot

To these? No. Finnish numbers from one to five :
yksi
kaksi
kolme
neljä
viisi

[ This Message was edited by: spoimala on 2004-06-12 10:14 ]

Now the turkish:

Bir
iki
üç
dört
Beş

No comparison, eh?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:05 pm

On 2004-06-11 08:36, paulrmartin wrote:
...Maybe Ken can answer this one:
Is it true in chinese that depending on the length of inflection on certain syllables the meaning of words drastically change?
...

even in Greek this seems to be the case.
I once asked for a bank instute to change some money - the word is 'trapeza' with an emphasized short 'a' and a short 'e'.
I pronounced it with long vowels and the emphasis on last syllable and people didn't have an idea what I was asking...

cheers, Tom

paulrmartin · Post by **paulrmartin** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 7:24 am

Tom,
This is a common reaction of closed-minded people. Do you have an accent when you speak greek? You probably do and the person you were dealing with didn't stop to think for an instant that greek was not your first language.

Take Quebec, where I live, americans come here and expect french-speaking canadians to speak english as well as they do. And, vice-versa, americans attemt to say a few words in french and get laughed at.

Not everybody is interested in the sound of languages as others...