Any Finnish speakers ?

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Martti

Full Member
Mar 12, 2011
919
18
Finland
We have compulsory english lessons in school.

This is somewhat common misconception in Finland. So called A1 syllabus is mandatory beginning of the 3rd grade (1st grade after 2020), but it can be any foreign language (Swedish is not counted foreign) the school offers. However, vast majority choose English as their first foreign language. A2 syllabus is an optional language beginning most often between 3rd and 6th grade, and is most often German, French or Russian.
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
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Berlin
Janne, you can't compare the problems Finish people have to learn English with the easy way how germanic nativ speakers pic up the other germanic languages.

I can easily read a Norwegian newspaper and never took one lesson in Norwegian!
And I never looked in a Scandinavic dictionary.

All germanic languages are more or less only strong dialects of the Danish or lower saxon language.

I only get headaches in Sweden, because you pronounce lots of French words you use in a very creative way, so I can't identity them.
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
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Berlin
Janne, all Finish people came from Estonia.

I had a friend who grew up in Reval /Tallin, being part of the German population who lived there for 800 years.
He told me, he would understand Finish people better, than they understood him, but it wasn't really a problem to communicate.
 

Herman30

Native
Aug 30, 2015
1,351
1,030
57
Finland
I did not understand estonian language untill I started to learn it even though I`m fluent in finnish.

http://hyl.edu.hel.fi/sivut/comenius/fi/finfact.html
The latest research on mitochondrial genotype seems to strengthen the view that the Finns are genetically mostly Indoeuropean population. Genetics in general present the view that the original Finnish people have been the dominant population in Finland through the centuries although there has been a significant mixture from migration in various times. Therefore the Finns are related to the Balts, Germanic people and Balticfinns. Thus the genes of the Finnish people are mainly of western origin as well as those of the other nations which were proceeding northwards at the end of the recent glacial period. The language has come from the east and belongs to the Uralic family although it contains many loanwords from Indoeuropean languages such as Baltic, Germanic and Russian.
 
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Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
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Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
I did not understand estonian language untill I started to learn it even though I`m fluent in finnish.

http://hyl.edu.hel.fi/sivut/comenius/fi/finfact.html

Interesting!
I thought you would. So maybe like Swedish and Icelandic.. Same family, but quite different.

We love the TV series Sorjonen, btw. But season 2 ended so series 3 needs to be made.
Virtanen is a good actor, I hope Hollywood does not steal him. Remember him from Talvisota.
The third best war movie ever made!
 

Herman30

Native
Aug 30, 2015
1,351
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57
Finland
Same family, but quite different.
Yes, I would say it´s like that.
There are some words that have the same meaning in finnish and estonian and then there are words that are similar in both languages but the meaning is totally different.

Liha/kala = same meaning in both languages: meat/fish.
Hallitus = in finnish it means goverment and in estonian it means mold.

And so on...
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
  • May be, but government is for example a new word.

Thing /Think is the old one, for example in Germanic languages, or the titel King, König, Kong, Herzog or what ever.
We didn't say parliament and President.
That simply is Latin!

What's about all the archaic stuff?

Axe, sword, shield, cow, house, wife, man, snow, tree, hill, field, bear, wood, fish, stone and so on?
All what existed in the year 800 I mean.

That is in all Germanic languages totally identic.
The dialectal differences between London and Berlin are as strong as between Rotterdam and Vienna or Hamburg and Stockholm. Here and there a bit different, but for me, coming from Berlin, what is more or less in the middle, no problem to understand.

Usually the words for archaic stuff are quiet similar in sound and meaning.
 
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Keith_Beef

Native
Sep 9, 2003
1,366
268
55
Yvelines, north-west of Paris, France.
  • May be, but government is for example a new word.
Thing /Think is the old one, for example in Germanic languages, or the titel King, König, Kong, Herzog or what ever.
We didn't say parliament and President.
That simply is Latin!

What's about all the archaic stuff?

Axe, sword, shield, cow, house, wife, man, snow, tree, hill, field, bear, wood, fish, stone and so on?
All what existed in the year 800 I mean.

That is in all Germanic languages totally identic.
The dialectal differences between London and Berlin are as strong as between Rotterdam and Vienna or Hamburg and Stockholm. Here and there a bit different, but for me, coming from Berlin, what is more or less in the middle, no problem to understand.

Usually the words for archaic stuff are quiet similar in sound and meaning.

In the north of England, what was long ago the Danelaw, we have many words that are akin to today's Scandinavian words.

Last week, I was watching German films of old crafts, and could understand most of it; even words I had never heard before, because the sound was like English wordw and because the images and the context helped.
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
Yes, it's the same!
We just don't use so many French words like you.
What the farmers speak in the pubs in the villages around Hamburg is really more or less English.

Of course, it's lower saxon or really anglo-saxon!
 
In the north of England, what was long ago the Danelaw, we have many words that are akin to today's Scandinavian words.

Last week, I was watching German films of old crafts, and could understand most of it; even words I had never heard before, because the sound was like English wordw and because the images and the context helped.

We should go back to a more Germanic form of English. It would save having to pronounce things differently to how they are spelt, and we wouldn't have to bother using 'th' all the blooming time (we could re-introduce ð)...
I'm sure it would help people with dyslexia somewhat?
 
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Woody girl

Full Member
Mar 31, 2018
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Exmoor
I've heard tell a long time ago so facts are hazy that the friesian language can be understood by people somewhere in the north east of England and vice versa. Can anyone verify this?
 
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Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
2,293
Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Good idea. Should start with taking back the old, nice names. Of towns. Of families. Like Saxe-Coburg und Gotha..

:)

Erbswurst, when is Babylon Berlin Series 2 starting?
Und Deutchland 86, das international release?

Goddamn, man, what is wrong with you ? We NEED to watch those! Best series for a LOOONG time!
( Peaky Blinders is excellent too. Does German Fernsehen show that? It is about a Irish immigrant family in Post WW1 Britain. )
 

Erbswurst

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 5, 2018
4,079
1,766
Berlin
Yes, we had it somehow.
But I am traveling to much to see it.

Friesisch sounds in my ears more or less like English. The pronunciation is more to Oxford English than to Hochdeutsch.

And they use a few words, which aren't in use in the rest of Germany any more but in Britain.

They don't say "zieh" for "pull" they say "trek" for example. (But "pull" they have too, if they are rowing, but I'm not often enough over there to know that all exactly, Anglians are mixed with them, lower Saxons as well. Of course I never know, who is who.)
German "auf", English "up", Friesisch "op"
German "Pulle", English "bottle", Friesisch "buddel"

Sounds really English or Dutch somehow.

But of course, when I enter a shop for example, where people speak those dialects, they change to Hochdeutsch. So I usually hear only a few words in the northern German dialects.
 
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