TITLE:... AND FINNISH FOR ALL PALETTE:0223 099b 08ba 0cc9 3 FINNISH LESSONS 3 (PART I) 2 By Peto 31. Preface "Finnish is a fucking bad language. I'm never gonna learn it." Lemmy "Motorhead" Kilmister Finnish is one of few official non-Indo-European languages in Europe with Estonian, Hungarian, Turkish and Maltese. Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian belong to the Uralic language family with Sami (formerly know as Lappish) in Northern Scandinavia and with several small languages in Northern Russia. Here is a simple family tree of Uralic languages (the greatest emphasis on Finnish, of course): 2Proto-Uralic (ca 6000-4000 B.C.) |____________________________________________________________ | | 2Proto-Finno-Ugric Samoyed (ca 4000-3000 B.C.) 2 languages |____________________________________________________________ | | 2Proto-Finno-Permic Ugric (ca 3000-2500 B.C.) 2 languages |______________________________ e.g. | | 2 Hungarian 2Proto-Finno-Volgaic Permic (ca 2500-2000 B.C.) 2 languages |____________________________________________________________ | | | 2Early Proto-Finnic Mordwin Cheremiss (ca 2000-1000 B.C.) 2 dialects dialects |____________________________________________________________ | | 2Late Proto-Finnic Sami (ca 1000-1 B.C.) 2 dialects |____________________________________________________________ | | | 2North Finnic East Finnic South Finnic (ca 1-1000 A.D.) 2 languages languages | e.g. e.g. 2Early Finnish Karelian Estonian (ca 1000-1540 A.D.) | 2Old Finnish (ca 1540-1820 A.D.) | 2Modern Finnish (ca 1820 A.D.-) Proto-Uralic language was probably spoken around the Ural Mountains. Finally Samoyeds began to search better hunting areas in Siberia while Finno-Ugric Comb-Ceramic culture conquered the whole area between the Ural Mountains and the Baltic Sea; e.g. Finland was reached by 1st Finno-Ugrians about 3300 B.C. As you can see in the family tree, Finnish and Hungarian have been branched off about 5000 years ago. So Finns really can not understand Hungarian (and vice versa)! However, Finnish and Hungarian still have almost 1000 common words, although their modern phonetic forms can be very different: Finnish: 2 vesi kala puu silmä sydän kota Proto-Finno-Permic: 2 veti kala puxi silmä sûdämi kota Proto-Finno-Ugric: 2 weti kålå puxi silmä sûdämi kotå Proto-Ugric: 2 witi kåla pugi simä simi kåta Hungarian: 2 víz hal fa szem szív ház An original meaning: 2 water fish tree eye heart house It is easy to notice that Finnish is phonologically much more conservative than Hungarian. The reason is very clear: Hungarians (as mobile nomads) had many contacts with other languages before they arrived in Hungary in 896 A.D. Finland - one of the most peripheral areas in Europe - is a very good place to avoid foreign effect. Because of this phonological conservatism, Finnish has often been described as "a freezer chest of words". Especially Finnish has helped linguistics by maintaining Proto-Germanic (about 1500-500 B.C.) loanwords more original than any Modern Germanic language: Finnish: 2 kuningas rengas patja rikas viisas kaunis Proto-Germanic:2 kuningaz hrengaz baðja rikjaz wîsaz skauniz English: 2 king ring bed rich wise sheen Dutch: 2 koning ring bed rijk wijs schoon German: 2 König Ring Bett reich weise schön Swedish: 2 kung ring bädd rik vis skön Danish: 2 konge ring bed rig vis skøn Norwegian: 2 konge ring bed rik vis skjønn Icelandic: 2 kóngur hringur beður ríkur vís * (* This word does not exist in Modern Icelandic any more.) In spite of all these loanwords, Proto-Germanic effect has been more genetic than linguistic. In the terminology of the Third Reich: "Finno-Germanic mixed marriages germanized both Finnish and Estonian genes." That is the reason why outsiders think Finns are Scandinavians. They may look like them, but they never sound like them! On the other hand, Lapps - the northernmost people in Europe - had seldom close relations with any Germanic tribe. Most Lapps are still darker and shorter than Finns, and they probably look like the original Finno-Ugrians. Lappish grammar is also more original than Finnish. E.g. an ancient Finno-Ugric dual system still exists in Modern (South) Lappish: Singular 1st person 2 mån leam 1 "I am" 2nd person 2 dån leah 1 "thou art" 3rd person 2 sån lea 1 "he/she/it is" Dual 1st person 2 min lean 1 "we two are" 2nd person 2 din lidien 1 "you two are" 3rd person 2 sin lægan 1 "they two are" Plural 1st person 2 mih libie 1 "we three or more are" 2nd person 2 dih lidie 1 "you three or more are" 3rd person 2 sih leah 1 "they three or more are" In 98 A.D. Roman historian Publius Cornenius Tacitus (55-116 A.D.) released his famous ethnographic book "Germania" where he made the first mention of "Fenni" (Finns) and "Aesti" (Estonians). Actually, his "Fenni" were Lapps and his "Aesti" were Prussians. At that time Finnish and Estonian were still two dialects of one language, and they are still quite much alike, except that Estonian has shortened: Finnish:2 Järven vedessä nähtiin kaloja. Suomalainen seisokoon majan edessä. Estonian: 2Järve vees nähti kalu. Soomlane seisku maja ees. Because Finns never used ancient Nordic Runic script (as far as I know), the first written sources are quite belated. The oldest survival text is a very strange pagan spell which have been written in Cyrillic script in the middle of 13th century. The first Finnish books were printed in 16th century, and contemporary written Finnish was not standardized until during 19th century. However, written Finnish has never been spoken language but the compromise of 19th century dialects. Nowadays the importance of local dialects has declined in Finland (like elsewhere in Europe), because the media only speaks standard Finnish. However, dialects are still widely spoken in the countryside, and they may differ notably from standard Finnish. The main dialects are Proper Finnish, Tavastian, Botnian, Savolaxon and Karelian. The last-mentioned has often been described as an independent language, but there are no linguistic limit between Finnish and Karelian but transitional dialects. Political limit between Finland and Karelian A.S.S.R. has seemed to be more important limit. 32. Phonology 32.1. Vowels - 8 short vowels:2 a o u ä ö y e i - 8 long vowels: 2aa oo uu ää öö yy ee ii - 18 diphthongs: 2ai au oi ou ui uo äi äy öi öy yi yö ei eu ey ie iu iy Abundance of vowels is characteristic of all the Uralic languages. Finnish is not an exception; e.g. words like "riiuuyöaie" are possible! One of the most typical Uralic element is so-called vowel harmony; e.g. Finnish back vowels (a o u) can never be in the same word with front vowels (ä ö y). The only exceptions are compound nouns (e.g. "paskapää") and some new loanwords which are mostly Greek (e.g. "gynekologi") or French (e.g. "sutenööri") origin. 32.2. Consonants - 12(-15) short consonants: 2p t k d s h l r m n v j (and b g f) - 10(-14) long consonants: 2pp tt kk ss hh ll rr mm nn ng (and bb dd gg ff) (consonants in paratheses are only in new loanwords) Finnish consonant system seems to be very poor, if we compare it with English (24 consonants), Russian (35 consonants) or Ubyx (85 consonants but only two vowels!). In any case, Finnish is used to articulate very lazily. That may be the reason of consonant shortage (and abovementioned vowel harmony, too). One of the most distinctive feature in Finnish grammar is so-called grade change: stops (p t k) are in strong grade before open (vowel-ending) syllable and in weak grade before closed (consonant-ending) syllable. Grade change can be both quantitative or qualitative. The main grade change pairs (strong : weak) are in the following: Quantitative Qualitative pp : p p : v (except mp : mm) tt : t t : d (except nt : nn, lt : ll, rt : rr) kk : k k : - (except nk : ng, uku : uvu, yky : yvy) 32.3. Stress The main stress is always on the first syllable without exceptions. When word is longer than three syllables, there is usually the secondary stress on the third syllable. 33. Morphology 33.1. Nouns What makes Finno-Ugric languages very different from Indo-European languages is the quantity of grammatical cases: English: 2: nominative and genetive German: 4: nominative, genetive, dative and accusative Russian: 6: nominative, genetive, dative, accusative, instrumental and prepositional Finnish: 15(-19): nominative, genetive, accusative, partitive, essive, translative, inessive, elative, illative, adessive, ablative, allative, abessive, instructive and comitative (locative, lative, prolative and excessive) Hungarian: 18(-25): nominative, genetive, accusative, inessive, elative, illative, superessive, delative, sublative, adessive, ablative, allative, dative, terminative, essive-formal, translative, instrumental-comitative and causal-final (locative, temporal, essive-modal, formal, distributive, distributive-temporal and sociative) (cases in parantheses are rarely used) All adjectives, pronouns and numerals are declined similarly to nouns, except that adjectives can also be comparisonized (and the declension of pronouns may look like extremely irregular in the eyes of the laity!). However, one of the most regular adjective from 1st declination ("iso") is declined in the following (the rest of 85 declinations I am going to teach you later): Positive: Comparative: Superlative: Singular Nominative 2iso isompi isoin Genetive 2ison isomman isoimman Accusative 2ison isomman isoimman Partitive 2isoa isompaa isoimpaa Essive 2isona isompana isoimpana Translative 2isoksi isommaksi isoimmaksi Inessive 2isossa isommassa isoimmassa Elative 2isosta isommasta isoimmasta Illative 2isoon isompaan isoimpaan Adessive 2isolla isommalla isoimmalla Ablative 2isolta isommalta isoimmalta Allative 2isolle isommalle isoimmalle Abessive 2isotta isommatta isoimmatta Instructive 2ison isomman isoimman Comitative 2isoine isompine isoimpine Plural Nominative 2isot isommat isoimmat Genetive 2isojen isompien isoimpien Accusative 2isot isommat isoimmat Partitive 2isoja isompia isoimpia Essive 2isoina isompina isoimpina Translative 2isoiksi isommiksi isoimmiksi Inessive 2isoissa isommissa isoimmissa Elative 2isoista isommista isoimmista Illative 2isoihin isompiin isoimpiin Adessive 2isoilla isommilla isoimmilla Ablative 2isoilta isommilta isoimmilta Allative 2isoille isommille isoimmille Abessive 2isoitta isommitta isoimmitta Instructive 2isoin isommin isoimmin Comitative 2isoine isompine isoimpine (Adverb 2isosti isommin isoimmin) Another very typical Finno-Ugric element is the nonexistence of grammatical gender: there is no difference between masculine, feminine and neuter. E.g. Finnish "hän" means both "he" and "she". (This kind of great equality should be noted by every self-respectful feminist!) Otherwise Finnish pronouns are not very exotic; the only major difference from the other European languages is the existence of possessive suffixes in stead of possessive pronouns: Sg.1 Sg.2 Sg.3 Pl.1 Pl.2 Pl.3 Finnish: 2 autoni autosi autonsa automme autonne autonsa English: my car thy car his/her car our car your car their car Before I begin to tease you with Finnish verbs, I have to comfort you that articles have never existed in Finnish (just like in many ancient cultural languages e.g. Classical Latin, Homeric Greek and Vedic Sanskrit!). 33.2. Verbs Finnish verbs are conjugated in: - one voice: active - four moods: indicative, potential, conditional and imperative - four tenses: present, past, perfect and pluperfect - two numbers: singular and plural - four persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and impersonal The most noteworthy features are the nonexistence of future tense and passive voice. Impersonal person has often been imagined as passive by last century's grammarians (and this century's teachers!), but they have forgotten the most important rule: "The object of active verb is the subject of passive verb." This rule works well in English, but Finnish impersonal "passive" verbs can never have subjects: English: He (subject) kills (active verb) me (object). I (subject!) am killed (passive verb) by him (agent). Finnish: 2Hän 1(subject) 2tappaa 1(active verb)2 minut1 (object). 2Minut 1(object!) 2tapetaan 1("passive" verb)2 hänen toimestaan1 (agent). Finnish way to negate is also very strange. In most European languages the negative word (e.g. English "not", German "nicht", French and Italian "non", Spanish "no", Portuguese "nâo", Russian "nje" and even Hungarian "nem", too) is a particle without any inflection, whereas Finnish "ei" is conjugated like any verb! Otherwise the conjugation of verbs is very regular; there is only one irregular verb ("olla") which does not belong to any of 45 conjugations. Here is one of the most regular example from 1st conjugation ("sanoa"): Finitive: Positive: Negative: Indicative Present Singular 1 2sanon en sano 2 2sanot et sano 3 2sanoo ei sano Plural 1 2sanomme emme sano 2 2sanotte ette sano 3 2sanovat eivät sano Impersonal 2sanotaan ei sanota Past Singular 1 2sanoin en sanonut 2 2sanoit et sanonut 3 2sanoi ei sanonut Plural 1 2sanoimme emme sanoneet 2 2sanoitte ette sanoneet 3 2sanoivat eivät sanoneet Impersonal 2sanottiin ei sanottu Perfect Singular 1 2olen sanonut en ole sanonut 2 2olet sanonut et ole sanonut 3 2on sanonut ei ole sanonut Plural 1 2olemme sanoneet emme ole sanoneet 2 2olette sanoneet ette ole sanoneet 3 2ovat sanoneet eivät ole sanoneet Impersonal 2on sanottu ei ole sanottu Pluperfect Singular 1 2olin sanonut en ollut sanonut 2 2olit sanonut et ollut sanonut 3 2oli sanonut ei ollut sanonut Plural 1 2olimme sanoneet emme olleet sanoneet 2 2olitte sanoneet ette olleet sanoneet 3 2olivat sanoneet eivät olleet sanoneet Impersonal 2oli sanottu ei ollut sanottu Potential Present Singular 1 2sanonen en sanone 2 2sanonet et sanone 3 2sanonee ei sanone Plural 1 2sanonemme emme sanone 2 2sanonette ette sanone 3 2sanonevat eivät sanone Impersonal 2sanottaneen ei sanottane Perfect Singular 1 2lienen sanonut en liene sanonut 2 2lienet sanonut et liene sanonut 3 2lienee sanonut ei liene sanonut Plural 1 2lienemme sanoneet emme liene sanoneet 2 2lienette sanoneet ette liene sanoneet 3 2lienevät sanoneet eivät liene sanoneet Impersonal 2lienee sanottu ei liene sanottu Conditional Present Singular 1 2sanoisin en sanoisi 2 2sanoisit et sanoisi 3 2sanoisi ei sanoisi Plural 1 2sanoisimme emme sanoisi 2 2sanoisitte ette sanoisi 3 2sanoisivat eivät sanoisi Impersonal 2sanottaisiin ei sanottaisi Perfect Singular 1 2olisin sanonut en olisi sanonut 2 2olisit sanonut et olisi sanonut 3 2olisi sanonut ei olisi sanonut Plural 1 2olisimme sanoneet emme olisi sanoneet 2 2olisitte sanoneet ette olisi sanoneet 3 2olisivat sanoneet eivät olisi sanoneet Impersonal 2olisi sanottu ei olisi sanottu Imperative Present Singular 1 - - 2 2sano älä sano 3 2sanokoon älköön sanoko Plural 1 2sanokaamme älkäämme sanoko 2 2sanokaa älkää sanoko 3 2sanokoot älkööt sanoko Impersonal 2sanottakoon älköön sanottako Infinitive: 1st Infinitive Basic form 2sanoa Translative 2sanoakseen 2nd Infinitive Inessive 2sanoessa Instructive 2sanoen 3rd Infinitive Inessive 2sanomassa Elative 2sanomasta Illative 2sanomaan Adessive 2sanomalla Abessive 2sanomatta Instructive 2sanoman 4th Infinitive Nominative 2sanominen Partitive 2sanomista 5th Infinitive Adessive 2sanomaisillaan Participle: Positive: Comparative: Superlative: Present Definite Singular 2sanova sanovampi sanovin Plural 2sanovat sanovammat sanovimmat Indefinite Singular 2sanottava sanottavampi sanottavin Plural 2sanottavat sanottavammat sanottavimmat Perfect Definite Singular 2sanonut sanoneempi sanonein Plural 2sanoneet sanoneemmat sanoneimmat Indefinite Singular 2sanottu sanotumpi sanotuin Plural 2sanotut sanotummat sanotuimmat Participles are also declined in all 15 cases; thus there are 360 participles altogether! 33.3. Particles Although it may hard to believe, there are really Finnish particles (words without any inflection e.g. conjunctions, prepositions, postpositions and adverbs). However, it is quite characteristic that the most usual particle "ja" ("and") is a loanword from Proto-Germanic (e.g. Gothic "jah")! It is also notable that postpositions are much more usual than prepositions. Still, postpositions are also quite rare, because 15 case suffixes are more usable than them. E.g. the phrase "in the house" can be said in two ways in Finnish: "2talon1 (noun in genetive)2 sisässä1 (postposition)" "2talossa 1(noun in inessive)" Everybody (except Macno?) can see that the latter phrase is more economical.