A. J. Raffles, on Mar 28 2006, 06:47 AM, said:
Juni's Finnish lessons (split from the language thread by popular request)
#1
Posted 30 March 2006 - 05:25 PM
#2
Posted 30 March 2006 - 07:56 PM
Juni Ori, on Mar 30 2006, 05:25 PM, said:
Seriously, though, I just happen to like languages. I'm interested in how they work, and I think small languages in particular are fascinating. Finnish is by far the wackiest language I've ever encountered - there's nothing like it, really. Knowing it wouldn't have any practical use whatsoever for me, I suppose, and it's highly unlikely I'd ever get a chance to practise it, but I'd like to learn it anyway, just for the fun of it. Armenian is also an amazing language. They've even got an alphabet of their own, which is part of an ancient culture that we barely know anything about in this part of Europe, and one of the reasons for that is that the language is too little known. There are lots of great writers who wrote in Hungarian, and I'd like to be able to read their books. Hungarian also does that crazy agglutinating(?) thingy which Finnish does as well, I think. None of the languages I know work that way. And Icelandic I'd like to learn because it's the Scandinavian language I had to skip completely (except for an introductory course on Old Icelandic, but that doesn't really count) because I didn't have much time. Which is a shame, since there's quite a few interesting Icelandic writers as well and not all of them have been translated.
Does that make sense?
#3
Posted 01 April 2006 - 11:48 AM
A. J. Raffles, on Mar 30 2006, 07:56 PM, said:
Hungarian also does that crazy agglutinating(?) thingy which Finnish does as well, I think.
Does that make sense?
Puffin, about why Denmark is usually included to Scandinavia, is very obvious: cultural and linguistic unity. Icelandic belongs to Scandinavian Languages, even though it is so far away. First known settlers of Iceland were Norse. As well as many other small islands in cold north. If we're talking about Scandinavian Peninsula, you're very correct. Scandinavian Languages and Scandinavia, not to mention Scandinavian Unity in general are totally different thing, as even Finland is easily understood to be part of Scandinavia as it belongs to Scandinavian Unity, northern paradise.
#4
Posted 01 April 2006 - 01:42 PM
Juni Ori, on Apr 1 2006, 11:48 AM, said:
Agglutiniwhatever means adding lots of morphemes at the end of a word in order to express a bunch of things. It's a bit hard to describe.
#5
Posted 01 April 2006 - 02:00 PM
I kind of figured out that agguwhateva. It's true. They can be pain in the *** to somebody who isn't used to them. Unfortunately I'm no pro, so I'm not going to give you many examples, but here's couple:
Juni - Junin (Juni's) - Juninkin (also Juni's) - Juninkaan (not even Juni's)
juo (drink, drinks) - juoda (drink) - juomaan (to drink) - juomassa (at drinking)
Juni juo paljon (Juni drinks a lot)
Surprising examples?
#6
Posted 01 April 2006 - 03:16 PM
If you were to say (this is a purely hypothetical case, of course ) "Juni doesn't drink much", could you do it through agglutinating as well, or would you need another word for the 'not', just like in any other boring language?
#7
Posted 01 April 2006 - 03:20 PM
Juni ei juo paljoa.
Terrible thought btw...
#9
Posted 01 April 2006 - 03:34 PM
#10
Posted 01 April 2006 - 03:45 PM
#11
Posted 01 April 2006 - 03:54 PM
#12
Posted 08 April 2006 - 09:25 AM
A. J. Raffles, on Apr 1 2006, 01:42 PM, said:
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uuksissansakkaankopahan
And, off the aggluwhatevar, longest compound (by Guinness WR) in it's basic form:
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#14
Posted 08 April 2006 - 10:06 AM
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