- It is not an Indo-European language. Familiarity with languages like English, German, Spanish, Swedish and Russian is not helpful.
- There are 15 noun cases. A change of case can add, remove or change several letters in the word stem. This produces plentiful homonyms; word A in nominative is the same as word B in abessive.
- Word order (subject, object, verb) is free and does not affect semantics. But word order provides emphasis cues that make you sound like a an addled poet's apprentice if you pick clumsily.
- Finns are laconic so the words are long. For example, Keskusvaalilautakunta is 4 words; "central", "election", "board", "municipality". Can you see the word boundaries?
- There are obscure grammar rules that native speakers have never heard of and cannot help you with. They just "know" what to say.
- Pronunciation is highly regular and easy to learn. This provides a false sense of proficiency. You can fluently pronounce words that you cannot understand.
- When you think you've got it, you travel 100 miles to another city and cannot understand anything because even personal pronouns are different words in different dialects.
- When you think you've really got it, trochaic tetrameter verses from Kalevala, the national epic, will crush you. Again.
Is it then a coincidence that in Finnish mythology the most powerful man of all time is Väinämöinen, a sage with a sublime command of Finnish? When he sings, the lakes overflow, the earth shakes, and the mountains crumble.
Lauloi vanha Väinämöinen: järvet läikkyi, maa järisi,
vuoret vaskiset vapisi, paaet vahvat paukahteli,
kalliot kaheksi lenti, kivet rannoilla rakoili.
Read other related questions on Quora:
- If you're both isolated, what's the best way to learn to communicate with someone who doesn't speak your language?
- Does it offend you if someone speaks slower because they think you cannot comprehend their language?
- How can you describe 'being cool' to someone who doesn't speak English?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2eOLZRx
No comments:
Post a Comment