| Finnish |
|
ÐÐÐÐÐ |
| Probably the most difficult
European languages to be learned. |
| Introduction
- ©www.micheloud.com |
Usefulness
Definition... |
A
huge proportion of Finnish speakers have at least basic English, and
many of them have excellent English. All in all, I couldn't say
Finnish is "'useful" but if you are spending significant
time in Finland, it will be worthwhile. |
Beauty
Definition... |
With
soft consonants and a fine range of vowels, Finnish can be a nicely
melodic language. Unfortunately, many speakers, especially men, tend
to lapse into a monotone. |
Chic factor
Definition... |
Probably
none ! Even in Finland, the locals find it so hard to believe you
speak their language that they will quickly switch to English unless
you persevere. |
Speakers
Definition... |
Around
5 million people in Finland and a few tens of thousand in the rest of
the world |
Countries
Definition... |
Finland
! You can get by pretty well with it in Estonia too... |
Regional
variations
Definition... |
The
variations are confined to the spoken language. There are some quite
marked variations within Finland, but the standard version will get
you round everywhere. The written language is uniform. |
Travel
Definition... |
Finland
is a beautiful country - spacious, clean, and civilised. The lakes and
forests are wonderful. The winters are cold, but offer excellent
winter-sports - or just snowman-building! |
Culture
Definition... |
Not
much Finnish culture has made it to the rest of the world. One example
if Väinö Linna's novel "The Unknown Soldier". Finland's
best know cultural exports - Sibelius and Tove Janssen (Muumins) -
were/are Swedish speakers ! |
|
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| Difficulty
- ©www.micheloud.com |
Phonemes
Definition... |
The only unusual sound for English speakers is the 'y' which is a 'front-u',
the same as 'u' in French. Finish lacks the 'j' 'ch' and 'sh' sounds, and
only words very recently borrwed from (usually) English have more than one
consonant at the beginning. 'r' is rolled, so much easier than French ! No
European language speakers should have any real difficulty. One common
problem for English speakers is that the difference between single and
double letters is crucial: tuli=fire/he came; tulli=customs (as in 'anything
to declare'); tuuli=wind; tule=come here !; tullee= he's probably coming;
tuulee=it's windy |
Syntax
Definition... |
This
is where Finnish has a rather fearsome reputation with its 14 noun
cases. However, 2 of these are never used in speech, 6 of them
correspond to prepositions in other languages (in, on, etc.) This
leaves 6, which is the same number as Latin, and the real win is that
the endings for all 14 are exactly the same for all nouns, so none of
this "declensions" stuff, and in singular and plural. Verbs
are also well behaved with only about 4 irregular ones, and the 4
(yes, just 4) tenses behave very much like English. |
Vocabulary
Definition... |
A
minus point here as the lack of Indo-European links makes most vocab.
completely alien for IE speakers. Even the words borrowed from
(usually) Swedish or Russian are so well disguised that they might as
well be native Finno-Ugric. |
Orthograph
Definition... |
Completely
phonetic, but the difference between single and double letters is
crucial, as mentioned above. |
Overall
difficulty
Definition... |
FXM
rates this language
as ÐÐÐÐÐ, that
is, very difficult to learn, as this it the reputation this
language has among language learners. However, Stephen Day writes that
"In my experience as an English speaker, somewhere between French
and German. 2.5*D Easy for Estonians, probably more difficult for
people whose native languages don't inflect at all." |
Time needed
Definition... |
About
the same as German for non-Dutch speakers. |
|
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| Learning
material - ©www.micheloud.com |
Books
and tapes
Definition... |
None
at the present time. |
Schools
Definition... |
I can offer no advice
on this at this time. |
Links
|
Submit
yours. |