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#21
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On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 18:24:46 GMT, "spamfree"
wrote: I agree, Dutch and Danish are similar but I also remember Icelandic as being similar to both. Finnish comes from another planet though. Not another planet. Finnish is related to Estonian and Hungarian. Did you really think he meant it literally? ************* DAVE HATUNEN ) ************* * Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow * * My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * |
#22
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spamfree wrote:
When I was in Copenhagen a week ago, I talked with a man who told me that Dutch and Danish were so similar that he could read Dutch. He also said that the Dutch language had diverged some- what verbally, as the ach or auch (or something like that) sounds made spoken Dutch very difficult to understand. I had no idea that Dutch and Danish languages were so similar. I always heard that Norwegian and Danish were very similar, so can Norwegians, Dutch, and Danish people read each other's newspapers? How about Swedish? My first experience with Nordic languages was Finnish, having traveled there before Scandinavia. I was always greeted with Hei, pronounced like hay. In Sweden, I was greeted with Hei pronounced like high, leading me to initially believe that the speaker recognized me as an American. But they greeted local people the same way. Do all Scandinavians, including Icelanders, pronounce Hei like high, with the Finns being the only ones to pronounce it like hay? Pete In Finnish it is written HEI and in Swedish HEJ, both are pronounced "hay". |
#23
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On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:00:37 -0700, Hatunen wrote:
On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:14:11 GMT, Deep Foiled Malls wrote: On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 18:27:10 GMT, "spamfree" wrote: My first experience with Nordic languages was Finnish, having traveled there before Scandinavia. Finnish has no relationship with the others at all. Yes, I knew that. That's why I wrote that Finnish was included in the set of Nordic languages. I would never have written that Finnish was included in the set of Scandinavian languages, as Finnish is related to only Estonian and Hungarian. Albeit very, very distantly. Finnish and Estonian are not mutually understood, and they usually communicate with English instead. Hm. Not my Finish relatives when I go to Estonia with them. It appears to not be too difficult for Finns to communicate with Estonians. As part of the Soviet Union the Estonians were blessed with being able to watch Finnish TV, which they could easily receive and fairly easily understand. I was going off the word of a pack of Finns I met in Tallinn. They told me that the languages only shared a few similar words but the rest was different. It all sounded bizzare to me though. Neither sounded like Hungarian to my ears. -- --- DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com --- -- |
#24
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Kristian wrote: wrote: spamfree wrote: I agree, Dutch and Danish are similar but I also remember Icelandic as being similar to both. Finnish comes from another planet though. Not another planet. Finnish is related to Estonian and Hungarian. Pete but what are Estonian and Hungarian related to ? The "Uralian" family of languages: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/finnish-intro.html Kristian Uralian's, I'm sure they attacked the USS Enterprise in one episode. |
#26
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Gregory Morrow wrote: Hatunen wrote: Not exactly; Finn is also related to a number of obscure languages scattered in small clusters across northern Asia. Supposedly Mongolian and even very distantly Korean... No. The "Ural-Altaic" hypothesis is not widely believed now. Korean is not definitely related to anything, although some think it's one of the "Altaic" (Turkish and Mongolian) languages. Finnish is closely related to Estonian, Saami ("Lappish") and various languages scattered through northwest Russia. Hungarian is a more distant relative, more distant still are the Samoyedic languages of the Russian Arctic. This is the "Uralic" family. Edmund |
#27
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In article t.dk,
says... Martin wrote: On 14 Jun 2005 01:28:33 -0700, wrote: Kristian wrote: wrote: spamfree wrote: I agree, Dutch and Danish are similar but I also remember Icelandic as being similar to both. Finnish comes from another planet though. Not another planet. Finnish is related to Estonian and Hungarian. Pete but what are Estonian and Hungarian related to ? The "Uralian" family of languages: http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/finnish-intro.html Kristian Uralian's, I'm sure they attacked the USS Enterprise in one episode. Usually they are dormant in broom cupboards. Urinalians.....!? Oh, and I thought they were saying "You're an alien!" Thanks for clearing that up. |
#28
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"Børre Stokke" wrote in message news:mNjre.1221$vS6.403@amstwist00... People from Norway, Denmark and Sweden understand each other without great difficulties. Dutch may be understood if you have some knowledge of German. Finnish is quite different. Icelandic is Old Norse, Icelandic is NOT Old Norse. It's the closest of all modern languages to Old Norse, but it's not Old Norse. Danish and Norweigian are very similar -- and Swedish likewise. Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish are all from the "North Germanic" branch of the Germanic family of languages. Dutch, like English, is from the "Low German" group of languages from the "West Germanic" branch. Like English, Frisian, and Low German, Dutch is not closely related to Danish, and Danish speakers do not generally understand Dutch just by knowing Danish. And as been pointed out, Finnish is not a Nordic language at all, being related to Estonian, Hungarian, and other languages from much farther east. and very difficult for us. In Norway we pronounce HEI like HIGH. "tim (moved to sweden)" wrote in message ... "spamfree" wrote in message nk.net... When I was in Copenhagen a week ago, I talked with a man who told me that Dutch and Danish were so similar that he could read Dutch. He also said that the Dutch language had diverged some- what verbally, as the ach or auch (or something like that) sounds made spoken Dutch very difficult to understand. I had no idea that Dutch and Danish languages were so similar. I always heard that Norwegian and Danish were very similar, so can Norwegians, Dutch, and Danish people read each other's newspapers? How about Swedish? My first experience with Nordic languages was Finnish, having traveled there before Scandinavia. Finnish has no relationship with the others at all. My colleagues tell me that they can get by in Norway and Denmark (possibly because we get Danish TV), but can't understand a word of Finnish. tim |
#29
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"Børre Stokke" wrote in message news:mNjre.1221$vS6.403@amstwist00... In Norway we pronounce HEI like HIGH. Where in Norway would that be? Listen to yourself when you are saying hei -- I'm sure you're not pronouncing it like 'hai' (the fish), which is closest to the English word 'high'. Instead you say something like 'haei', don't you. |
#30
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The Rev Gaston wrote: On 2005-06-13 19:56:16 +0200, "B=F8rre Stokke" s= aid: People from Norway, Denmark and Sweden understand each other without g= reat difficulties. Dutch may be understood if you have some knowledge of German. I keep hearing this, but I get by understanding Dutch on the basis of very shaky Swedish, and many things in Dutch seem more similar to Swedish than German. If I have another drink I may even remember some examples... G; I tried telling some Dutch people that Dutch was very close to German but they denied it and pointed out a number of differences although they may have missed the other 99% of similarities. |
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