This reminds me of how funny it is that in English we have several identical words that all mean something different 😂 when I see people learning English I start to remember how strange it is
@@kasper4079 I think the word you're looking for is homophone, although it's really not a homophone but a synonym in this case. That being said, I have no idea how the two words see different sexual orientations, so they could be homophobes just as well.
"Very warm. The heat situation, very warm" absolutely killed me because that is exactly what Finnish people sound like when we speak English. I feel very seen
The problem in Finnish is that we are finding out new words when necessary. These must be our language, lämpötila, tietokone, you cut it short with Latin temperature computer
It would be fun to hear next time about the differense between compound words: hammasrauta vs rautahammas, huonekasvi vs kasvihuone, viinipullo vs pulloviini, koeajo vs ajokoe, silmälasi vs lasisilmä... It would be fun to hear your guesses about these words' meanings!
Awesome job translating the words and deducting the meaning! Especially the backwards deduction with hammasraudat was very impressive and showed that you have developed your Finnish skills very far already. It was awesome that you showed your thinking process, it made me appreciate the language learning even more. It would be really fun to watch another video like this.
Well, as requested, an attempt at the explanation for the Finnish word "lohikäärme" relating to a flying and fire-breathing mythological lizard. Apologies in advance, this might prove to be quite a heavy comment to read. The first part of the word is actually a loan or an alteration/variation of an Old Swedish word 'flogh', literally translating to 'flying' (compare for example, the word 'flyga'; it has the same origin). Originally, it was 'louhi' in Finnish (meaning 'fire' and/or 'lightning'). In other words, it has nothing to do with the word for 'salmon', it has merely developed into a homophome - a word that sounds identical. The Old Swedish word for dragon is 'draki' (in current Swedish form 'drake'; the history of this goes back to Old Norse and Middle Low German, all the way to a Proto-West Germanic stem). And in the word for dragon (Old Swedish: 'floghdraki', lit. 'flying snake') it was replaced in Finnish with the word meaning 'snake' which was 'käärme'. Thus 'lohikäärme' was born.
Interesting trivia: The word ”lohikäärme” was coined by Mikael Agricola, often seen as the founder of modern Finnish. He also translated the first Bible from German(?) to Finnish, and if I’m not mistaken ”lohikäärme” appeared in this print.
It's also possible that 'louhi' comes from the actual word 'louhi' meaning a bedrock mountain where dragons were thought to live (this 'louhi' is also where the Finnish word for mining, 'louhia', comes from ;))
One of the things I'm constantly impressed by when it comes to your Finnish skills is that you've gotten so good at telling words apart. Like, for example, if you see the word "tammikuu", you know "tammi" is one word and "kuu" is another. So it's not something silly like "Tam Mikuu". I know our long words can be a bit challenging, but looks like you've learned to handle them fairly easily. I love these videos, very interesting and entertaining to watch!
To me one fun bird name has been Eurasian Wryneck= Käenpiika=Cuckoo bird's maid. Cuckoo bird's lay eggs to other birds nests for those birds to raise as their own. And this birdspecie is apparently their favorite. Other fun ones that come to mind: Floor lamp = jalkalamppu = foot/leg lamp Chimney = savupiippu = smoke pipe Milky way = linnunrata = bird's track/route Santa claus = Joulupukki = Christmas goat
A few more off the top of my head: Projector = videotykki = video cannon Space bar = välilyönti = gap hit Trimmer = partakone = beard machine Vacuum cleaner = pölynimuri = dust sucker Finnish is awesome, and I'd be really frustrated trying to learn it as a second language...
@@n4rttu "Rain's shade" makes more sense to me than a "descent shade". Rain comes down and you shade yourself from it. Giving yourself a "shade" to descent with gives me this weird dissociative feeling with the word, like it's upside down. Like standing *on* the umbrella when it's raining.
In Norwegian, the word for buttercup (smørblomst) does directly translate into butter flower in English. Growing up bilingual Norwegian and Finnish, for the longest time I thought voikukka also meant buttercup in Finnish; I was very confused when I eventually found out. Norwegian also has a lot of these literal words, a particular favourite of mine being the word for bat - flaggermus - which literally translates into "flappy mouse".
same here. As a German speaker I also assumed voikukka meant buttercup because the direct translation "Butter-Blume" is in fact a name used for "buttercup" in German as well. The Finnish "voikukka" is called "Löwenzahn" in German which translates to "liontooth"
7:54 Fun fact: As a finn when someone runs through the months, I never hear them pronounce the "kuu". It's always tammi, helmi, maalis... etc. You don't mention it even on the last one, even if you run through all 12 of them.
Finnish language has aversion repetition and obvious things, and you should always try to optimize and avoid repeating of words in a closely related sentences. You can do it by omitting the obvious parts, or by using synonyms if omitting the words is not possible For example, if you have a paragraph that repeats the same word in several sentences in Finnish, it feels very strange. As soon as we have stated what we are talking about, we will try to try to omit references to it, since unless the subject changes, you know what we are talking about. So we make you infer the meaning from the whole paragraph, instead of repeating it. If it is not possible, in case of an adjective or a verb, we will try to find a similar enough word to replace it. Especially the repetitive use of adjectives or names should be avoided at all costs I think this feature of omission is very similar to Japanese language, where half of the sentence might be omitted if it is obvious or if it is uncomfortable subject and the other person should fill in the blanks Listening to a conversation between two Finns (particularly on the phone when you don't hear the other person) can be very funny at times, since both know what they are talking about, and there are only few possible answers. A whole phone call for a contractor taking in a job might go something like this: "Matti, joo, joo, ei jouda, huomenna, ok, ok, huomiseen" xD
My favorite Finnish compounds would definitely be these two: Flatulence = Ilmavaiva = Air nuisance Perineum = Väliliha = Middle meat And I love the fact that "ilmavaiva" is just one letter away from "ilmalaiva", an airship (also a literal translation) or a blimp. I also recently realized that the Finnish word for butler, hovimestari, would translate as "court master", which brings to mind something completely different. Also the Finnish word for month is kuukausi, or moon period. In the actual month names you omit the "kausi".
Kuu in a month like tammikuu stands for kuukausi, which would literally translate to something like season of The moon(aka The amount of The Time it takes for The moon to travel around The earth)
The months in Finnish are indeed poetic, I love how we have completely different words for them than most other European languages. Helmikuu, kesäkuu, heinäkuu, elokuu, syyskuu, lokakuu, joulukuu... Always wondered where 'helmikuu' got it's name, does it come from the snow glistering like pearls or something? Weird, hahah, but that's my favourite Finnish name for a month.
I knew Finnish as a child. My parents were from Finland. Now the language is rusty. But you inspire me to re-learn. I enjoyed this exercise in the language. Love your videos!
I love things like this so much. Finnish is my mother tongue so the quirkyness of these may fly under the radar for me but watching this video made me appreciate Finnish. Now I feel eager to start learning some new language myself.
Tammi doesnt really mean "oak" in the word tammikuu but most likely "an axel, a pole", as it is the first month and the rest of the year is spinning around it.
I went to a quiz night and one of the funniest rounds was when Finnish place names were translated to English. Many people had never realized how familiar places like Joensuu and Linnanmäki sounds so unfamiliar in direct English translation (River Mouth and Castle Hill).
Lohikäärme can also come from finnish mythology. It is possible that lohi is shortend from Louhi who was antagonist in Kalevala. So dragon would be Louhi's snake.
4:00 it’s interesting to hear that sandwiches don’t normally have two pieces of bread in Finland. I have a polish friend who does the same thing, they only use one piece of bread, but as an American who has only once traveled outside the us and never out of the continent, it’s kind of a cool thing. Thinking about it, two slices of bread is just some unnecessary bread
Do people actually make sandwiches with two pieces of bread themselves at home?? I thought people only buy them from restaurants or cafeterias or whatever, even in the United States of America.
@@Pseudoplasmagore American here, yep we do make sandwiches with 2 slices at home too. It helps the whole thing to hold together; you can hold it sideways with one hand, or gesture with your sandwich hand, and nothing falls off.
The food was named after the Earl of Sandwich that liked to play cards for money. He didn’t want to stop to eat, but eating and playing would ruin the cards. The bread around the meat kept the hands and therefore the cards clean. And I believe our expression “sandwich between” or sandwiched comes from the food not the other way around.
About that tammikuu thing where you thought "kuu" means month. Month is actually kuukausi, and the "-kuu" end in every month's name is kinda just short for kuukausi. As for kuukausi, it literally means "moon season/moon age", because it's how long the moon takes to go around.
It's interesting that some of them work in German, too. "Voileipä" is "Butterbrot" (butter bread). It usually means one slice of bread with butter and cheese, cold cuts or jam on top, not a sandwich in the stricter sense. We also have the "shield toad" (Schildkröte), the fridge in German is a "cooling cupboard/closet" (Kühlschrank) but some people call it "Eisschrank" (ice closet), too. A bra is a "Büstenhalter" (bosom holder) in German. A buttercup in German is a "Butterblume" (butter flower). We also have keskiviikko. It's "Mittwoch" (mid week). "Erdball" (maapallo) also exists as an alternative expression for "globe", almost exclusively used in the context of "around the globe" ("rund um den Erdball). Funny. German and Finnish minds seem to think alike sometimes. :)
Months are literally moon phases. Most literal are kesäkuu and joulukuu. Marraskuu comes from old word for death: marras. Lokakuu means filth-moon. Tammi is reference to oak tree. It is month in the dead winter as hard and immovable as a sturdy oak. I am sure there's some site that explains all of them. Worth to give a look, each one is interesting. What's more, there are MANY references to old pagan days and to "viking era". Here are literal translations of few that comes to mind: Ukkonen or ukonilma = weather of Ukko (god) (means; thunder storm) Torstai = Thor's day (means; thursday) Joulu = Yule (means; christmas) Joulupukki = Yule goat (means; santa claus)
Also the old farming year cycle is obviously visible in Finnish names of the months. Huhtikuu = time to burn the forests (in order to plant rye in the ashes.) Toukokuu = time to plant the fields. Heinäkuu = Hay month. That time of the year when hay is harvested. Elokuu = harvest moon.
I think that "kilpi" was translated to plate, because "rekisterikilpi" is a finnish word for "license plate". Also your finnish accent on 6:36 was on point! 😂 And moon and month are the same word in finnish
Konna also means frog tribe (Bufonidae) in Finnish, and that's why turtle is like a kind of frog with a shield. In the Finnish language, tammi has meant pole, axis, middle tree. January is the center of winter. This month split the difficult winter season in two.
Not sure if somebody has mentioned this yet, but 'tammi' is also very old word that means core/middle So therefore tammikuu/core moon is middle of winter
3:53 I think that tradition originally came from Sweden, where there is its own word for a big sandwich buffet, "smörgåsbord", which is also used in English to emphasize a big variation of things, like a feast or a banquet. And in Sweden sandwiches are often seen as a form of art, where all the toppings are in a perfect harmony with each other, and closing it with another bread slice would ruin the sensation.🥪
This was actually fun for a speaker of Danish, which is also an agglutinative language, as many of the words are the same in Danish, literally translated (and some are not). Ice cupboard (fridge) is actually cooling cupboard in Danish, but before they were electrified, we picked up a big block of ice at the local "ice dairy" and put it in the ice cupboard... I recall my old colleague saying "Finnish is easy: a book is a kirkja and a song is laulu, so a songbook is laulukirja. And as christmas is joulo, a Christmas songbook is joulolaulukirja..."
Kilpikonna could be "shield thug" as well. "Arpakuutio" may be a little old fashioned word and "noppa " more popular today, but you can hear "arpakuutio" occasionally. (the Nut island's Peace divides Finnish dialects into eastern and western type)
There's an old novel called Rautatie, where a couple living in rural eastern Finland hears that they are building a railroad in the neighboring town. Not knowing what exactly it is, they take it literally and assume that they are building a road made of sheet metal. It's been made into a movie in the early 70's and it's available on Yle Areena. If you ever want to see an old Finnish movie, I can recommend it. But be warned, it's not your average action flick. It's about the "hickyness" of the Finns in the late 19th century.
lohikäärme: partial calque of Old Swedish floghdraki (“flying snake”); lohi + käärme. Originally louhikäärme, the initial component became lohi (“salmon”) by folk etymology.
Pesusieni (Spongia officinalis) is actually a real mushroom used to same thing as sponge, which is a synthetic version of the mushroom. Originally these mushrooms were harvested from the mediterranian sea but naturally not in such volumes as commercial use needs.
Origins of lohikäärme: lohi comes from the old-swedish flogh = flying. When salmon swims upriver to their spawning grounds they jump "fly" up the rapids.
@@elmetzi louhikäärme vas a thing but it was just a variant and had nothing to do with the Finnish mythology Kalevala that has the character named Louhi
@@elmetzi Agricola did have the variant of lohikäärme that was louhikäärme but louhi was just variant of lohi in this context but even though louhikäärme is in principle correct it's not used in modern finnish language
So I just watched the more recent one and then this one and I think you did amazing! I was quite impressed multiple times, especially how you figured out the lemma of the word rauta. So good job, Dave!
I'm quite sure the word 'lohikäärme' is corrupted version of the original: Louhikäärme (Louhi's snake = 'Louhen käärme'). Louhi is powerful, northern character in Finnish mytology and her pet called 'Ikiturso' (or 'Iku-turso') reminds dragon a lot, though it lives in water like monster of Loch Ness.
I was in your situation some 33 years ago. My funniest challenge was kunnossapito. >break it down: kunnos => well, nt changes to nn, and that s... let's forget about it for now sapito => could not be found. Cost me an hour of working time ;) >The real break down: kunto => kunno- meaning: form, condition, state ssa => Innessiivi, means roughly "in" pito => grip, keeping, maintaining (coming from the verb pitää "to keep") So: Kunno ssa pito = in-condition keeping = maintenance, upkeep.
Thanks! Haven't even noticed, that we are so literal. Maybe that's why its so easy to create a lot of word jokes in finnish. I personally like to combine two or more of those double words. Like kirjolohi (rainbowtrout) and lohikäärme (dragon) = Kirjolohikäärme, then just try to imagine it: could it be like a colourful dragon, or snake looking like a rainbow trout? Another one: sähkövirta (electric current) + virtahepo (hippo) = sähkövirtahepo. Literally electric current horse, or just electric hippo.
January is the first month of the year on the Gregorian and Julian calendars. In the northern hemisphere, it is on average the coldest month of the year, midwinter, which is also suggested to be the name of the month, because in Häme dialects, for example, the word oak also means heart or core (“heart tree”) and pole or axis. January has also been called the heart of the month. The Great Oak, which appears in Kalevala poetry, is a giant tree covering the sky, the world tree
Actually the word "Lämpötila" is literally: heat-state and not situation, that would be tilanne Also that konna for villain is also wrong. It means crook, and also it is technically wrong in this instance, since in this situation it clearly means the toad and not the crook (lit. konna)
Right! Seems like he was using Google translate, which is usually pretty accurate but gave very weird results in this video. Like how does 'arpa' translate to 'lot'? Am I missing some weird meaning of the word 'lot'? I know it can mean LOTS of different things 😅
English has many frases too that sounds funny when translated literally, like Shooting star, Safe and Sound, Over here etc. 😅 Probably the hardest and puzzling word to really understand was Colonel. It really didn't make any sense how to spell it.
I think the "kilpikonna" is like Estonian "kilpkonn" which literally means 'shield frog'. 🐸 Overall, pretty amazing how similar the two languages are in some cases. Even the sandwich-making habits are the same 🤣
English can also be very surprising. Who could ever guess that a 'butterfly' is not a 'fly of the butter' (it translates 'farfalla' in Italian, nothing to do with butter). Not to mention 'Dragonfly': a charming insect we call with a charming name (Libellula). No dragons involved.
Congratz on your Finnish! You have made a huge progress through out these videos. Very entertaining to be a part of your jorney. This video was one of funniest ones! Have to say, as a Finn, most of the time I am completely oblivious about these oddities of Finnish language, yhdyssanat just comes so natural. But many years ago I had this summer job as a whole salesman. My customers often were professional handymen and sorts, rarely I had to sell them anything, they would only ask whether we had this and that. That was the moment when I realized how you can really twist up the Finnish language when it comes to "work lingo". "Työukot" would come to me and ask "missä on pöllön silmät?". Where are the owl eyes? I was flabbergasted... Apparently those were the aluminium things you put in hole and strike with a hammer to seal it up / attach something.
The Dragon one, is from Norse, it's from the time when Finnish wasn't as well documented either... but supposedly it's a translation of Flying Dragon. Pesusieni is a direct translation of Swedish Tvättsvamp. Voileipä... yet another steal from Swedish, well not anymore, but in the olden days when we didn't have dumb words for stuff, it used to be buttered bread as well. Dandelions oh yes, the one where they use a Swedish name for a bunch of flowers, but use it for the wrong flower... Well it's better than the Swedish name which is wormrose, but since we use it for alcohol, it's fine. Kilpikonna now that's a direct translation, of Sköldpadda, that's because konna in finnish originally meant frog... heat situation, yeah I guess we were lazy in Sweden and just copied thermometer, which is heat measure, but yeah, it should've been värmestånd before that loanword, which means heat situation... guess it's yet another loanword, not necessarily though. Okay the Rauta in Hammasraudat comes from Norse, I knew it, as Raudi is Hematite, or Iron ore, literally meaning redish... Oh the Maapallo was interesting, because in Swedish the word is Jordglob, earth globe... I learned a lot of fun stuff, I'll probably forget, but I think I've added some things with my comment... It's interesting how similar Finnish is to the Nordic languages due to how many loanwords it has, for example Ruhtinas(prince) which comes from an old norse word Druhtinaz meaning lord/king... Well being next door neighbors and having basically the same culture, it's not really that weird, I mean, Finns are surrounded by the Nords and the Rus both of which have the same culture, so it's not weird that Finland became what it became, living under constant threat of 2 superpowers... Sweden used to be the mightiest nation on Earth... requiring both the Dutch and the Russians to smack em down.
The refrigerator one makes total sense from an English perspective. Before electricity, refrigerators were cooled with blocks of ice and were often called “iceboxes “. My grandmother, born in 1912, always called the refrigerator an icebox-either because that’s what they used when she was young or what she heard from her mother.
Lentokone "flight machine". More bizarrely it's often just abbreviated to kone. So at boarding time to go "into the machine" (koneeseen). It is actually not so silly if you ever watched the movie "Those magnificent men in their flying machines", because in the early days of powered flight planes were called "flying machines" even in English. Why did we ever change it to aeroplane, airplane or just plane? Flying machines was just perfect!
The original form "louhikäärme" was still there in the 50's-70's (at least in Donald Duck comics). A "plate villain" is just plain ridiculous :) The correct literal translation in that case would indeed be a "shield toad".
One of my favourites is "Kuusi palaa" It means: - The spruce is on fire - The number six is on fire - Your moon is on fire - Six of them are on fire - The spruce returns - The number six returns - Six of them return - Your moon returns - Six pieces
Idk if this has anything to do with the origin of the word dragon in Finnish, but in many Asian cultures dragons actually are considered water lizards/serpents rather than fire breathing creatures. Also the Finnish epic Kalevala has this huge water serpent that might have been the inspiration for the word?
this usually happens but I'm looking trough the comments without any comment saying that right now :D and I think this channel is cool to watch from finnish perspective! Been watching randomly recommended videos here and there!
The word lohikäärme (or louhikäärme) is probably derived from old Swedish word 'floghdraki ’ - flying dragon. Finns changed the latter part 'draki' with snake.
One of my favourite combination word ( =yhdyssana) is ''väkisinmakuupussikaljoittelu''. Grammatically correct, but does not make any sense, even though every word on its own is a real word.
And there is also alot literal translations that are the exact same in English like: Smart phone = Älypuhelin microwave oven = mikroaaltouuni electric vire = sähköjohto (johto can also meen leader) crochet hook = virkkuukoukku nutrition value = ravintoarvo and so on...
I really enjoy these dives into the vast ocean of weirdness that is the Finnish language. It gives you a cool perspective to something that's so close to home. For example tammikuu is such an ordinary day-to-day word, but when you translate it literally to oak moon, it becomes really beautiful and poetic. The others would be pearl moon, earth moon, swidden moon, planting moon, summer moon, hey moon, crop moon, autumn moon, dirt moon, dead moon and yule/"christmas"moon. My favorites of these would be oak moon, pearl moon and dead moon... 🕯️📖
Thank you for the video, it made my day, also when i was in school my teachers would say ( A for efford) 10 points and a parrot's mark on top. You did well
Dave: "Tammi...helmi... yeah...does anyone else..." Me:-YES I HAVE TO DO THAT EVE... Dave continuing:"...when learning new languages..." -Oh... umm... sure... I'm not having problems with months in my native language either...pfft... who said that?
hyvin tehty, dave! you did such an amazing job! finnish is such a hard language to learn and you are doing a decent job! you can be proud of yourself!! also it's funny to me as a german how some words are the same in german. we also do very literal words. kilpikonna also is shield-toad in german (Schildkröte) and we could also say earth-ball (Erdball, just sounds very poetic then). lentokone is also close as flying-stuff in german (Flugzeug). i lived in finland for a year and in my finnish lessons we discovered a lot of similarities :) my favorite one was the dandelion, which we also call butter-flower (Butterblume), or lion-tooth (Löwenzahn), or blowing-flower (Pusteblume) because you can blow the seeds away :)
I love this literal approach of Finnish language! It was also satisfying to watch you figure out hammasraudat! Do you use Reddit? This could be posted to subreddits like r/suomi and r/finland. I don't know language subs, first to come in mind are r/etymology and r/doesnottranslate
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed! I'm not a Reddit user, but from what I understand posting ones own content is frowned upon but if someone else wants to, that's great 😀
lappuliisa - small piece of paper Liisa (="Lisa") - traffic warden baarimikko - bar Mikko (="Michael") - bartender rattijuoppo - steering wheel drunk - drunken driver
Those literal tanslation also tell how diffently people see things. Like Computer kind of locks english speaking world on computing and calcularing things with machine, and for finns it's more about the data, information, and knowledge... And even finnish words have synonyms... so tammi also means barragade or dam, so it's infact barrage month originally... like it barrages new year, and often dams rhe air like frost for the winter for hole month.
As a native speaker these are so fun to watch, since you don't really think about these normally.
Here's one I just thought of: dictionary!
It's "sanakirja" or literally a "word book".
You understand Finland language very good 🇫🇮
This reminds me of how funny it is that in English we have several identical words that all mean something different 😂 when I see people learning English I start to remember how strange it is
@@PPikes Those are called homonyms. A lot of languages have them. If not all even.
Maapallo. Mieti et se on pallo missä on useita maita.
To be fair, no one in finland really calls the dice "arpakuutio", we usually call it "noppa"
yes really rarely we call it arpakuutio.
I mean I didn't even connect that it was a homophobe at first I was like what the fuck is arpakuutio then I shortly after figured it out
@@kasper4079 I think the word you're looking for is homophone, although it's really not a homophone but a synonym in this case. That being said, I have no idea how the two words see different sexual orientations, so they could be homophobes just as well.
Arpakuutio is the official name, but nobody calls it because it's long
Every arpakuutio is a noppa, but not all nopat are arpakuutioita!
"Very warm. The heat situation, very warm" absolutely killed me because that is exactly what Finnish people sound like when we speak English. I feel very seen
Lmao yeah
Dave speaks good rally english 😃
repesin 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The problem in Finnish is that we are finding out new words when necessary. These must be our language, lämpötila, tietokone, you cut it short with Latin temperature computer
@Alien It's ironic that that was said by an alien.
It would be fun to hear next time about the differense between compound words: hammasrauta vs rautahammas, huonekasvi vs kasvihuone, viinipullo vs pulloviini, koeajo vs ajokoe, silmälasi vs lasisilmä... It would be fun to hear your guesses about these words' meanings!
Awesome job translating the words and deducting the meaning! Especially the backwards deduction with hammasraudat was very impressive and showed that you have developed your Finnish skills very far already. It was awesome that you showed your thinking process, it made me appreciate the language learning even more. It would be really fun to watch another video like this.
Thank you so much! I was particularly proud of that one too! Even surprised myself 😄
@@davecad These are funny to watch im from finland but still👍
raudat could also be translated to shackles. "Put the thief in shackles! - Laita varas rautoihin!"
@@petertapola8097 You could also say "put the thief in irons" in English, and that would mean the same.
Well, as requested, an attempt at the explanation for the Finnish word "lohikäärme" relating to a flying and fire-breathing mythological lizard. Apologies in advance, this might prove to be quite a heavy comment to read.
The first part of the word is actually a loan or an alteration/variation of an Old Swedish word 'flogh', literally translating to 'flying' (compare for example, the word 'flyga'; it has the same origin). Originally, it was 'louhi' in Finnish (meaning 'fire' and/or 'lightning'). In other words, it has nothing to do with the word for 'salmon', it has merely developed into a homophome - a word that sounds identical.
The Old Swedish word for dragon is 'draki' (in current Swedish form 'drake'; the history of this goes back to Old Norse and Middle Low German, all the way to a Proto-West Germanic stem). And in the word for dragon (Old Swedish: 'floghdraki', lit. 'flying snake') it was replaced in Finnish with the word meaning 'snake' which was 'käärme'. Thus 'lohikäärme' was born.
Interesting trivia: The word ”lohikäärme” was coined by Mikael Agricola, often seen as the founder of modern Finnish. He also translated the first Bible from German(?) to Finnish, and if I’m not mistaken ”lohikäärme” appeared in this print.
@@claymore2000 i think u are right
There's also another theory where it comes from. In old Finnish it was "louhikäärme". Louhi being this mythical Witch of the North. So it's her snake
It's also possible that 'louhi' comes from the actual word 'louhi' meaning a bedrock mountain where dragons were thought to live (this 'louhi' is also where the Finnish word for mining, 'louhia', comes from ;))
Nah. It’s just a reptile like creature with scales like salmon
One of the things I'm constantly impressed by when it comes to your Finnish skills is that you've gotten so good at telling words apart. Like, for example, if you see the word "tammikuu", you know "tammi" is one word and "kuu" is another. So it's not something silly like "Tam Mikuu". I know our long words can be a bit challenging, but looks like you've learned to handle them fairly easily. I love these videos, very interesting and entertaining to watch!
Exhaust = pakokaasu = escape gas
Nightingale = satakieli = hundred tongue
I started thinking, is it meant kieli as in tongue or language? Both make sense
Also fun ones:
Beet = punajuuri = red root
armchair = nojatuoli = lean(ing) chair
peasant = talonpoika = houses boy
To me one fun bird name has been
Eurasian Wryneck= Käenpiika=Cuckoo bird's maid. Cuckoo bird's lay eggs to other birds nests for those birds to raise as their own. And this birdspecie is apparently their favorite.
Other fun ones that come to mind:
Floor lamp = jalkalamppu = foot/leg lamp
Chimney = savupiippu = smoke pipe
Milky way = linnunrata = bird's track/route
Santa claus = Joulupukki = Christmas goat
Asuntovaunu = house wagon = caravan / camper trailer
Maastopuku = terrain / ground suit = camosuit
Aasinsilta = Asses bridge / donkey's bridge = awkward transition
Virtahepo = Stream horse = Hippopotamus
Rintaliivit = chest vest = bra
And so on... :P
Muurahaiskarhu = ant bear = anteater
Poliisikoira = cop dog = K9
Alushousut = vessel trousers = undies
Kitupiikki = suffer thorn = penny-pincher
And so on...
I was just laughing to the finnish word for raccoon like couple days ago 😂 Raccoon = pesukarhu = washbear.
it's the same in German and some other European languages. In this case English seems to be the odd one out
Yeah it's washbear in Swedish too... I think it comes from them washing their food (remember the clip where a racoon tries to wash cotton candy 😂).
Im finnish and i just laughed out loud
Same in Sweden and most of Europe.
Yeah, same in German. "Waschbär"
To be fair 'sieni' translates also to sponge, not just mushroom.
Could be washing fungus also
Sienikakku is also sponge cake, not mushroom cake. :)
Spongia officinalis - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spongia_officinalis
That's the original "mushroom".
Ur wrong im from finland
@Kuus Kanaa no i’m your you’re from finland
A few more off the top of my head:
Projector = videotykki = video cannon
Space bar = välilyönti = gap hit
Trimmer = partakone = beard machine
Vacuum cleaner = pölynimuri = dust sucker
Finnish is awesome, and I'd be really frustrated trying to learn it as a second language...
Aivan mahtava kyllä tuo dust sucker😅
Parachute = Laskuvarjo = Descent shade
Bob (haircut) = Polkkatukka = Polka hair
@@TheRawrnstuff Yeah, also umbrella = sateenvarjo = rain shade
Makes perfect sense to me 😄
@@n4rttu "Rain's shade" makes more sense to me than a "descent shade". Rain comes down and you shade yourself from it. Giving yourself a "shade" to descent with gives me this weird dissociative feeling with the word, like it's upside down.
Like standing *on* the umbrella when it's raining.
In Russian, « пылесос » (pylesos) also literally translates as « dust sucker » and we can notice the similarity between « pöly » and « pyl’ ».
In Norwegian, the word for buttercup (smørblomst) does directly translate into butter flower in English. Growing up bilingual Norwegian and Finnish, for the longest time I thought voikukka also meant buttercup in Finnish; I was very confused when I eventually found out. Norwegian also has a lot of these literal words, a particular favourite of mine being the word for bat - flaggermus - which literally translates into "flappy mouse".
Estonian has my favourite which is nahkhiir (bat) skin(?) mouse which leads Batman (nahkhiirmees) to be skin mouse man😂😂 (nahk is nahka in Finnish)
In Swedish Batman had the funniest sounding name, Läderlappen 😂
@@djnorth2020 Swedish sounds always like that it's normal for them (I speak some Swedish)
@@kasper4079 Yeah Swedish is Finland's second official language, but in Sweden they "sing" it almost.
same here. As a German speaker I also assumed voikukka meant buttercup because the direct translation "Butter-Blume" is in fact a name used for "buttercup" in German as well. The Finnish "voikukka" is called "Löwenzahn" in German which translates to "liontooth"
Kuukausi means "moon season" and it's literal because different phases of moon last a month (hence the months end in "-kuu")
Finland: Is mentioned anywhere
Finns: *Whomst has awakened the ancient one*
I ain't ancient lol
@@a.i.r_arts1832 en ole suomalainen, mutta olen muinainen 🤔
@@Aoderic Moro muinainen, minä olen suomalainen. :D
@@a.i.r_arts1832 hyvä sinulle 😁
@@Aoderic Voin kuvitella miten hämmentynyt @TalentlessArtist oli XD
7:54 Fun fact: As a finn when someone runs through the months, I never hear them pronounce the "kuu". It's always tammi, helmi, maalis... etc. You don't mention it even on the last one, even if you run through all 12 of them.
Yeah, it's easier and faster to say that way.
Finnish language has aversion repetition and obvious things, and you should always try to optimize and avoid repeating of words in a closely related sentences. You can do it by omitting the obvious parts, or by using synonyms if omitting the words is not possible
For example, if you have a paragraph that repeats the same word in several sentences in Finnish, it feels very strange. As soon as we have stated what we are talking about, we will try to try to omit references to it, since unless the subject changes, you know what we are talking about. So we make you infer the meaning from the whole paragraph, instead of repeating it. If it is not possible, in case of an adjective or a verb, we will try to find a similar enough word to replace it.
Especially the repetitive use of adjectives or names should be avoided at all costs
I think this feature of omission is very similar to Japanese language, where half of the sentence might be omitted if it is obvious or if it is uncomfortable subject and the other person should fill in the blanks
Listening to a conversation between two Finns (particularly on the phone when you don't hear the other person) can be very funny at times, since both know what they are talking about, and there are only few possible answers. A whole phone call for a contractor taking in a job might go something like this: "Matti, joo, joo, ei jouda, huomenna, ok, ok, huomiseen" xD
Just like in english when you runs trough the days: sundy, mondy, tuesdy...
@@mikko9849 yeah but not non-native speakers
@@mikko9849 ei oo yhtään sama asia
My favorite Finnish compounds would definitely be these two:
Flatulence = Ilmavaiva = Air nuisance
Perineum = Väliliha = Middle meat
And I love the fact that "ilmavaiva" is just one letter away from "ilmalaiva", an airship (also a literal translation) or a blimp.
I also recently realized that the Finnish word for butler, hovimestari, would translate as "court master", which brings to mind something completely different.
Also the Finnish word for month is kuukausi, or moon period. In the actual month names you omit the "kausi".
No wonder why I hate this language 😂
Kuu in a month like tammikuu stands for kuukausi, which would literally translate to something like season of The moon(aka The amount of The Time it takes for The moon to travel around The earth)
Also a good one is:
Lentävä lautanen
="Flying plate"
= ufo
Flying saucer in other words; it's an English word as well and it was in common usage decades ago, but ufo is much more common these days.
Ufo is short from unidentified flying object. It doesn't always mean flying saucer.
That comes from how Kenneth Arnold described the movement (not the shape) or the objects he saw in 1947 in Washington (state).
@@Mysticpaw Still, UFO for the Alien Space Ship - a Flying Saucer/plate could as well be a frisbee!
The months in Finnish are indeed poetic, I love how we have completely different words for them than most other European languages.
Helmikuu, kesäkuu, heinäkuu, elokuu, syyskuu, lokakuu, joulukuu... Always wondered where 'helmikuu' got it's name, does it come from the snow glistering like pearls or something? Weird, hahah, but that's my favourite Finnish name for a month.
Helmikuu supposedly comes from snow melting then refreezing and forming pearl-like frozen water droplets.
Few Finns think this as two words, but: ”Maailma” = maa + ilma = ground + air, meaning the world or globe
I knew Finnish as a child. My parents were from Finland. Now the language is rusty. But you inspire me to re-learn. I enjoyed this exercise in the language. Love your videos!
I love things like this so much.
Finnish is my mother tongue so the quirkyness of these may fly under the radar for me but watching this video made me appreciate Finnish. Now I feel eager to start learning some new language myself.
I still do that thing with months but from Finnish to English. Every time.
Same! Doesn't matter how good I'm at it, I still do it.
Mä teen ihan enkust suomek ku en osaa suomeks kuukausia en osaa kyl suomeks paljoo muutakaa
@@mikaeldanska5819 oot varmaan 7
@@mikaeldanska5819 mitä vi-
@@seagull668 7x2 on ainaki melkei oikein
Don't worry Dave, I count the months in some cases too both in Finnish and English.
Tammi doesnt really mean "oak" in the word tammikuu but most likely "an axel, a pole", as it is the first month and the rest of the year is spinning around it.
I always count them..
-Zoo = Eläintarha = Animal Garden
-Volume = Äänenvoimakkuus = Power of sound
-Assassin = Salamurhaaja = Secret murderer
I went to a quiz night and one of the funniest rounds was when Finnish place names were translated to English. Many people had never realized how familiar places like Joensuu and Linnanmäki sounds so unfamiliar in direct English translation (River Mouth and Castle Hill).
Winterfell = Talvivaara
Kuukausi, or "moon season" is the word for a month in Finnish, which is where the "-kuu" at the end of every month comes from.
Lohikäärme can also come from finnish mythology. It is possible that lohi is shortend from Louhi who was antagonist in Kalevala. So dragon would be Louhi's snake.
4:00 it’s interesting to hear that sandwiches don’t normally have two pieces of bread in Finland. I have a polish friend who does the same thing, they only use one piece of bread, but as an American who has only once traveled outside the us and never out of the continent, it’s kind of a cool thing. Thinking about it, two slices of bread is just some unnecessary bread
Bread is just a tool to eat the toppings, like a handle
Do people actually make sandwiches with two pieces of bread themselves at home?? I thought people only buy them from restaurants or cafeterias or whatever, even in the United States of America.
@@Pseudoplasmagore American here, yep we do make sandwiches with 2 slices at home too. It helps the whole thing to hold together; you can hold it sideways with one hand, or gesture with your sandwich hand, and nothing falls off.
The food was named after the Earl of Sandwich that liked to play cards for money. He didn’t want to stop to eat, but eating and playing would ruin the cards. The bread around the meat kept the hands and therefore the cards clean. And I believe our expression “sandwich between” or sandwiched comes from the food not the other way around.
About that tammikuu thing where you thought "kuu" means month. Month is actually kuukausi, and the "-kuu" end in every month's name is kinda just short for kuukausi. As for kuukausi, it literally means "moon season/moon age", because it's how long the moon takes to go around.
Even I had forgotten that 'arpakuutio' is 'dice' because I have always used 'noppa' 😂 and I'm Finnish, born and raised.
Only the 6-side dice that is a cube. Noppa goes for all of them - like those with 20, 10, 8 or 4 sides.
@@elderscrollsswimmer4833 Yep
It's interesting that some of them work in German, too. "Voileipä" is "Butterbrot" (butter bread). It usually means one slice of bread with butter and cheese, cold cuts or jam on top, not a sandwich in the stricter sense. We also have the "shield toad" (Schildkröte), the fridge in German is a "cooling cupboard/closet" (Kühlschrank) but some people call it "Eisschrank" (ice closet), too. A bra is a "Büstenhalter" (bosom holder) in German. A buttercup in German is a "Butterblume" (butter flower). We also have keskiviikko. It's "Mittwoch" (mid week). "Erdball" (maapallo) also exists as an alternative expression for "globe", almost exclusively used in the context of "around the globe" ("rund um den Erdball).
Funny. German and Finnish minds seem to think alike sometimes. :)
Months are literally moon phases. Most literal are kesäkuu and joulukuu. Marraskuu comes from old word for death: marras. Lokakuu means filth-moon. Tammi is reference to oak tree. It is month in the dead winter as hard and immovable as a sturdy oak. I am sure there's some site that explains all of them. Worth to give a look, each one is interesting.
What's more, there are MANY references to old pagan days and to "viking era". Here are literal translations of few that comes to mind:
Ukkonen or ukonilma = weather of Ukko (god) (means; thunder storm)
Torstai = Thor's day (means; thursday)
Joulu = Yule (means; christmas)
Joulupukki = Yule goat (means; santa claus)
even the word month comed from moon /the lunar cycle!
@@Strawb_Goblin ah, true! Kuukausi = moon season/phase. Neat!
However, many think that kesäkuu comes from kesä (summer). It is the other way around. The traditional word for summer is "suvi".
@@okaro6595 Jo joutui armas aika ja suvi suloinen -> "The beloved time has come, the sweet summer".
Also the old farming year cycle is obviously visible in Finnish names of the months.
Huhtikuu = time to burn the forests (in order to plant rye in the ashes.)
Toukokuu = time to plant the fields.
Heinäkuu = Hay month. That time of the year when hay is harvested.
Elokuu = harvest moon.
I think that "kilpi" was translated to plate, because "rekisterikilpi" is a finnish word for "license plate". Also your finnish accent on 6:36 was on point! 😂
And moon and month are the same word in finnish
And kilp was translated from Estonian, not Finnish 😄
Konna also means frog tribe (Bufonidae) in Finnish, and that's why turtle is like a kind of frog with a shield.
In the Finnish language, tammi has meant pole, axis, middle tree. January is the center of winter. This month split the difficult winter season in two.
Not sure if somebody has mentioned this yet, but 'tammi' is also very old word that means core/middle
So therefore tammikuu/core moon is middle of winter
Let us not forget the old Finnish word for lion, which was 'jalopeura' = noble deer
I went mushroom picking in finland
but didn't sieni
Nyt oli niin huono, että oli jo hyvä!
Oh i like that!!!
damn! I didnt get it at first but I had to say it out loud so I was able to understand it lol
3:53 I think that tradition originally came from Sweden, where there is its own word for a big sandwich buffet, "smörgåsbord", which is also used in English to emphasize a big variation of things, like a feast or a banquet. And in Sweden sandwiches are often seen as a form of art, where all the toppings are in a perfect harmony with each other, and closing it with another bread slice would ruin the sensation.🥪
My fav is pissapoika = pee boy (windscreen washer) 🤣
I watched the whole video and we didn't get to the pissapoika. So sad. 😆
This was actually fun for a speaker of Danish, which is also an agglutinative language, as many of the words are the same in Danish, literally translated (and some are not). Ice cupboard (fridge) is actually cooling cupboard in Danish, but before they were electrified, we picked up a big block of ice at the local "ice dairy" and put it in the ice cupboard...
I recall my old colleague saying "Finnish is easy: a book is a kirkja and a song is laulu, so a songbook is laulukirja. And as christmas is joulo, a Christmas songbook is joulolaulukirja..."
Tää oli hyvä video! Lisää näitä, kiitos!
For the record: No-one ever says "arpakuutio", in practice it's just noppa :)
I sometimes say arpakuutio.
@@timrosswood4259 Arpa on heitetty
Kilpikonna could be "shield thug" as well. "Arpakuutio" may be a little old fashioned word and "noppa " more popular today, but you can hear "arpakuutio" occasionally. (the Nut island's Peace divides Finnish dialects into eastern and western type)
I think "konna" in this instance is meant to be toad, not thug.
But it only works for 6-sided one as the others are not cubes.
There's an old novel called Rautatie, where a couple living in rural eastern Finland hears that they are building a railroad in the neighboring town. Not knowing what exactly it is, they take it literally and assume that they are building a road made of sheet metal. It's been made into a movie in the early 70's and it's available on Yle Areena. If you ever want to see an old Finnish movie, I can recommend it. But be warned, it's not your average action flick. It's about the "hickyness" of the Finns in the late 19th century.
lohikäärme: partial calque of Old Swedish floghdraki (“flying snake”); lohi + käärme. Originally louhikäärme, the initial component became lohi (“salmon”) by folk etymology.
Pesusieni (Spongia officinalis) is actually a real mushroom used to same thing as sponge, which is a synthetic version of the mushroom. Originally these mushrooms were harvested from the mediterranian sea but naturally not in such volumes as commercial use needs.
They're not mushrooms though. Sponges are animals.
Aa. Senkös takia Minecraftissa löytyy välillä pesusieniä mitkä kasvaa meressä 🧐
Dave sinä luet ja ymmärrät suomea hyvin! Thank you for working so hard to learn and respecting Finnish language and people
The word for ”bra” is funny in Swedish, too! Bh = brösthållare = breastholder 😂
No wonder the Swedes shortened the word in everyday usage! 🤣
Origins of lohikäärme: lohi comes from the old-swedish flogh = flying. When salmon swims upriver to their spawning grounds they jump "fly" up the rapids.
but the finnish word was louhikäärme.
@@pahakasvivenuksesta2653 no it wasnt
@@elmetzi louhikäärme vas a thing but it was just a variant and had nothing to do with the Finnish mythology Kalevala that has the character named Louhi
@@Azguella oh i tought he was talking about the Word that was in the video
@@elmetzi Agricola did have the variant of lohikäärme that was louhikäärme but louhi was just variant of lohi in this context but even though louhikäärme is in principle correct it's not used in modern finnish language
So I just watched the more recent one and then this one and I think you did amazing! I was quite impressed multiple times, especially how you figured out the lemma of the word rauta. So good job, Dave!
Guess this one, its a classic ... Korvalappustereo.
Answer |
.................\/
Ear flap stereo
I'm quite sure the word 'lohikäärme' is corrupted version of the original: Louhikäärme (Louhi's snake = 'Louhen käärme'). Louhi is powerful, northern character in Finnish mytology and her pet called 'Ikiturso' (or 'Iku-turso') reminds dragon a lot, though it lives in water like monster of Loch Ness.
I was in your situation some 33 years ago.
My funniest challenge was kunnossapito.
>break it down:
kunnos => well, nt changes to nn, and that s... let's forget about it for now
sapito => could not be found. Cost me an hour of working time ;)
>The real break down:
kunto => kunno- meaning: form, condition, state
ssa => Innessiivi, means roughly "in"
pito => grip, keeping, maintaining (coming from the verb pitää "to keep")
So: Kunno ssa pito = in-condition keeping = maintenance, upkeep.
Thanks! Haven't even noticed, that we are so literal. Maybe that's why its so easy to create a lot of word jokes in finnish. I personally like to combine two or more of those double words. Like kirjolohi (rainbowtrout) and lohikäärme (dragon) = Kirjolohikäärme, then just try to imagine it: could it be like a colourful dragon, or snake looking like a rainbow trout?
Another one: sähkövirta (electric current) + virtahepo (hippo) = sähkövirtahepo. Literally electric current horse, or just electric hippo.
An old world for fire is "louhi". "Louhikäärme" would be more correct.
My food idea works here too, it likes to eat rainbow trout/salmon.
January is the first month of the year on the Gregorian and Julian calendars. In the northern hemisphere, it is on average the coldest month of the year, midwinter, which is also suggested to be the name of the month, because in Häme dialects, for example, the word oak also means heart or core (“heart tree”) and pole or axis. January has also been called the heart of the month. The Great Oak, which appears in Kalevala poetry, is a giant tree covering the sky, the world tree
Indeed, the old meaning of tammi was pole or axis. So, tammikuu was the turning point for the winter.
Actually the word "Lämpötila" is literally: heat-state and not situation, that would be tilanne
Also that konna for villain is also wrong. It means crook, and also it is technically wrong in this instance, since in this situation it clearly means the toad and not the crook (lit. konna)
Right! Seems like he was using Google translate, which is usually pretty accurate but gave very weird results in this video.
Like how does 'arpa' translate to 'lot'? Am I missing some weird meaning of the word 'lot'? I know it can mean LOTS of different things 😅
@@atinity6749 That lot is arpa like in lottery. Not like arpakuutio which is dice
@@Songfugel Huh. I thought it was just lottery ticket 🤔 well, live and learn.
@@atinity6749 For example it appears in the very common saying:"It is your lot in life"
@@Songfugel Huh, weird 😮 I have never heard that before.
The more you know!
English has many frases too that sounds funny when translated literally, like Shooting star, Safe and Sound, Over here etc. 😅
Probably the hardest and puzzling word to really understand was Colonel.
It really didn't make any sense how to spell it.
I think the "kilpikonna" is like Estonian "kilpkonn" which literally means 'shield frog'. 🐸 Overall, pretty amazing how similar the two languages are in some cases. Even the sandwich-making habits are the same 🤣
And in Swedish it's "sköldpadda", which also literally means shield toad!
English can also be very surprising. Who could ever guess that a 'butterfly' is not a 'fly of the butter' (it translates 'farfalla' in Italian, nothing to do with butter).
Not to mention 'Dragonfly': a charming insect we call with a charming name (Libellula). No dragons involved.
Saksaksi kilpikonna on myös "shield toad" (Schildkröte)
Super fun and you are doing extremely well! I'd love more of these :)
Congratz on your Finnish! You have made a huge progress through out these videos. Very entertaining to be a part of your jorney. This video was one of funniest ones!
Have to say, as a Finn, most of the time I am completely oblivious about these oddities of Finnish language, yhdyssanat just comes so natural. But many years ago I had this summer job as a whole salesman. My customers often were professional handymen and sorts, rarely I had to sell them anything, they would only ask whether we had this and that. That was the moment when I realized how you can really twist up the Finnish language when it comes to "work lingo". "Työukot" would come to me and ask "missä on pöllön silmät?". Where are the owl eyes? I was flabbergasted... Apparently those were the aluminium things you put in hole and strike with a hammer to seal it up / attach something.
FIN -> SWE ... There is lots of these kinds of literal translations: Alushousut -> Fartyg byxor
tai Joulukuusi. Julsex,Julseks(6). Onhan näitä 😁
Suihkukone = duschmaskin
@@Argantonis 😂👍
Maksalaatikko = betalalåda
2:41 To be honest sometimes I also make this mistake despite being a Finn, and I have never heard anyone use Arpakuutio, instead we use Noppa.
You are nowadays better with recognising different parts of those compund words (I mean yhdyssanat, i hope used the right word 😂)!
You did! Yhdyssanat is the right word!
Nice deduction skills Dave! Good to see your vocabulary has increased :) Was a fun video!
Palokärki (Finnish species of woodpecker) = fire tip/fire point
Some new suggestions:
- poikamiestyttö
- asianajaja
- avoliitto
- puutarha
- pystykorva
- palokärki
- päiväkoti
The Dragon one, is from Norse, it's from the time when Finnish wasn't as well documented either... but supposedly it's a translation of Flying Dragon.
Pesusieni is a direct translation of Swedish Tvättsvamp.
Voileipä... yet another steal from Swedish, well not anymore, but in the olden days when we didn't have dumb words for stuff, it used to be buttered bread as well.
Dandelions oh yes, the one where they use a Swedish name for a bunch of flowers, but use it for the wrong flower... Well it's better than the Swedish name which is wormrose, but since we use it for alcohol, it's fine.
Kilpikonna now that's a direct translation, of Sköldpadda, that's because konna in finnish originally meant frog...
heat situation, yeah I guess we were lazy in Sweden and just copied thermometer, which is heat measure, but yeah, it should've been värmestånd before that loanword, which means heat situation... guess it's yet another loanword, not necessarily though.
Okay the Rauta in Hammasraudat comes from Norse, I knew it, as Raudi is Hematite, or Iron ore, literally meaning redish...
Oh the Maapallo was interesting, because in Swedish the word is Jordglob, earth globe...
I learned a lot of fun stuff, I'll probably forget, but I think I've added some things with my comment...
It's interesting how similar Finnish is to the Nordic languages due to how many loanwords it has, for example Ruhtinas(prince) which comes from an old norse word Druhtinaz meaning lord/king...
Well being next door neighbors and having basically the same culture, it's not really that weird, I mean, Finns are surrounded by the Nords and the Rus both of which have the same culture, so it's not weird that Finland became what it became, living under constant threat of 2 superpowers... Sweden used to be the mightiest nation on Earth... requiring both the Dutch and the Russians to smack em down.
The refrigerator one makes total sense from an English perspective. Before electricity, refrigerators were cooled with blocks of ice and were often called “iceboxes “. My grandmother, born in 1912, always called the refrigerator an icebox-either because that’s what they used when she was young or what she heard from her mother.
maailma is also quite funny. :) maa = land/country/ground, ilma = air, maailma = world
Lentokone "flight machine". More bizarrely it's often just abbreviated to kone. So at boarding time to go "into the machine" (koneeseen). It is actually not so silly if you ever watched the movie "Those magnificent men in their flying machines", because in the early days of powered flight planes were called "flying machines" even in English. Why did we ever change it to aeroplane, airplane or just plane? Flying machines was just perfect!
The original form "louhikäärme" was still there in the 50's-70's (at least in Donald Duck comics). A "plate villain" is just plain ridiculous :) The correct literal translation in that case would indeed be a "shield toad".
One of my favourites is "Kuusi palaa"
It means:
- The spruce is on fire
- The number six is on fire
- Your moon is on fire
- Six of them are on fire
- The spruce returns
- The number six returns
- Six of them return
- Your moon returns
- Six pieces
Idk if this has anything to do with the origin of the word dragon in Finnish, but in many Asian cultures dragons actually are considered water lizards/serpents rather than fire breathing creatures. Also the Finnish epic Kalevala has this huge water serpent that might have been the inspiration for the word?
I'm a Finn and I'm shocked that I came across this channel only now :o As you know, we usually go "torille!" whenever we are even mentioned on UA-cam.
this usually happens but I'm looking trough the comments without any comment saying that right now :D and I think this channel is cool to watch from finnish perspective! Been watching randomly recommended videos here and there!
Who calls dice arpakuutio😂
Everyone calls it noppa 🤣🤣
The word lohikäärme (or louhikäärme) is probably derived from old Swedish word 'floghdraki ’ - flying dragon. Finns changed the latter part 'draki' with snake.
Freeway = moottoritie = engine road
Parachute = laskuvarjo = descent cloak/shadow
Sink (as in a kitchen sink) = tiskiallas = dish pool
One of my favourite combination word ( =yhdyssana) is ''väkisinmakuupussikaljoittelu''. Grammatically correct, but does not make any sense, even though every word on its own is a real word.
In Estonish computer is called arvuutin 🤭 In Finnish pulma is trouble and in Estonish it’s marriage 🤭
arvuutin could be a word or a name for something in finnish
arvuutin sounds like "guesser" or something : D Gotta love these weird loops with Estonian and Finnish language
And ruumis(dead body) in estonian means room.
@@ideeyes4054 or just body or a weird way to say room mate
The suit in a game of cards is also called maa, by the way
Omg yes, upload more videos like this! I love it
Glad you enjoyed the video! I'll try to do more like this:)
And there is also alot literal translations that are the exact same in English like:
Smart phone = Älypuhelin
microwave oven = mikroaaltouuni
electric vire = sähköjohto (johto can also meen leader)
crochet hook = virkkuukoukku
nutrition value = ravintoarvo
and so on...
I really enjoy these dives into the vast ocean of weirdness that is the Finnish language. It gives you a cool perspective to something that's so close to home. For example tammikuu is such an ordinary day-to-day word, but when you translate it literally to oak moon, it becomes really beautiful and poetic. The others would be pearl moon, earth moon, swidden moon, planting moon, summer moon, hey moon, crop moon, autumn moon, dirt moon, dead moon and yule/"christmas"moon. My favorites of these would be oak moon, pearl moon and dead moon... 🕯️📖
Thank you for the video, it made my day, also when i was in school my teachers would say ( A for efford) 10 points and a parrot's mark on top. You did well
Thought you would take on 'kuukausi' after 'tammikuu'😄 good job progressing with your finnish so well👍
Such fun watching at this!
Why do you eat sand and witches 😮
Dave: "Tammi...helmi... yeah...does anyone else..." Me:-YES I HAVE TO DO THAT EVE... Dave continuing:"...when learning new languages..." -Oh... umm... sure... I'm not having problems with months in my native language either...pfft... who said that?
Plate is a possible translation of kilpi, but in the sense of licence plate on a car. The usual meaning of kilpi is shield.
hyvin tehty, dave! you did such an amazing job! finnish is such a hard language to learn and you are doing a decent job! you can be proud of yourself!!
also it's funny to me as a german how some words are the same in german.
we also do very literal words. kilpikonna also is shield-toad in german (Schildkröte) and we could also say earth-ball (Erdball, just sounds very poetic then).
lentokone is also close as flying-stuff in german (Flugzeug).
i lived in finland for a year and in my finnish lessons we discovered a lot of similarities :)
my favorite one was the dandelion, which we also call butter-flower (Butterblume), or lion-tooth (Löwenzahn), or blowing-flower (Pusteblume) because you can blow the seeds away :)
"Sarjakuva" is good
Vau, osaat jo tosi hyvin suomea! Raudat -> rauta 👍👍 Good job Cave Dad 🤩
I love this literal approach of Finnish language!
It was also satisfying to watch you figure out hammasraudat!
Do you use Reddit? This could be posted to subreddits like r/suomi and r/finland. I don't know language subs, first to come in mind are r/etymology and r/doesnottranslate
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed!
I'm not a Reddit user, but from what I understand posting ones own content is frowned upon but if someone else wants to, that's great 😀
We call it wash mushroom in Swedish too
lappuliisa - small piece of paper Liisa (="Lisa") - traffic warden
baarimikko - bar Mikko (="Michael") - bartender
rattijuoppo - steering wheel drunk - drunken driver
Those literal tanslation also tell how diffently people see things. Like Computer kind of locks english speaking world on computing and calcularing things with machine, and for finns it's more about the data, information, and knowledge... And even finnish words have synonyms... so tammi also means barragade or dam, so it's infact barrage month originally... like it barrages new year, and often dams rhe air like frost for the winter for hole month.
2:23 seems to be from Ljubljana city, which is famous for its many dragons.
Kilpi can mean shield or plate, always check the other translations from below