Thread: Any Finnish noun can have over 2,000 forms...

  1. #1
    free(me);
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Santo Domingo, DN, Dominican Republic
    Posts
    98

    Any Finnish noun can have over 2,000 forms...

    I just found this exceedingly interesting. And since i know at least one of you will find it to be interesting as well, i decided to post it.

    Check it out:
    http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~fkarlsso/genkau2.html

    You can find other interesting stuff about finnish here:
    http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~fkarlsso/links.html

    By the way, don't ask me what all those words mean.

    adios,
    biterman.
    Do you know how contemptous they are of you?

  2. #2
    Former Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Posts
    955
    thanks, I read through them and I found them very interesting.
    you told us not to ask, so I won't ask, but I still have that question

    Oskilian

  3. #3
    Daaahamn! Now theres one language i think i'll skip learning.
    "There's always another way"
    -lightatdawn (lightatdawn.cprogramming.com)

  4. #4
    _B-L-U-E_ Betazep's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    1,412
    I have to learn finnish...

    kauppa means store I believe.... ahhh.... I just read the top. Yes it does.

    kahvikuppi means coffee cup. That one is easy...

    odota means wait

    hei, terve, moi, and a whole slew of other things means hello or hi

    kotona is home

    mitä nyt means what now

    and so on and so on....


    It is difficult because there are only some standard conjugations... many depend on the word and its context. I have heard that most Finns don't even know the full extent of their language. When I was there I saw a sign at the iliopisto (sp) that was one word and was like 60 characters long! It is nutz... but I am having fun trying to learn it.
    Blue

  5. #5
    free(me);
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Santo Domingo, DN, Dominican Republic
    Posts
    98

    Exclamation ...

    Finnish is a real challenge. I can tell you that.

    The verbs are in and of themselves pretty easy since there's only like 2 or 3 irregular verbs, but (this is a big butt) the hard part (as if the rest weren't hard enough) is the declension of the words. The thing about this is that EVERY word declinates, including verbs, which can have up to 3 or 4 different infinitives. And the rules to this are not at all easy to implement.

    It's an aglutinative language, words are made up by sticking stuff together (ie.: kauppa -store-, kaupassa -in the store-). There are different types of things you attach to the nominals (poss. suffixes, moods, enclictic particles, etc...) and the nominals have to change before you can properly add all the stuff to them.

    Like the example i gave "kauppa", to add the innessive particle i had to change the pp to p, that's because "ssa" starts with two consonants. Now if you think about it, it makes sense: kaupassa as opposed to kauppassa. It gets complicated when you have to remember all the rules that determine all the changes all the particles you can add cause. For instance "in the stores", i don't know how to say that, i can't remember because the future is made up by addying "i" which causes some changes in the noun depending on certain variables but i can't remember the rules or the variables so.. bhlew

    Suomen kieli on vitun vaikea.

    I'm sure if that's right, but oh well

    adios,
    biterman.
    Do you know how contemptous they are of you?

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Good introduction to Windows Forms?
    By jcafaro10 in forum C# Programming
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 05-19-2009, 06:11 PM
  2. Replies: 2
    Last Post: 04-02-2009, 04:40 AM
  3. Closing all forms from a derived form
    By Pete_O in forum C# Programming
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 09-01-2007, 01:09 PM
  4. C# Game using Forms
    By ejohns85 in forum C# Programming
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 12-16-2006, 05:35 PM
  5. Which one :MFC, Win32, Windows Forms (.Net)?
    By Robert_Sitter in forum Windows Programming
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 11-17-2005, 06:15 AM