Is Finnish a Difficult Language? [continued - 3]

Continuing the idea from the previous post, those "k-p-t" changes don't pose too much difficulties in general. Two things are to be mastered here: which inflection uses them (for example which noun cases or verb forms), and how to get back to the basic form of the word when we have the inflected form.

I will give here a couple of examples:

• A simple case: the word kauppa: kaupassa, kauppaan, kauppoihin, kauppoja, etc. You will notice the inflected forms of this word do not pose too much difficulties in order to recognize it's basic form.
  

• A more complicated case: the word liikenne: liikenteessä, liikenteeseen, etc. In this case it is a bit more difficult to get back to the basic word when reading any of the inflected form. It requires quite extensive knowledge of the way inflection works for this particular type of the word, and how and where to apply the "k-p-t" changes.
  

Is Finnish a Difficult Language? [continued - 2]

After a relatively long summer break, I am resume posting here. I will try to come up with a new article at least every two weeks.

Continuing the subject, let's take up the nouns and the verbs.

Nouns, Verbs and "Grade Changes"

When learning the language, nouns are always presented devided in groups, each group following certain rules for inflection. The groups can be very general, in this case they'd be a bit over 10, and if one manages to learn this, he or she'd probably get right the inflections in 90% of the cases.

The same with verbs: there are 6 groups, once you learn them, you can inflect correctly 99% of the verbs.

Both the nouns (and all nominals in general) and the verbs undergo the so called "grade change", or "kpt change". The change can go both ways, depending on the group the noun or the verb is in.

Is Finnish a difficult language?

One of the blog visitors suggested to discuss the subject "Is Finnish really that hard to learn?", so here we go.

My opinion is as simple as this: "It is easy to learn Finnish, but it's very difficult to use it". In this article (which will probably continue in more than one "episodes") I intend to go through all the aspects of the language, evaluate them by comparing to other languages (mainly germanic and latin-rooted) and pointing out the similarities and differencies.

Although very good background information on Finnish can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language, I will approach it from the perspective of a foreign learner rather than from that of a linguistical one.

Sounds, Letters and Words

The first contact with the language brings up two issues: how it sounds and how the words look like. In Finnish you write as you read, meaning generally that each sound corresponds to a letter. If one compares it to French or English, this is definitely a big advantage in learning the language. Some small troubles may appear with double consonants, but once one gets used to it, everything's fine. On the other hand, due to the structure of the language, the compound words can become unusually long, take for example the well-known slogan word of the current leaders in Finland: "hyvinvointiyhteiskunta" = welfare society. Yet again, once one gets used to this, it does not seem that troubling anymore.

The alphabet is an ordinary one, for me the only new letters were: y - pronounced as German "ü" and å - a Swedish letter pronounced "o".

[to be continued]

Plural of Numerals

Finnish is odd at least from one point of view: the numerals can have plurals. Moreover, even the numeral "one" can have a plural. And I am not refering here to the type of plural like "ones", or "twos" in English which denote a multiple quantity of numbers one or two, like in this example: "The twos in this text should be written with different fonts." And since numerals are nominals, they can be inflected potentially in any case.

Let's start with the following example: "Ostin kahdet housut" - "I bought two (pairs of) trousers". The noun "housut" has only plural form and since the numeral "kaksi" will agree with the noun, it has to be in plural also: "kahdet"! These are inded special cases, but this is as well a special characteristic of the Finnish language.

When writing the above sentence into the negative form, we'll have to use the partitive (because the rule requires that only partitive is allowed for objects in negative sentences). So: "En ostanut kaksia housuja" - "I did not buy two (pairs of) trowsers". "Kaksia" is the plural partitive form for the numeral "kaksi".

Another example:
"Ostin ne yhdet sakset" - "I bought those (that pair of) scisors."

Numbers and Quantities [continued]

Continuing the previous subject, let's talk more about the usage of numbers with the verb in singular and plural. If we take the follwoing example:

"Kaksi poikaa juoksee kadulla" and "Kaksi poikaa juoksevat kadulla".

The verb is used in the singular in the first example meaning that "Kaksi poikaa" refers to some unidentified, unspecified group of (two) boys part of a bigger group of (possibly whole set of) boys. The plural form usage in the second example implies that there are only two of the boys in that particular context (which is missing in our example). To take another example, the sentence "Perheen kaksi poikkaa ovat ulkomailla" implies that there are only two boys in the family, and all of them are abroad.

The same way: "Neljä pohjoismaata osallistui kongressiin" implies that there exist more than four nordic countries, while saying "Viisi pohjoismaata osallistuivat kongressiin" also tells us that there are exactly five nordic countries and all of them took part in the congress.

Thanks to H-M for these clarifycations.

Numbers and Quantities

Some things which I found strange straight from the beginning was the usage of numbers (numerals).

In this article, I will start writing about this (this will go on for a couple of next articles, too). In the Finnish language numbers are used with nouns in singular, numbers can have plural forms (as they inflect as any other nominal: nouns, adjective, pronouns), while numeral "one" has some special usage.

Numbers are used with singular form of nouns

In Finnish, we say "Minulla on kaksi autoa" meaning "I have two cars". The word "autoa" is in singular, inflected in the case called "partitive". The partitive is a case expressing incomplete or undefined quantities, parts. In the example, the possible explanation is that this type of sentence belongs to those which obey special rules (omistuslause, tilalause - posessive, existential sentences) - this will be discussed in another article. But how about this then: "Ostin kaski kirjaa" - "I bought two books."?

Also, nouns preceded by numbers (expressing the subject of the sentence) are generally used with the verb in the singular form: "Kaksi lasta juoksee kadulla" (again, this can be included in those special type of sentences) meaning "Two children are running on the street". In English (and many other languages) we use "children" and "are running" - the plural forms, while in Finnish we use the singular forms "lasta" and " juoksee". A possible explanation for this usage would be that two children are refered to as an undefined or unidentified group or set of entities.

There is, however, an exception (which many foreigners would expect more naturaly to be "the rule" rather than "the exception"): when the number expressed refers to specific entities it is used with the verb in the plural form (please note that, nevertheless, the noun stays in singular partitive). So we say "Nuo kaksi autoa ovat uusia" - "Those two cars are new" and "Minun kaksi koiraani ovat kotona" - "My two dogs are at home"

[to be continued . . .]

The "Different" Finnish Language

When I first came to Finland, for four days, I was confused at the moment I got out of the airport. I understood nothing of the language... Naturally, the first texts I saw in this new language were those on the general signs: Ulos (Out), Sisäänkäynti (Entrance), Keskusta (Center), Lentoasema (Airport), etc.

None of them looked similar to the words in any other language I knew. I was thrilled... but then very surprised to see that everybody spoke English, despite (or I should say maybe due to the fact that) their language was so different.

During those four days I was listening to the language (of people speaking on the street or on TV) with the ear of a child hearing just sounds, not able to distinguish where a word or a sentece started or ended, just a flow of sounds. The only thing I managed to get is probably the tonality, the melodicity of the language (if Finnish has one). I was only hearing an endless sound flow of T:s and S:s, and A:s and I:s and E:s between them. Nothing more.

Now, after more than five years of living in Finland and speaking the language, I wish I could listen to it as during those four days... The only way I can still realize how Finnish sounds to a complete foreigner who does not speak at all this language is trying to remember those four days.

Generally, I have no problems in speaking and understanding it, though spoken language is sometimes still challanging. I have had many challenges in the learning process, many ups and downs, but in the end all the effort was worth it. I got rtid of the frustration of not understanding a word of what people speak, of what my coleagues are chatting during the coffee breaks, of what the different documents I receive at home from various institutions say.

So I decided to post some oddities of the Finnish language I've come accross during this past few years.