Re: Finno-Ugric

On Tue, 6 Jun 2000, BP Jonsson wrote:

> At 06:39 05.6.2000 -0500, Anthony M. Miles wrote:
>
> > From what I've seen Estonian could almost be dialect of Finnish!
This is now a Finnish point of view. For me at least it's quite hard to
understand Estonian. I think it's easier for Swedes, Norwegians and Danes
to understand each others' languages compared to Finns and Estonians.

> Well, the split wasn't too long ago (13th century CE or so), and moreover
> standard Finnish is quite archaizing by the fact that it relies quite
> heavily on eastern dialects(*).  South-western dialects are much much
> closer to Estonian.  FWIW my inlaws who are from northern Finland have no
> trouble whatsoever following the Sunday-afternoon Estonian-language
> programs on Swedish national television (which conveniently are aired just
> after the Finnish programs! :-)  Estonians have, of course, been watching
> Finnish TV for decades.  No accident that the East Bloc began
> disintegrating there and in East Berlin!
Yes, TV is the reason nr. 1 why Estonians understand Finnish. That
depends also on the TV systems. Estonians have seen the Finnish TV quite
a long time in color and with sounds. However, as long as I remember, I
have seen Estonian TV only black and white and without sounds until
recently, when the Estonian TV corporation probably changed the way of
transmission or something. It has prevented me from learning Estonian.

Tero Kukkonen


> (*In fact standard Finnish can almost be taken as the proto-language of
> Estonian, since it only reflects one phonological change not shared by the
> latter language, viz. the diphthongization of *ee *öö *oo to _ie yö uo_
> (e.g. FIN _nuoli_ "lightning" vs. EST _nool_).
>
>
>
> /BP
>
>   B.Philip Jonsson  mailto:melroch@mail.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__
>              A h-ammen pennuid i phith!                \ \
>     __  ____ ____    _____________ ____ __   __ __     / /
>     \ \/___ \\__ \  /___  _____/\ \\__ \\ \  \ \\ \   / /
>     / /   / /  /  \    / /Melroch\ \_/ // /  / // /  / /
>    / /___/ /_ / /\ \  / /Melarocco\_  // /__/ // /__/ /
>   /_________//_/  \_\/ /Eowine__   / / \___/\_\\___/\_\
> Gwaedhvenn Angelmiel\ \_____/ / a/ /_adar Merthol naun
> ~~~~~~~~~Cuinondil~~~\_______/~~~\__/~~~Noolendur~~~~~~
> || Lenda lenda pellalenda pellatellenda cuivie aiya! ||
> "A coincidence, as we say in Middle-Earth" (JRR Tolkien)
>