{"id":2449,"date":"2014-09-10T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T09:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=2449"},"modified":"2014-09-09T17:04:08","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T17:04:08","slug":"the-building-blocks-of-the-finnish-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/the-building-blocks-of-the-finnish-language\/","title":{"rendered":"The Building Blocks of the Finnish Language"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"finnish\"<\/a>

Please click the infographic for a larger version<\/p><\/div>\n

Finnish is not difficult to learn, but it is certainly different from what English speakers are used to.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to the Finnish Language\u201d is an infographic that gives us a good picture of how words are constructed in Finnish. The branches start with a single word and then, as the ending is replaced and pieces continue to be added, the word has become thoughts, phrases and whole sentences.<\/p>\n

Background of Finnish<\/h3>\n

Finland is the only area that has Finnish as its primary language. But Finnish belongs to a collection of languages called the Finno-Ugrian group. These include languages that are spoken across the region stretching from Norway to Siberia and to the Carpathian Mountains.<\/p>\n

Other languages in this particular group include Estonian and Hungarian. Finnish is actually one of the more recent languages, only becoming established during the 1500s. And the language continues to evolve. In fact, today\u2019s Modern Standard Finnish came out of a nationalist movement during the 19th Century.<\/p>\n

Why Are the Words So Long?<\/h3>\n

The lengths of the words, some being extremely long in relation to English, stand out when observing the infographic. It turns out those long words can be translated into phrases of different grammatical functions and meanings, even whole sentences.<\/p>\n

Inflections are added onto root words in Finnish to show grammatical functions. For example, Kaynnistaa<\/em> means \u201cto start up\u201d and there are three words branching off from this one word to construct further meanings.<\/p>\n

Kaynnistella<\/em> means to start up repeatedly, Kaynnestya<\/em>, \u201cto start up itself,\u201d and Kaynnistys<\/em>, \u201cis starting up.\u201d There are 15 such declensional cases in Finnish. For comparison\u2019s sake, English has only two: nominative, genitive.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, when Kaynnistaa<\/em> becomes Kaynnistyttaa<\/em>, its meaning becomes \u201cto make something start up itself.\u201d In Finnish, single words can go on for an indefinite length. By adding endings and inflections you build what you want to say all in one word.<\/p>\n

In English, on the other hand, separate words are used to construct sentences and complete thoughts.<\/p>\n

How Difficult Is Learning Finnish?<\/h3>\n

Looking at the infographic, we can see that Finnish looks rather complicated and somewhat intriguing. In reality, just like any language, it takes practice speaking, repeating and listening to build a solid comprehension.<\/p>\n

Finnish is logical and methodical, however. Once you understand the basic conjugation of verbs and how to use the endings and inflections, you\u2019ll have a good grammatical foundation for learning the language. Then, as you learn basic words, it becomes easier to derive other words and expressions from there.<\/p>\n

One example of how vocabulary words expand upon themselves is the word for book, Kirja<\/em>. Using Finnish standard endings gives you Kirjasto<\/em> for \u201clibrary\u201d or Kirjain<\/em> for \u201cletter\u201d or \u201ccharacter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The infographic clearly demonstrates that it\u2019s as easy as learning basic words and the inflections used as building blocks for communication in Finnish--however easy that is for you.<\/p>\n

Has the infographic given you a taste for the languages that are new and most different from English? Contact us<\/a> to find out what there is to learn and how to learn it.<\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finnish is not difficult to learn, but it is certainly different from what English speakers are used to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,236,27],"tags":[362,363,30],"class_list":["post-2449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language-learning","category-must-know","category-humour-offbeat","tag-finnish","tag-inflection","tag-language-learning-2"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Building Blocks of the Finnish Language<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Finnish is not difficult to learn, but it is certainly different from what English speakers are used to.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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