11–20 of 98 posts
An interesting thing I've noticed is that a lot of the younger generations in Estonia use English a lot when expressing themselves, especially when talking to their peers. I constantly hear everything from single English words in sentences, to fully English sentences used in-between Estonian ones. I'm sure this is something that's happening everywhere (because of things like Hollywood and most of the internet being i…
As a Swedish speaker, I get this deeply rooted feeling of righteous indignation about not understanding spoken Danish. I'm only half-joking. As a Finnish speaker, I don't get that feeling with Estonian. The written form is different enough to warrant a deeper look before I start whining about how annoying I find language studies in general.
As a Finnish speaker, to me Estonian sometimes sounds like I'm having a stroke. Like I'm supposed to understand what is spoken but the words just don't resolve into their meanings.
My Finnish is poor enough that I didn't recognize any of the alleged similiarities.
I love the list of vowel-heavy words. You can also construct some similar words in Dutch. Or at least you used to before 1996, when a spelling change introduced hyphens into many of these: zeeëend - sea duck, or Velvet scoter (nowadays "zee-eend") koeieuier - cow udder (nowadays "koeienuier") zaaiuien - seed onions (still legal I think) kraaieëieren - crow eggs (nowadays kraaieneieren, I think) We also have the oppos…
originally (russian) it was Борщ
And coincidentally Borš in estonian.
And in dutch it became borsjtsjsch? How? Why? Why do you need 8 letters to transmit a single phonem?
No wonder dutch can construct these weird word combos.
Edit, nvm, apparently last sch belongs to next word. Still creepy
I love the list of vowel-heavy words. You can also construct some similar words in Dutch. Or at least you used to before 1996, when a spelling change introduced hyphens into many of these: zeeëend - sea duck, or Velvet scoter (nowadays "zee-eend") koeieuier - cow udder (nowadays "koeienuier") zaaiuien - seed onions (still legal I think) kraaieëieren - crow eggs (nowadays kraaieneieren, I think) We also have the oppos…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a Finnish speaker, to me Estonian sometimes sounds like I'm having a stroke. Like I'm supposed to understand what is spoken but the words just don't resolve into their meanings.
As an Estonian speaker, I feel the exact same way about Finnish. I guess it's universal :)
I love the list of vowel-heavy words. You can also construct some similar words in Dutch. Or at least you used to before 1996, when a spelling change introduced hyphens into many of these: zeeëend - sea duck, or Velvet scoter (nowadays "zee-eend") koeieuier - cow udder (nowadays "koeienuier") zaaiuien - seed onions (still legal I think) kraaieëieren - crow eggs (nowadays kraaieneieren, I think) We also have the oppos…
I shuddered when I saw what a 4 letter word got mutilated into originally (russian) it was Борщ And coincidentally Borš in estonian. And in dutch it became borsjtsjsch? How? Why? Why do you need 8 letters to transmit a single phonem? No wonder dutch can construct these weird word combos. Edit, nvm, apparently last sch belongs to next word. Still creepy
Borsjt or possibly even borsj would probably be better.
Wonderful article, exposing some of the oddities of this non-Indo-European language in the middle of Europe, without becoming too technical. If you're interested in an entertaining overview of all of the world's languages, I can recommend the course Language Families of the World by The Great Courses - 34 byte-sized (half hour) lectures. https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/language-families-of...
I love the list of vowel-heavy words. You can also construct some similar words in Dutch. Or at least you used to before 1996, when a spelling change introduced hyphens into many of these: zeeëend - sea duck, or Velvet scoter (nowadays "zee-eend") koeieuier - cow udder (nowadays "koeienuier") zaaiuien - seed onions (still legal I think) kraaieëieren - crow eggs (nowadays kraaieneieren, I think) We also have the oppos…
`borsjtschrokkende`, not `borsjtsjschrokkende`. And yes, that is `mierenneukerig` (nit-picking, literally: ant f*cking). Besides: using a word like borsjt is cheating.
As for the spelling: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borsjtsj
(Edit: That page also mentions a soup called 'sjtsji'.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
`borsjtschrokkende`, not `borsjtsjschrokkende`. And yes, that is `mierenneukerig` (nit-picking, literally: ant f*cking). Besides: using a word like borsjt is cheating.
That's why I didn't include it in the normal words. It is absolutely cheating. As for the spelling: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borsjtsj (Edit: That page also mentions a soup called 'sjtsji'.)
An interesting thing I've noticed is that a lot of the younger generations in Estonia use English a lot when expressing themselves, especially when talking to their peers. I constantly hear everything from single English words in sentences, to fully English sentences used in-between Estonian ones. I'm sure this is something that's happening everywhere (because of things like Hollywood and most of the internet being i…