There are a whole lot of loan words in English. Many more than you might think. Perhaps as much as 80% of words in the English language have a non-English origin. Most are of course from far back in time, but some are quite new. So new that you might recognize them right away if the source was your own mother tongue. Below there is an alphabetical list of some of these words. Continue reading

The Watchtower’s Samoan edition Did you know that The Watchtower, started in 1879 by Charles Taze Russell and published monthly by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, is the most widely read magazine in the world? It has appeared with slightly different names, and has different editions even now, but you would have to live pretty isolated if you never had seen this magazine anywhere. The success of this theologically very conservative magazine is based on several factors. Continue reading

This time in Language Day we take a slightly different approach. Namely looking at an expression in the English language that has a foreign background. There will be other such articles later on. We start with Dutch treat. Most English speaking people know exactly what that means, but others perhaps not. A treat yes, but Dutch? Anything to do with the Netherlands? Everybody knows though what my treat means. I pay for everything - for me, you and perhaps even for the rest of the bunch. Continue reading

Anyone born outside of the United States or Canada tends to underestimate the number of place names in Northern America that have a connection with Native Americans. Or the First Nations as they are called in Canada. They are many! For there have been so many native tribes. Many of them ring a bell with most of us, some are less known, many are either extinct today or are so little known that we just don’t recognize them. Continue reading

There are so many languages in the world! But some of us - actually quite a few - go through life without learning - or needing to learn - any other language except the one provided to us since infancy, our mother tongue. Depending upon where you were born though, you may have been surrounded by other languages beyond your mother tongue to the extent that it has been only natural - or perhaps even necessary - to take up at least one of them. Continue reading

Sun, the source of all life in our solar system, certainly earns its own Language Day article! From the linguistic point of view, you can easily see the similarities in several of the European languages in the words we have for sun, be they Germanic, Latin or Slavic languages. The Romans replaced the Greek word for sun, Helios, with the Latin Sol, a root word that continues to refer to the sun in the present day, but sol itself came from the Proto-Indo-European sóh₂wl̥. Continue reading

Have you ever wondered what the term “polymath” entails? Anything to do with mathematics for example? Being in various ways talented in mathematics? You would be partly right. It may indicate being talented in mathematics, but also in many other fields of science as well. According to Wikipedia, “A polymath is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems” Continue reading

Ever wonder where the expression Blood is thicker than water comes from? Or what it actually means? You might think that it means that family relationships and loyalties are the strongest and most important ones, keeping people closer together. Stronger than friendships or even love relationships - where although closeness and intimacy is tangible, no blood is shared. But actually the opposite is true. The Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb is a medieval proverb that means that bonds of friendship or love will always be stronger than bonds of family. Continue reading

This time in Language Day we go through one word in daily use all over the world: grandmother! Let’s see the official (in bold) and the colloquial word (in italics) for these darlings in some of the countries in detail. Note that some languages make a distinction between maternal and paternal grandmothers (and grandfathers for that matter). The colloquial use given here are the most common ones. There may always be local and cultural variations. Continue reading

A polyglot myself, I luckily stumbled the other day upon a great new acquaintance as far as language sites go. An Italian polyglot by the name of Stefano whose knowledge and interest in my mother tongue Finnish truely impressed me. He has a YouTube site called linguaEpassione with lots of quality content, and more coming of course. Stefano’s thoughts about studying Finnish and the response from Finns to his avid interest in their small language reminded me of the response I got from my Greek teacher in Stockholm University. Continue reading

In these times of COVID-19 when traveling is scarce for whatever reason and wherever we are, it’s great to have access to the simple pleasures of Google’s Street View. Walking down the streets, driving through areas, watching what we might find behind a corner - even if some maps do need some updating too. And planning perhaps some future trip. So let’s explore a bit. À la Language Day. Let’s see how the word map translates in different languages. Continue reading

People conversing in sign language. Photo credit Natural American Sign Language by daveynin This time in Language Day let’s have a look at sign languages. Since many of the ways we show our emotions and reactions with different gesticulations and facial expressions are universal, one might think that there could be just one universal sign language. But that is of course not the case. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulations in combination with non-manual elements. Continue reading

The Tower of Babel by an anonymous artist, the Hendrick van Cleve construction The most beautiful language in the world. And the ugliest of them all. Which languages are we talking about here would you say? A hint: the emphasis is on the word you. For whether we find a language pleasing to the ear or not is an entirely subjective matter. A lot of it has to do with what your first language is and what other, perhaps foreign, sounds you were exposed to as a child. Continue reading

Yes! Jesari! This time in Language Day we concentrate in one single language. There will be other times too when we do the same. Today’s language will be Finnish, and we concentrate here on the peculiar way the Finns shorten words with the ending -ri. Sometimes a pretty long word in Finnish (a language of many, many long words) gets to be shortened to a mere three syllable word which of course is the main purpose with abbreviation of words. Continue reading

This time in Language Day a word daily used and a product in high demand all over the world in 2020. The face mask. Or respirator. Like the one in this picture that looks pretty home-made - and is prettier that many of the more official face masks that seemed to be sold out in so many pharmacies and other stores everywhere. The picture at the bottom of the page taken end of March tells that story (EI hengityssuojia is Finnish for NO face masks). Continue reading

How often do we get misunderstood when we try to tell our name, address, the license plate number (or rather, letter and number combination) of our car, etc? And when traveling abroad, it doesn’t help of course that each country has its own way of spelling. So here is a helpful list: spelling alphabets in different countries. The main order of all of the alphabets is as follows: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Å Ä Ö Continue reading

This time in Language Day one simple but very current word, sadly to say - otherwise depicting something fine and majestic, rooted in history. We talk about the disease COVID-19, which is colloquially called Corona and here we go through what that word is in some languages, in its meaning as the royal headwear. It does have another meaning as well of course, as currency for some monarchies - also very current as it threatens to wreck the economy of both individuals and countries worldwide. Continue reading

This time in Language Day we talk about today´s topic, the Leap Day. The 29th day of February that occurs every four years - the same year as the Summer Olympics. You can read about Leap Year and Leap Day in Wikipedia’s extensive articles. Here let’s just go through what we call this particular day in different countries and languages, and the etymology of the word itself. Did you know that people born on a leap day may be called “leaplings” or “leapers”. Continue reading

Since the year 2000, February 21st has been observed around the world as the International Mother Language Day, in order to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity, and multilingualism. In view of that, let’s see how the words mother & mother language (mother tongue) are said in some of the languages. Whether we speak just our mother tongue, or on top of that our father tongue (if it’s not the same as our mother’s), or acquire yet another language skill in childhood or later on in life, we can all appreciate the emotional familiarity of the very first language we learn. Continue reading

And. A word that never appears alone. Always preceded by something, and followed by something. Although it may sometimes start a sentence. But always loaded with promise and hope of continuation. So a very positive word, right? Which by itself doesn’t mean a thing. We’ll, of course it can be involved in a list of sinister things as well. And was also the first foreign word that I learned. We kids always walked to school, situated a couple of miles from our home. Continue reading