Question
Updated on
24 Nov 2022
- German
-
Finnish
Question about Finnish
'Sä voit syödä pienen biitin tota, mutta jos syöt sitä paljon, saat ruokamyrkytyksen. -Okei.'
I only found the translation beat (biiti) for biitin, nothing else. That doesn't fit here at all, so the question is it a kind of finglish and means a bit? This would fit perfectly: (You can eat a little bit of this, but if you eat a lot of it, you'll get food poisoning. -Okay).
'Sä voit syödä pienen biitin tota, mutta jos syöt sitä paljon, saat ruokamyrkytyksen. -Okei.'
I only found the translation beat (biiti) for biitin, nothing else. That doesn't fit here at all, so the question is it a kind of finglish and means a bit? This would fit perfectly: (You can eat a little bit of this, but if you eat a lot of it, you'll get food poisoning. -Okay).
I only found the translation beat (biiti) for biitin, nothing else. That doesn't fit here at all, so the question is it a kind of finglish and means a bit? This would fit perfectly: (You can eat a little bit of this, but if you eat a lot of it, you'll get food poisoning. -Okay).
Answers
25 Nov 2022
Featured answer
- English (UK)
- Finnish
The word is "biitti" in its basic form.
"Biitti" means three things: a beat, oral snuff a.k.a. snus, and a bit (a small part of something). The first meaning is Finglish but it's an old slang word and the origin is probably Swedish. It just happens that "a bit" is "en bit" in Swedish.
In my mind I connect it with the English "bite" (having a bite) in this context. I think it's likely that others have such connotations too and connecting "syödä" and "biitti" feels natural. A bite and a bit are related words, anyway.
As for one of the meanings of the word (oral snuff, a tobacco product), I have no idea why "biitti" is so strongly connected with that.
Your translation of the dialogue is correct... Well, technically "tota" (in proper Finnish "tuota") is "that" and not "this".
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- English (UK)
- Finnish
The word is "biitti" in its basic form.
"Biitti" means three things: a beat, oral snuff a.k.a. snus, and a bit (a small part of something). The first meaning is Finglish but it's an old slang word and the origin is probably Swedish. It just happens that "a bit" is "en bit" in Swedish.
In my mind I connect it with the English "bite" (having a bite) in this context. I think it's likely that others have such connotations too and connecting "syödä" and "biitti" feels natural. A bite and a bit are related words, anyway.
As for one of the meanings of the word (oral snuff, a tobacco product), I have no idea why "biitti" is so strongly connected with that.
Your translation of the dialogue is correct... Well, technically "tota" (in proper Finnish "tuota") is "that" and not "this".
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- German
@mozzyrelly
Kiitos paljon!
I have made the experience that when I cannot find an explanation in any of my sources (and there are now many), there is often an English word behind it. Recently I found the word älpee. I was desperate, it actually looked very Finnish and I thought what is it, I can't find an explanation anywhere. Until I suddenly realised that it could simply be the Finnish phonetic version of the English LP.
And I haven't done that yet, but it might be a good plan to look in a Swedish dictionary. I already had some Finnish words that came from Swedish. But they were almost always in Finnish dictionaries.
Before that, I had a Finnish word that is almost identical to the German word: Kalenteri (calendar). There are many more Finnish words that are similar to German (I think there are over 100) than I thought at first. I wonder where this comes from and I haven't found a satisfactory answer yet.
Kiitos paljon!
I have made the experience that when I cannot find an explanation in any of my sources (and there are now many), there is often an English word behind it. Recently I found the word älpee. I was desperate, it actually looked very Finnish and I thought what is it, I can't find an explanation anywhere. Until I suddenly realised that it could simply be the Finnish phonetic version of the English LP.
And I haven't done that yet, but it might be a good plan to look in a Swedish dictionary. I already had some Finnish words that came from Swedish. But they were almost always in Finnish dictionaries.
Before that, I had a Finnish word that is almost identical to the German word: Kalenteri (calendar). There are many more Finnish words that are similar to German (I think there are over 100) than I thought at first. I wonder where this comes from and I haven't found a satisfactory answer yet.
- English (UK)
- Finnish
Swedish has had a massive influence on Finnish vocabulary - not just slang but common words in every field. Swedish itself is a Germanic language and both shares similar words with German due to shared roots and has been influenced by German.
Many Finnish words you may not recognize as having been borrowed. Take "game" for an example. In German, Swedish and Finnish, it's as follows
Spiel
spel
peli
Or "school":
Schule
skola
koulu
How about "mirror"?
Spiegel
spegel
peili
Finnish has countless words that have some similarity with German words. Most of the time it's because they've been borrowed from Swedish.
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- German
@mozzyrelly
That's very interesting, I will pay more attention to the etymology of words I like in the future. Maybe I'll even make a small file where I can find Finnish words that have Swedish roots. I have also come across words with Russian origins in slang. No wonder, since Finland has a long border with Russia.
I don't see any similarity between school and koulu - for me they are completely different words, they have only one letter in common.
What I meant by German words are words that are almost identical. Let me give you some examples:
Melone meloni
Museeum museo
Kollege kollega
Keks keksi
Konzert konsertti
Katastrophe katastrofi
Artikel artikkeli
Alkohol alcoholi
aktiv aktiivinen
Animation animaatio
Banana banaani
Benzin bensiiini
Biologie biologia
Bus busi
Dokument dokumentti
Vitamin vitamiini
I could go on with this for a long time. I have already collected almost two hundred examples, although I only write them down occasionally. Every German would understand these words immediately. In the case of koulu, probably no one would understand the word unless they knew Swedish and could derive it somehow. But I think that's difficult. If you swap only two vowels and write kuolu, it has a completely different meaning for Finns and for a German it looks quite similar again. (By the way, this happens to me very often that I am no longer sure in which order the vowels are. Although I have read koulu very often, I may write kuolu by mistake).
I wonder where these words come from that are identical or almost identical?
That's very interesting, I will pay more attention to the etymology of words I like in the future. Maybe I'll even make a small file where I can find Finnish words that have Swedish roots. I have also come across words with Russian origins in slang. No wonder, since Finland has a long border with Russia.
I don't see any similarity between school and koulu - for me they are completely different words, they have only one letter in common.
What I meant by German words are words that are almost identical. Let me give you some examples:
Melone meloni
Museeum museo
Kollege kollega
Keks keksi
Konzert konsertti
Katastrophe katastrofi
Artikel artikkeli
Alkohol alcoholi
aktiv aktiivinen
Animation animaatio
Banana banaani
Benzin bensiiini
Biologie biologia
Bus busi
Dokument dokumentti
Vitamin vitamiini
I could go on with this for a long time. I have already collected almost two hundred examples, although I only write them down occasionally. Every German would understand these words immediately. In the case of koulu, probably no one would understand the word unless they knew Swedish and could derive it somehow. But I think that's difficult. If you swap only two vowels and write kuolu, it has a completely different meaning for Finns and for a German it looks quite similar again. (By the way, this happens to me very often that I am no longer sure in which order the vowels are. Although I have read koulu very often, I may write kuolu by mistake).
I wonder where these words come from that are identical or almost identical?
- English (UK)
- Finnish
Your examples are fairly recent (i.e. of the modern, scientific age, the age of the printing press, fruit from faraway lands etc.) and fairly technical words, so they haven't morphed and settled as much as a word like "koulu", which even to Finnish ears doesn't sound borrowed. But it is. And your examples too are borrowings from Swedish (I'm not 100 per cent sure on all of them but I am sure 95 per cent are...), many of them in turn being possibly and probably borrowed to Swedish from German.
Russian influence is two or threefold: Firstly, Helsinki slang has borrowed from Russian used in the city especially during the Russian rule up until 1917. Secondly, interaction between two neighbouring peoples. Thirdly, whereas most European languages are Indo-European, Finnish is a Uralic language. The Ural Mountains are deep in present day Russia. That's where the Finnish language and people originate. Russian has influenced Finnish and vice versa. Even if linguistically they don't share the same roots, they share geography.
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- German
@mozzyrelly
Just as we are discussing etymologies, I discovered a new word: Kaamos = Polar Night. It comes from the Northern Sami skábma, and is also derived from the Norwegian skamtid.
I have not yet knowingly come across Norwegian influences.
Just as we are discussing etymologies, I discovered a new word: Kaamos = Polar Night. It comes from the Northern Sami skábma, and is also derived from the Norwegian skamtid.
I have not yet knowingly come across Norwegian influences.
- English (UK)
- Finnish
@ElGrande8 Curiously, in Finnish language "kaamos" is more recent than "banaani", for example. I looked it up and apparently "kaamos" was introduced to Finnish readers by Samuli Paulaharju in his book about Lapland, in 1922. Whether he made up the Finnish form or if that was in common use by Finnish speakers in Lapland in his time is unclear, but it was a local word not known to people in the south.
"Banaani" (a random example I decided to look up) is mentioned in the form "banani" by Elias Lönnrot in his Swedish-Finnish dictionary in 1874.
One source for all of this is the Etymological Dictionary of the Finnish Language, recently made available online. It is in Finnish only, though and hard to decipher even for a Finnish reader:
https://kaino.kotus.fi/suomenetymologinensanaki...
I also find Wiktionary often useful. But sometimes it takes much googling beyond these sources to get to the bottom of a word.
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