perlmonger: (Default)
perlmonger ([personal profile] perlmonger) wrote2004-06-11 02:13 pm

the debasement of language

/me reads the words "absurdeja ideoita" on a Finnish webshite and despairs. The addition of loan words to a language for new ideas is fair enough, I suppose, but here are two words that have perfectly good Finnish equivalents.

Bah.

[identity profile] tanais.livejournal.com 2004-06-11 10:23 am (UTC)(link)
I would want to learn Finnish simply to read the entire Finn Family Moomintroll set of books in their original language. Apparently Puffin re-translated The Exploits of Moominpapa and it came out very different. I like that about language -- it reminds me that all that we describe is merely a compromise...
ext_17706: (Default)

[identity profile] perlmonger.livejournal.com 2004-06-11 11:15 am (UTC)(link)
Tove Janson had Swedish (or the bastardised variant thereof spoken in Finland) as her first language; the Moomin books were, I think, written so and only translated into Finnish.