From: Ron Kean (ronkean@juno.com)
Date: Fri Jul 16 1999 - 01:00:51 MDT
On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 19:14:44 -0700 Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net> writes:
>> |English: pride, envy, wrath, sloth, lust, greed, and gluttony.
>> |Swedish: högmod, avund, vrede, lättja, vällust, girighet och
>frosseri.
>> Finnish: ylpeys, kateus, viha, velttous, himo, ahneus ja mässäily.
>
>Im surprised there isnt more similarity between Swedish and Finnish.
>Are they not of common origin, like English and German? spike
>
>
Swedish (and English) are on the Germanic branch of the Indo-European
group of languages. Finnish is part of the Ural-Altaic group, which has
no more primordial connection to Indo-European languages than, say,
Chinese does to Arabic. The Ural-Altaic group includes Finnish,
Hungarian, and Turkish, and has its origin probably in the area of
Mongolia. Indo-European may have originated in the Indus valley as much
as 20,000 years ago and thru accidents of history most of Europe,
including Russia and the Slavic countries, as well as Iran (Ariana in
ancient times), Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India speak Indo-European
languages today.
But since Finnish has been spoken for centuries in proximity to areas
which speak Indo-European languages, Finnish must have picked up some
words from neighboring languages, and vice versa, but I cannot give any
examples off the top of my head, except for 'sauna' which came to English
from Finnish.
Ron Kean
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