Finglish
Encyclopedia
The term Finglish was introduced by professor Martti Nisonen in 1920s in Hancock
, Michigan
to describe a linguistic
phenomenon he encountered in America. As the term describes, Finglish is a mixture of English
and Finnish
. In Finglish the English lexical items are nativized and inserted into the framework of Finnish morphology and syntax. The Finnish immigrants to USA and Canada
are one group that speak Finglish, but Finglish is also found in any place in Finland, where international contacts and popular culture
exists, including Finnish language learners. The history of Finglish may be divided between Old Finglish and New Finglish.
Most of the Finnish immigrants were from the provinces of Savonia
, Tavastia
and Ostrobothnia
, and the grammar also reflected those dialects. The most common characteristic of Old Finglish were (in descending order):
Words used in US Finglish often have completely different meanings in Finnish; they have become expressive loan
s: ruuma (room; in Finnish "cargo hold"), piiri (beer; "district"), leijata (to play; "to hover"), reisi (crazy; "thigh") or touvi (stove; "halyard"). US Finglish compound words can produce combinations completely incomprehensible to native Finnish speakers, like piirikäki (beer keg; "district cuckoo") or ilmapiika (flight attendant; "air maid").
Old Finglish is not bound to survive, and its native speakers are now in their 80s and 90s. The descendants of most American Finns are today either completely monolingual, or, if they have kept their ties to their foreparents' language, speak ordinary Finnish beside English.
Example of old Finglish:
which translates as
For comparison, without Anglicisms:
Relatively few words from old Finglish have become standard Finnish, but note kämppä "log cabin", "(temporary) accommodation" from English camp and mainari "miner".
, popular culture
, various sub-cultures and fandom
. It differs from slang
in the sense that it also uses some English linguistic structures. Examples of some popular culture Finglish expressions include vörkkiä (to work), biitsi (beach), spreijata (to spray), hengailla (to hang out), kruisailla (to cruise with an automobile) and hevijuuseri (heavy user). While Old Finglish was distinctively a lower-class migrant language, New Finglish is used by youth in contact with the English language. New Finglish is considered a transitional phase of absorption of new terms and ideas from English into Finnish before the full nativization of the words, especially in situations where English expresses a concept with one word, while Finnish would require several of them. New Finglish is not to be confused with Helsinki slang
, though its modern variant has absorbed some English loan words too.
The characteristics of New Finglish, in descending order, are
An example of today's Finglish might be
Mä lainasin faijan autoo ja me mentiin Mikan, Jennin ja Hannan kanssa kruisaamaan. Ensin haettiin gasoo, sitten käytiin syömässä Mäkissä bögöt ja lopulta mentiin biitsille.
which translates as
"I borrowed Dad's car and we went together with Mika, Jenni and Hanna cruising around. We first went to get some gasoline, then went to McDonald's (Mäkki < Mäkdonalds < McDonalds) to have burgers and in the end we went to the beach."
For comparison, without Anglicisms, but still colloquial:
Mä lainasin faijan autoo ja me mentiin Mikan, Jennin ja Hannan kanssa ajelulle. Ensin haettiin löpöö, sitten käytiin syömässä [pikaruokalan] purilaiset ja lopulta mentiin rantsuun.
And, in literal Finnish:
Lainasin isäni autoa ja menimme Mikan, Jennin ja Hannan kanssa ajelulle. Ensin haimme polttoainetta, sitten kävimme pikaruokalassa syömässä hampurilaiset ja lopulta menimme rannalle.
s). Examples of Finglish calque
s are emolevy (motherboard), näyttö (display), ulkoistaa (to outsource) and sähköposti (electronic mail - the Finglish word eemeli [male name!], iimeili or meili is still quite common). An example of a word where the transition is partial, is webbiselain (web browser), where the word web has not yet been translated into Finnish verkko.
An example of Finnish techspeak:
Mä tsekkasin sen serverin. Siinä oli täys snafu päällä. Siitä oli poveri kärtsännyt ja se oli sitten krässännyt totaalisesti. Kun sitä ei oltu ajettu hallitusti alas, siitä oli käyttispartitio korruptoitunut eikä se enää buutannut. Mä fiksasin siihen uuden poverin ja buuttasin sen korpulta.
which would translate in English:
"I checked the server. It was in a complete SNAFU
. Its power supply had burnt out and it had then crashed totally. As it was not shut down in an orderly manner, its operating system partition was corrupted and it no longer booted. I fixed it with a new power supply and booted it from a floppy disk."
and in a less Anglicised, but still colloquial Finnish:
Mä tarkistin sen palvelimen. Se oli täysin hajalla. Siitä oli virtalähde kärtsännyt ja se oli sitten mennyt aivan jumiin. Kun sitä ei oltu ajettu hallitusti alas, siitä oli käyttisosio pilalla eikä se enää käynnistynyt. Mä hoidin siihen uuden virtalähteen ja käynnistin sen korpulta.
Since most New Finglish speakers are fluent in both Finnish and in English, direct translations are sometimes used in humorous or oxymoronic concepts, such as julkinen talo (public house) for pubi or käytännöllinen pila (practical joke, shenanigan) for native Finnish kepponen.
English loans that originate in Latin are usually amalgamated in Finnish by using the Latin and not English orthography and grammar.
Hancock, Michigan
Hancock is a city in Houghton County; the northernmost in the U.S. state of Michigan, located on the Keweenaw Peninsula, or, depending on terminology, Copper Island. The population was 4,634 at the 2010 census...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
to describe a linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
phenomenon he encountered in America. As the term describes, Finglish is a mixture of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
. In Finglish the English lexical items are nativized and inserted into the framework of Finnish morphology and syntax. The Finnish immigrants to USA and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
are one group that speak Finglish, but Finglish is also found in any place in Finland, where international contacts and popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
exists, including Finnish language learners. The history of Finglish may be divided between Old Finglish and New Finglish.
History
Old Finglish originated amongst the first and second generation Finnish immigrants in US and Canada. Since few of them had any higher education or language skills, many of them ended up in menial and industrial jobs, where they learned English through practice. The language skills of the first generation American Finns remained always limited; second and third-generation American Finns usually were more or less bilingual. Finglish emerged as a pidgin with something they already knew (Finnish) and something they were bound to learn (English).Most of the Finnish immigrants were from the provinces of Savonia
Savonia (historical province)
Savonia is a historical province in the east of Finland. It borders to Uusimaa, Tavastia, Ostrobothnia, and Karelia. Largest cities in Savo by population are Kuopio, Mikkeli, Savonlinna and Varkaus.-Administration:...
, Tavastia
Tavastia (historical province)
Tavastia, Tavastland or Häme, Russian Emi or Yemi, is a historical province in the south of Finland. It borders Finland Proper, Satakunta, Ostrobothnia, Savonia and Uusimaa.- Administration :...
and Ostrobothnia
Ostrobothnia
Ostrobothnia refers to various areas in Finland:* Ostrobothnia , province of the kingdom of Sweden before 1809* Ostrobothnia , in modern Finland* Other regions in modern Finland:** Southern Ostrobothnia** Central Ostrobothnia...
, and the grammar also reflected those dialects. The most common characteristic of Old Finglish were (in descending order):
| Phenomenon | Finglish | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| almost all voiced consonants in English are replaced by their voiceless counterparts in Finglish; /f/ is likewise replaced with /v/ | lumperi | puutavara | lumber |
| piiri | olut, kalja | beer | |
| rapoli | ongelma | trouble | |
| karpetsi | roska(t) | garbage | |
| vörnitseri | huonekalu | furniture | |
| three contiguous vowels are not allowed. They are broken up by inserting either a back or front glide depending on the phonetic environment | leijata | pelata, soittaa | to play |
| sauveri | suihku | shower | |
| syllabic consonants are modified by inserting a vowel in front of them: | kaluna | gallona | gallon |
| hanteli | kahva | handle | |
| words should end in a vowel (the preferred word-final vowel is /i/ but /a/ is also encountered) | reimi | kehys | frame |
| kaara | auto, vaunu, kärry | car | |
| heerkatti | hiustenleikkuu | haircut | |
| loijari | lakimies | lawyer | |
| when the word in English begins with two or three consonants, all but the last consonant are dropped before the word is acceptable for Finglish | raikki | isku, lakko | strike |
| touvi | hella, liesi | stove | |
| rosseri | kauppa | grocery | |
| vowels are written phonetically, as in Finnish | reitti | suora | straight |
| raippi | raita, juova | stripe | |
| disappearance of possessive suffix, as in spoken Finnish | meitin haussi | meidän talomme | our house |
Words used in US Finglish often have completely different meanings in Finnish; they have become expressive loan
Expressive loan
An expressive loan is a loanword incorporated into the expressive system of the borrowing language, making it resemble native words or onomatopoeia. Expressive loanwords are hard to identify, and by definition, they follow the common phonetic sound change patterns poorly. Likewise, there is a...
s: ruuma (room; in Finnish "cargo hold"), piiri (beer; "district"), leijata (to play; "to hover"), reisi (crazy; "thigh") or touvi (stove; "halyard"). US Finglish compound words can produce combinations completely incomprehensible to native Finnish speakers, like piirikäki (beer keg; "district cuckoo") or ilmapiika (flight attendant; "air maid").
Old Finglish is not bound to survive, and its native speakers are now in their 80s and 90s. The descendants of most American Finns are today either completely monolingual, or, if they have kept their ties to their foreparents' language, speak ordinary Finnish beside English.
Example of old Finglish:
which translates as
For comparison, without Anglicisms:
Relatively few words from old Finglish have become standard Finnish, but note kämppä "log cabin", "(temporary) accommodation" from English camp and mainari "miner".
Current situation
New Finglish originates in Finland. Its sources are technologyTechnology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, various sub-cultures and fandom
Fandom
Fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest...
. It differs from slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
in the sense that it also uses some English linguistic structures. Examples of some popular culture Finglish expressions include vörkkiä (to work), biitsi (beach), spreijata (to spray), hengailla (to hang out), kruisailla (to cruise with an automobile) and hevijuuseri (heavy user). While Old Finglish was distinctively a lower-class migrant language, New Finglish is used by youth in contact with the English language. New Finglish is considered a transitional phase of absorption of new terms and ideas from English into Finnish before the full nativization of the words, especially in situations where English expresses a concept with one word, while Finnish would require several of them. New Finglish is not to be confused with Helsinki slang
Helsinki slang
Helsinki slang or stadin slangi is a local dialect and a sociolect of the Finnish language mainly used in the capital Helsinki...
, though its modern variant has absorbed some English loan words too.
The characteristics of New Finglish, in descending order, are
| Phenomenon | Finglish | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| preservation of voiced consonants /b/, /d/ and /g/ and /f/ | biitsi | hiekkaranta | beach |
| bugi | bug, as programming error | ||
| dellata | poistaa | to delete | |
| delata | kuolla | to die | |
| digata | to dig, in sense "to feel affection" | ||
| giikki | geek | ||
| fleimi | an Internet flame, a nasty Internet reply | ||
| fleimata | to write/send a nasty Internet reply or to burn | ||
| preservation of consonant clusters in the beginning of the words as in Southwestern Finnish dialects | kreisi | hullu | crazy |
| printteri | tulostin | printer | |
| skipata | jättää väliin | to skip, to pass something | |
| steissi | asema; (esiintymis)lava | station or stage | |
| trabeli | trouble | ||
| word ending in a vowel as in Old Finglish, almost exclusively in /i/. Duplication of the English final consonant before the final /i/ | keissi | tapaus | case |
| disketti | levyke | diskette | |
| floppi | flop, failure | ||
| Vowels written out phonetically as in Old Finglish, umlaut Umlaut (diacritic) The diaeresis and the umlaut are diacritics that consist of two dots placed over a letter, most commonly a vowel. When that letter is an i or a j, the diacritic replaces the tittle: ï.... denoting frontal vowel |
staili | tyylikäs | stylish |
| bändi | yhtye | band, orchestra | |
| nörtti | nerd | ||
| räppi | rap music | ||
| nevöhööd | never heard | ||
replacement of English
|
klikata | to click | |
| tsekata | tarkistaa | to check | |
| fiksata | korjata | to fix | |
| biifdsööki | beef jerky | ||
| pätsätä | to patch, as in updating software | ||
| vörkkiä | toimia | to work, to function | |
| conceptual switch of Finnish instructive "mene" (go with) as "ota" (take) | ota juna | mene junalla | |
| ota itäreitti | mene itäreittiä | ||
| you-impersonal (sinä-passiivi); using sinä (you) as the formal subject of an impersonal sentence. This may actually be an older phenomenon than English influence, as it also has appeared in certain Karelian dialects. | Jos sinä et syö, sinä et elä. | Jos ei syö, ei elä. | If you don't eat, you don't live. |
An example of today's Finglish might be
Mä lainasin faijan autoo ja me mentiin Mikan, Jennin ja Hannan kanssa kruisaamaan. Ensin haettiin gasoo, sitten käytiin syömässä Mäkissä bögöt ja lopulta mentiin biitsille.
which translates as
"I borrowed Dad's car and we went together with Mika, Jenni and Hanna cruising around. We first went to get some gasoline, then went to McDonald's (Mäkki < Mäkdonalds < McDonalds) to have burgers and in the end we went to the beach."
For comparison, without Anglicisms, but still colloquial:
Mä lainasin faijan autoo ja me mentiin Mikan, Jennin ja Hannan kanssa ajelulle. Ensin haettiin löpöö, sitten käytiin syömässä [pikaruokalan] purilaiset ja lopulta mentiin rantsuun.
And, in literal Finnish:
Lainasin isäni autoa ja menimme Mikan, Jennin ja Hannan kanssa ajelulle. Ensin haimme polttoainetta, sitten kävimme pikaruokalassa syömässä hampurilaiset ja lopulta menimme rannalle.
Techspeak
Finglish is today used most commonly in technology speech, where the majority of the loans originate in English. Since the English and Finnish language morphologies are vastly different and English pronunciation seldom fits in the Finnish speech immediately, the loan's orthography and pronunciation are nativized. Direct Finglish teknopuhe (techspeak) expressions include printteri ("printer" - it is currently being ousted by the native word tulostin), modeemi ("modem") and prosessori ("processor", there is even a puristic word, suoritin, which is heard often enough, but is still less common than prosessori or prossu). Acronyms in Finglish include seepu (CPU; Central Processing Unit, in Finnish suoritin or prosessori), and dimmi (DIMM; Dual In-Line Memory Module). Finglish is usually considered a transitionary phase from literal loans into translationary loans (calqueCalque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
s). Examples of Finglish calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
s are emolevy (motherboard), näyttö (display), ulkoistaa (to outsource) and sähköposti (electronic mail - the Finglish word eemeli [male name!], iimeili or meili is still quite common). An example of a word where the transition is partial, is webbiselain (web browser), where the word web has not yet been translated into Finnish verkko.
An example of Finnish techspeak:
Mä tsekkasin sen serverin. Siinä oli täys snafu päällä. Siitä oli poveri kärtsännyt ja se oli sitten krässännyt totaalisesti. Kun sitä ei oltu ajettu hallitusti alas, siitä oli käyttispartitio korruptoitunut eikä se enää buutannut. Mä fiksasin siihen uuden poverin ja buuttasin sen korpulta.
which would translate in English:
"I checked the server. It was in a complete SNAFU
SNAFU
SNAFU is an acronym that stands for situation normal: all fucked up. It is sometimes bowdlerized to all fouled up or similar. In simple terms, it means that the normal situation is in a bad state, as it always is, therefore nothing unexpected. It is usually used in jest, or as a sign of frustration...
. Its power supply had burnt out and it had then crashed totally. As it was not shut down in an orderly manner, its operating system partition was corrupted and it no longer booted. I fixed it with a new power supply and booted it from a floppy disk."
and in a less Anglicised, but still colloquial Finnish:
Mä tarkistin sen palvelimen. Se oli täysin hajalla. Siitä oli virtalähde kärtsännyt ja se oli sitten mennyt aivan jumiin. Kun sitä ei oltu ajettu hallitusti alas, siitä oli käyttisosio pilalla eikä se enää käynnistynyt. Mä hoidin siihen uuden virtalähteen ja käynnistin sen korpulta.
Neologisms
Sometimes English words are used as basis of Finnish conceptual neologisms, like nörtti, computer enthusiast, from English "nerd" or nyypiö, nyyppä (or noobi) beginner, from English "newbie"; influenced by the native Finnish "hyypiö" meaning a freak or eccentric person).Since most New Finglish speakers are fluent in both Finnish and in English, direct translations are sometimes used in humorous or oxymoronic concepts, such as julkinen talo (public house) for pubi or käytännöllinen pila (practical joke, shenanigan) for native Finnish kepponen.
English loans that originate in Latin are usually amalgamated in Finnish by using the Latin and not English orthography and grammar.
External links
- Finglish Report by Kent Randell
- The bluffer’s guide to Finglish Six Degrees (No. 6, 2008)
