Sananmuunnos
Encyclopedia
Sananmuunnos is a sort of verbal play in the Finnish language
, similar to spoonerism
s in English
.
Special to Finnish is a narrow phoneme inventory and vowel harmony
. As Finnish is a mora
-divided language, it is morae that are exchanged, not syllables. Also, Finnish inflectional and derivational morphology
is extensive, thus applying a suffix from another word often produces a valid word. This leads to large number of possible spoonerisms. Also, it is important to notice that most of these puns are somehow related with sexuality or other non-public matters. (e.g. excretion) Some purists actually define that a pair of words so transformed that isn't related to sexuality is not "official". (Also note that most of the examples in this article fall to this category of not appriopriate words.)
Several books have been written. Some have whole stories with multiple puns in one sentence, for example. Most have a "vocabulary" in the back, usually a hundred or more word pairs long.
Initial morae
of two adjacent words are exchanged.
The "extra length" of a long vowel is a full mora, and thus stays in its original position, making the new vowel long.
If necessary, stilted diphthong
s are converted to into allowed diphthongs as per phonotactics
. The first vowel is the determinant for choosing the diphthong. The process preserves opening and closing diphthongs, e.g. the opening 'ie' is reflected as an opening 'uo'.
If necessary, vowel harmony
is applied. As per vowel harmony, the initial syllable controls the kind of vowel selected.
That is, transformation is A, U, O into Ä, Y, Ö, if the former do not begin the word. Notice that information may be lost in this step, making it irreversible.
Exceptions are found, when the transformation would be irreversible.
It is possible (although not accepted by some "orthodox") to exchange only the initial consonants, if that is the only way to get a sensible result. Eg. palasokeri [p-ala/s-okeri] 'sugar lump' → salapokeri [s-ala/p-okeri] 'playing poker in secret' (*solapakeri would not mean anything).
Typically presented, spoonerisms are a kind of double entendre
. Appropriately, the very term sananmuunnos is one; it becomes munansaannos, which can be understood as "small yield of penis
".
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...
, similar to spoonerism
Spoonerism
A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...
s in 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...
.
Special to Finnish is a narrow phoneme inventory and vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
. As Finnish is a mora
Mora (linguistics)
Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...
-divided language, it is morae that are exchanged, not syllables. Also, Finnish inflectional and derivational morphology
Derivational morphology
Derivational morphology changes the meaning of words by applying derivations. Derivation is the combination of a word stem with a morpheme, which forms a new word, which is often of a different class...
is extensive, thus applying a suffix from another word often produces a valid word. This leads to large number of possible spoonerisms. Also, it is important to notice that most of these puns are somehow related with sexuality or other non-public matters. (e.g. excretion) Some purists actually define that a pair of words so transformed that isn't related to sexuality is not "official". (Also note that most of the examples in this article fall to this category of not appriopriate words.)
Several books have been written. Some have whole stories with multiple puns in one sentence, for example. Most have a "vocabulary" in the back, usually a hundred or more word pairs long.
Initial morae
Mora (linguistics)
Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...
of two adjacent words are exchanged.
- Johannes VirolainenJohannes VirolainenJohannes Virolainen was a Finnish politician.Virolainen was born near Viipuri. After the Continuation War Virolainen moved to Lohja, but he remained one of the leaders of the evacuated Karelians, and never gave up the hope that Soviet Union and later Russia would return Finnish Karelia to Finland...
(name of a former leading politician) → Vihannes Jorolainen (vihannes 'vegetable', Jorolainen = another Finnish surname) - Pentti (a Finnish male first name, for example Pentti LinkolaPentti LinkolaKaarlo Pentti Linkola is a radical Finnish deep ecologist, polemicist, and fisherman. He has written widely about his ideas and is a prominent thinker in Finland, but, at the same time, is also an extremely controversial figure. He lives a simple and austere life. Linkola was occupitional...
, Pentti SaarikoskiPentti SaarikoskiPentti Saarikoski was one of the most important poets in the literary scene of Finland during the 60's and 70's...
, Pentti Saaritsa and Pentti SiimesPentti SiimesPentti Siimes is a Finnish actor. He has appeared in 86 films and television shows since 1946. He starred in the film Miriam, which was entered into the 8th Berlin International Film Festival.-Selected filmography:...
) Hirvonen (a Finnish surname, for example Mikko HirvonenMikko HirvonenMikko Hirvonen is a Finnish rally driver currently driving for the Citroën Total World Rally Team in the World Rally Championship. He placed third in the drivers' championship and helped Ford to the manufacturers' title in both 2006 and 2007. In 2008, 2009 and 2011, he finished runner-up to...
) → hintti (hintti = 'fag') pervonen (diminutive of pervo = 'pervert') - Markku (a Finnish male first name, for example Markku Aro) Oja (a Finnish surname) → orkku (a Finnish slang word, wchich means orgasm), maja (cottage)
- Mikkelin (genitive of MikkeliMikkeliMikkeli is a town and municipality in Finland. It is located in what used to be the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Southern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
, a town in east Finland) kittaajat (alcohol drinkers) → kikkelin (accusative of the word kikkeli [in English: penis]) mittaajat (measurers)
The "extra length" of a long vowel is a full mora, and thus stays in its original position, making the new vowel long.
- sanan muunnos [sa-nan mu-ːnnos] → [mu-nan sa-ːnnos] → munan saannos
If necessary, stilted diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s are converted to into allowed diphthongs as per phonotactics
Phonotactics
Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes...
. The first vowel is the determinant for choosing the diphthong. The process preserves opening and closing diphthongs, e.g. the opening 'ie' is reflected as an opening 'uo'.
- vieno huntti [vi-eno hu-ntti] → [hu-eno vi-ntti] → huono vintti
If necessary, vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
is applied. As per vowel harmony, the initial syllable controls the kind of vowel selected.
- häipyvät tavut [hä-ipyvät ta-vut] → [ta-ipyvät hä-vut] → taipuvat hävyt
That is, transformation is A, U, O into Ä, Y, Ö, if the former do not begin the word. Notice that information may be lost in this step, making it irreversible.
Exceptions are found, when the transformation would be irreversible.
- huono koira → kuono hoira (not *koono huira huuno koira)
It is possible (although not accepted by some "orthodox") to exchange only the initial consonants, if that is the only way to get a sensible result. Eg. palasokeri [p-ala/s-okeri] 'sugar lump' → salapokeri [s-ala/p-okeri] 'playing poker in secret' (*solapakeri would not mean anything).
Typically presented, spoonerisms are a kind of double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
. Appropriately, the very term sananmuunnos is one; it becomes munansaannos, which can be understood as "small yield of penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
".