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Thinking about the Finnish quirk of using the pronoun "it" to denote every human being except a pretentious arsehole in informal speech, and cats and other pets but especially cats.

When speaking of Paavo, a man: "Se ei halunnu aamupalaa tänään." He did not want breakfast today.
When speaking of Paavo, a cat: "Hänelle ei nappulat tänä aamuna kelvanneet." This morning his grace declined the kibble.

Generally you'll just use the word "se" to refer to anyone.

#Finnish #Language

#language #Finnish
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
• •

Finnish is generally gender neutral anyway, apart from words like fireman etc. but it's also funny to me that you won't necessarily know if someone is talking about a single entity that is a human, a plant, a cow, a dog... But you'll almost invariably know when it's a cat!

Anyway. The whole "hän" pronoun is apparently a clerical invention because religious people wanted god to be referred to with a more fancy word than any old people. And Finns immediately went: Ah yes, use this word for cats and/or deeply sarcastically, then!

Lauma Pret 🕸️ reshared this.

in reply to Sini Tuulia

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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Further examples:
"Se sataa aika rankasti ulkona." It (nature) is raining quite a bit outside.
"Se ei tienny mille raiteelle mennä." It (train) didn't know which rail to stop on.
"Se halus että soitan sen äidille." They (a person) wanted me to call their mother.
"Hän laittoi meille uuden kokouksen vielä maanantaille." They (a singular person who is an arse and an inconvenience who didn't think of anyone else) set another meeting for us on Monday.
"Hän on vähän sellainen kusilonkki." They (a cat) are something of a little piss wizard.
Questa voce è stata modificata (8 mesi fa)

Lauma Pret 🕸️ reshared this.

in reply to Sini Tuulia

CatSalad🐈🥗 (D.Burch) :blobcatrainbow:
CatSalad🐈🥗 (D.Burch) :blobcatrainbow:
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:o

"Hän on vähän sellainen kusilonkki." They (a cat) are something of a little piss wizard.


I need to update my profile, brb

in reply to Sini Tuulia

your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
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you use han only for cats, not dogs? are there ancient finnish mythologies about cats? WHY ONLY CATS??!?!?!
in reply to your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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@blogdiva Also for dogs, when you want to give the impression of them being dignified little gentlefolk, or mock them for being very much not dignified or gentlefolk! I've heard hän refer to a cow once, too!
@your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
in reply to your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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Multiple Finnish teachers have said so, and I always liked the grammar and sound of it, but what's really fun is the more colloquial expressions and dialects! It's all very playful, I assume Finns are seen as a very dour people because non-Finnish speakers can't understand the constant linguistic jokes. 😄
Questa voce è stata modificata (8 mesi fa)
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Paul C.
Paul C.
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"In German, a young lady has no sex, while a turnip has. Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip, and what callous disrespect for the girl. See how it looks in print--I translate this from a conversation in one of the best of the German Sunday-school books:
> Gretchen: Wilhelm, where is the turnip?
> Wilhelm: She has gone to the kitchen.
> Gretchen: Where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden?
> Wilhelm: It has gone to the opera."
--Mark Twain
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Daisy 🪺🔪📚
Daisy 🪺🔪📚
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Sensitive content

in reply to Daisy 🪺🔪📚

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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@greengaybles 😁 You're very welcome, it's not an exact translation but it definitely captures the vibes! "Why and how is there pee on this?!" and so on. 😆
@Daisy 🪺🔪📚
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Marta 🌿🍃
Marta 🌿🍃
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Huh, I thought hän was just a gender neutral pronoun... My profile in Discord lists both hän and ő as pronouns. Should I use 'se' then? I don't want to impersonate a cat 😂
in reply to Marta 🌿🍃

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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@Triffen In formal and written language hän is just she/he/they, but it's very rare to actually speak out loud about anyone and use hän! If you're not giving an academic presentation, a memorial speech or anything else, it's just se (or plural ne) instead. 😄 If you're of the older generation that writes emails like letters, you'll use hän there too, but more informal emails use se/ne despite being written down. It's all about the formality and context!
@Marta 🌿🍃
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Weil Averdui
Weil Averdui
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in one chinese novel that i read, the cat referred to himself with royal pronouns. Cats are just like that, and we know it and use everything we have in our linguistical power to emphasize that, though Finnish doing it on everyday basis is the leader so far!
in reply to Weil Averdui

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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@weilaverdui And we're both simultaneously taking the piss out of cats and being incredibly sincere and referring to them with respect and affection!
@Weil Averdui
Unknown parent

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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@SadKitten It's a horrible language to learn! 😆 Apparently only Polish and Hungarian compare to the difficulty level for a beginner.
@Jehane_fr
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Marta 🌿🍃
Marta 🌿🍃
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But you sad the reading is phonetic and easy, right? Imagine just learning to read the words perfectly, without understanding any, or being able to speak 😂 Sort of like Tarzan but he did know the meanings of the words.
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Skiriki Fyxe
Skiriki Fyxe
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Ah! Instead of using hän/se division in Finnish, my area used herra/rouva for the purpose of being sarcastic or mocking.

"Ja mitäs HERRALLE saisi olla?", said with sarcasm-dripping tone of voice. How dare you behave like you're better than others, fuck you.😅

in reply to Skiriki Fyxe

Skiriki Fyxe
Skiriki Fyxe
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Since my kitties are female, I tend to call them 'neiti'. "Neiti! Pois jaloista!" "Neiti! Lopeta mun päälle kuolaaminen!"

On the other hand, Carisma is "ryppypylly" or "kuolaattori", Didi is "karvamakkara" tai "karvaperse", Lobsang is "kusimaakari" and Mort is "piipittäjä", so I usually skip gendered honorifics option...

in reply to Skiriki Fyxe

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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@Skiriki (To non-Finnish speaking comrades, "kusimaakari" means "maker or crafter of piss" and is an excellent Finnish word!)

We do also use herra, rouva, neiti and other honorifics to be sarcastic and mocking, but... Sometimes also genuinely when speaking to friendly old people. 😄
I tend to call my cats toveri, ystävä or kaveri, or different made up academic-ish honorifics, like Kervienssi from amanuenssi etc. Ah, language.
"Kerv, Kervienssi. Toveri, ystävä, kaveri, nyt vittuun siitä mun pyykkikorista pliis!"

@Skiriki Fyxe
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Skiriki Fyxe
Skiriki Fyxe
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Considering that Lobsang had revenge-pissed into Carisma's napping basket -- aka the basket where we keep our cloth grocery bags!! -- she has been hearing "Kusimaakari" all week long while I've been doing laundry.

"Piss Maestro" is an another good translation for it.😅

in reply to Skiriki Fyxe

Skiriki Fyxe
Skiriki Fyxe
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I mean... not a literal translation, but it flows smoothly.

Like Lobsang piddling on other kitties' fave toys, in a fit of anger of being tiniest cat of the household and losing all fights she starts.

in reply to Skiriki Fyxe

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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@Skiriki We've thankfully had very little cat piss related incidents with these lads, except for Pörri who starts to pee standing halfway through the pissing process, and gets the spray from the kitty litter box all over his back legs and paws... He's trying his best, it's just not always enough!
@Skiriki Fyxe
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Skiriki Fyxe
Skiriki Fyxe
• •

Oh dear, silly boi. Tell him he is under no obligation to mimic human men's toilet habits. Good kitties squat!

Amazingly, sometimes cats mimic human habits, maybe he might have seen some guy do human men pee and thought it looks good?

in reply to Sini Tuulia

Elena ``of Valhalla''
Elena ``of Valhalla''
•
@Sini Tuulia having a special grammatical gender just for cats sounds like the bare minimum they are entitled to!
@Sini Tuulia

Lauma Pret 🕸️ reshared this.

in reply to Marta 🌿🍃

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
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@Triffen It's easy to read out, much more difficult to properly write or speak (though we're pretty laissez faire about the speaking part often) 😆
@Marta 🌿🍃
Unknown parent

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
• •
@eLearningTechie It's the only language I can think of that sounds even vaguely like Finnish, but I don't know anything about its grammar!
@eLearningTechie
in reply to Sini Tuulia

eLearningTechie
eLearningTechie
• •

@SadKitten Don't forget Estonian, which is pretty close to Finnish, no?

I once read that "Estonian has no sex and no future" and it's a sentence that has always stuck with me.

@Jehane_fr
Unknown parent

Jehane_fr
Jehane_fr
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@OmegaPolice the lack of french is also suspicious
@Raphael
in reply to Jehane_fr

Sini Tuulia
Sini Tuulia
• •
German was never difficult for me, it has a bunch of rules and then it sticks to them! As long as you memorise a bunch of shit... Never studied French, I can read it a tiny bit because I studied Latin, but the pronunciation is a mess for sure!
Edit: That said... I'm told both German and French have nothing on Finnish or Hungarian 😄
Questa voce è stata modificata (8 mesi fa)
in reply to Sini Tuulia

Raphael
Raphael
• •
@SadKitten I am glad and suspicious at the same time for not seeing German in that list. 😅
@Jehane_fr

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