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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