| ABOUT US | ARCHIVES | LINKS | RSS FEED | MONDAYS | |

3quarksdaily

An Eclectic Digest of Science, Art and Literature

« ted hughes and the hoo-ha | Main | niall ferguson and the death of planet finance »

November 15, 2008

finnish is more better

Sjff_02_img0716

I admit, I don't spend a lot of time comparing English to Finnish. Someone far more qualified than me has, tho -- that's Tero Ykspetäjä, a science-fiction fanzine editor and recent guest blogger at Jeff Vandermeer's Ecstatic Days. In addition to posting about about science fiction in Finland, he came up with the Top Five Reasons Finnish Is Cooler Than English.

1. Finnish is more equal. We don’t have gender-specific personal pronouns, there’s just “hän” meaning both “he” and “she”. This is sometimes a problem for translators, but otherwise pretty neat. It also means we don’t have a language-related problem with people who don’t identify either as a he or a she, and maybe are therefore a little better equipped to treat them more normally in other respects too. If you want, feel free to borrow the word from us. We don’t mind.
2. We have more letters than you do. Your little alphabet ends with z, but we also have å, ä, and ö. And no, those aren’t umlauts. They are totally different letters that just look like a and o with umlauts. And more is naturally better.

more from the LA Times here.

Posted by Morgan Meis at 01:31 PM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment






Subscribe to this blog's feed  

3QD Science Prize

Logo designed by Vicki Winters

Iran Twitter News

Andrew Covers Iran

The Lede on Iran

HuffPo Liveblogging

Help 3 Quarks Daily

3QD on Twitter

Search Using Lijit

Lijit Search

Bookmark This Page

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

3QD FEED FOR GOOGLE


Add to Google

3QD ADVERTISING


Compare prices

  • Canada (French)
  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • South Africa
  • Brazil
  • Recent Comments

    Dave Ranning on The resignation speech of Sarah Palin: a deconstruction

    bill on Ah the singing, ah the delight, the passion!

    Fill on The resignation speech of Sarah Palin: a deconstruction

    Luke Lea on tatlin

    Richard on Philosophy as Complementary Science

    Dave Ranning on Thursday Poem

    Frances Madeson on Lessons from an Unexpected Life

    maniza on Thursday Poem

    maniza on Thursday Poem

    David Schneider on Thursday Poem

    Elatia Harris on Lessons from an Unexpected Life

    Thomas Decker on Philosophy as Complementary Science

    Jonathan on Philosophy as Complementary Science

    Frank on Hitler finds out Michael Jackson has died

    Louise Gordon on Philosophy as Complementary Science

    Louise Gordon on The Improbable American

    Hektor Bim on The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

    maniza on The Improbable American

    Justin E. H. Smith on Philosophy as Complementary Science

    Louise Gordon on Todd Shea: The Improbable 3QD Commenter

    fred lapides on Philosophy as Complementary Science

    Chrystal K. on The resignation speech of Sarah Palin: a deconstruction

    Brian on Baldwin in Istanbul

    Pepito on Anti-Semitism in Chávez’s Venezuela

    Mike Cope on Philosophy as Complementary Science

    Acclaim For 3QD

    ------XXX------

    "I couldn't tear myself away from 3 Quarks Daily, to the point of neglecting my work. Congratulations on this superb site."—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University.

    "I have placed 3 Quarks Daily at the head of my list of web bookmarks."—Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

    "Just wanted you to know I’m one of many who reads and enjoys 3 Quarks....almost daily."—David Byrne, musician, former lead-singer of the Talking Heads, artist, intellectual.

    Subscribe to this blog's feed