#suomen kieli

In Finnish, we don’t “I’ll go out even if it rained cats and dogs”, we rarely use the old saying “Menen ulos vaikka sataisi ämmiä äkeet selässä” which literally means “I’ll go out even if it rained bitches/hags with harrows on their backs”. 

Just another Finnish linguistic badassery.

Submitted by @decaffeinated, with the help of @neeleys,@bling-a-ling,@artniila,@holayshiteand@rragnaroks

[resources:Wiktionary,Urbaani Sanakirja (in Finnish)andSynonyymit.fi (in Finnish)]

thisisfinnish:

inlanguagewedontsay:

In Finnish we don’t say “dragon” we say “lohikäärme” which roughly translates to “salmon snake” and I think that’s beautiful.

Submitted by @noasadventures, ​with the help of @rragnaroksand@neeleys

[resource:Wiktionary,Wikipedia (in Finnish),Sanakirja.fiandWikisanakirja (in Finnish)]

Pet peeve strikes again.

Yes, it does sound like salmon snake to a modern speaker, but etymologically it’s something completely different: it’s an old loan from Old Swedish, floghdrake, that means a flying snake. Finns couldn’t pronounce the many consonants at the beginning of the word, so it changed in their mouths into lohi that sounds quite similar and happens to mean salmon. Käärme is a direct translation of the word drake, snake.

I’ve made a couple of posts about this, and will continue to do so as long as I see these translations going around. This is why language is so interesting.

In Finnish we don’t say “dragon” we say “lohikäärme” which roughly translates to “salmon snake” and I think that’s beautiful.

Submitted by @noasadventures, ​with the help of @rragnaroksand@neeleys

[resources:Wiktionary,Wikipedia (in Finnish),Sanakirja.fiandWikisanakirja (in Finnish)]