Can an Estonian speaker understand Finnish? | Mini Challenge
🤓 The full episode dedicated to this phenomenon → • Can Finnish and Estoni...
Mutual intelligibility within the Finno-Ugric language family is generally limited due to the significant linguistic differences between languages. We created this language challenge to give you a chance to see for yourself how well Finnish and Estonian speakers can understand each other based on similarities between those two languages. If you're a speaker of a Finno-Ugric language do volunteer in for the future videos so we can run more experiments like that. 🤓
📝 You can sign up via following volunteer form→ forms.gle/aZeSFSsFexbmxE7UA
The Finno-Ugric language family is a branch of the larger Uralic language family, which includes languages spoken primarily in Finland, Estonia, Hungary, and regions of Russia. This family consists of two main branches: Finno-Permic and Ugric. Some well-known languages in this family include Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian, as well as various minority languages such as Karelian, Udmurt, and Khanty.
🤗 Big thanks to 🇪🇪 Kristofer and 🇫🇮 Antti for participating in the video.
🇫🇮 You can learn Finnish with Antti here: www.italki.com/en/teacher/874...
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🤗 Big hug for everyone reading my video descriptions! You rock! 🤓💪🏻
#learnestonian #learnfinnish #languagechallenge #languages
🤓 The full episode → kzhead.info/sun/iJ2uh6WXb4d_dXk/bejne.html
I have often wondered about similarities between the languages of The Pacific Ocean. Can Hawaiians, Fijians & New Zealand Maori understand each other?
Please add one of the Sami languages to your videos! I've seen a lot of language comparisons, but no one ever includes any Sami.
Saami and Karelian! There's fewer Karelian speakers, but they have a strong community, I'm sure you can find some preservation activist.
Maybe Hungarian vs Estonian or Finnish??? 😂😂😂 And I'm Latvian, būt really don't understand Lithuanians, although they are both Baltic, and I know Russian perfect too.
Saying "God" was actually an awesome guess because it shows that the Estonian guy was at least understanding more than just the idea of the sentence
@@ruubentootsen3743 same with me (Finnish speaker) when I was watching that Estonian version earlier. The subtitles helped.
At 1:32 the Estonian word for hindus (hindid) would be in Finnish hindut. In Finnish there is another word that sounds awfully similar to the Estonian word "hindid", which is "hintit". "Hintit" is a slur word for homosexuals, similar to the English word "faggots". That is also the reason why the Finnish speaker is confused and amused by the situation.
Hindus in Estonian is hindud
I'll remember that. Hintit
@@flagshipbowtie note that it's the plural form.
@@jattikuukunen What's singular? Hinti?
@@paavomultala6062 You pluralise nouns by switching I and T? Fun!
It was hilarious to see Antti's reaction when Kristofer asked if Hindus believe in it. What Antti heard is probably what I heard: "do f*gs believe in it?" Made my day 😁
Curse words and slurs in other languages are so interesting. To one person it's just a sound or another word but to some people it elicits a literal physical response of shock, anger or some other emotion. Weird to think about lol
Most weirdest part is to be and adult person who gets offended from any words he hears. Part of the adulthood is to not get impulsive primitive reactions to anything.
@@vicmac3513 Haven't confused adulthood with losing one's feelings or sense of humor and meaning as too impulsive or primitive, right...?
@@vicmac3513 you sound like a Narc tbh. Typical priviliged entitled white cishet men behaviour!
1:28, if anyone is interested
I know maybe 5 words of Finnish and none of Estonian and this was still a riveting watch
I worked with a colleague from Estonia. He said he spent some time with the Finnish Army and could understand Finnish, I am so happy he lived to see Estonia free,
As a non-speaker of either languages, but familiar with Finnish. I ran into a couple of Estonian speakers the other day. "Hold on a second... This sounds like Finnish, but something is off".
really enjoying this, although I'm a Welsh-speaking Celt! Like the sound of both languages, but I mix up who's speaking which language, is it possible to put Esonian/Finnish on screen or flag behind them or something. It's great how much they can understand of each another's languages, though this one was a very difficult one to explain, fair play to the Estonian speakers. Keep up the great work.
There were flags and maps at the beginning.
It’s in the thumbnail ;)
the colour code
I'm not quite sure how the Estonian speaker didn't get the right idea right away. olento - olend - being/creature uskomusten - uskumustes - in religions/beliefs (?) ihmiset väittää nähneensa näitä olentoja - inimesed (on) väitnud, (et on) näinud neid olendeid - people have claimed to have seen these creatures tiede ei ole todistanud niiden olemassaloa - teadus ei ole tõestanud nende olemasolu - science hasn't proven their existance So it was quite easy to get the right idea even with no prior knowledge of Finnish, and with some Finnish experience (or a bit of logic) you can also understand that "sielu" - "soul" and with some knowledge of archaic Estonian also that "kuoleman" - "koolma" (instead of "surema") - "to die", which makes it very easy to get the correct answer. I suspect the Finnish subtitles helped a lot, though, and with only audio it could indeed be a bit more difficult.
Aitäh Rupsikas, excellent description! I have noticed for example in watching these kind of videos and reading comments in them, that there is a huge scale between the speakers of the same language, how well they can detect these kind of relations. For some people there has to be only one hint, and they can connect everything they know about the dialects and archaic forms. It is a matter of both nature and nurture, language aptitude and exposure to variation. My guess is that the skill follows normal distribution, like many other human skills. So, there is never a single answer for mutual intelligibility between related languages, because there is variation between people, but if we had two meaningful numbers, they would be the mean and standard deviation of big enough sample.
Don't underestimate just how much easier recognizing cognates is with subtitles.
@@hapetE yeah it is a huge difference. I can read Estonian so much easier than I can understand by listening.
@@hapetE Yes, for sure, + being under pressure for recording a video probably makes it more difficult as well.
@@mikahamari6420 Exactly, I recently listened to an Estonian radio show which talked about this exact issue. It turns out that the difference on how well Estonians understand Finns (and vice versa) is very vast. It very much depends on knowledge on your own language i.e. dialects, archaic forms etc.
As a Finn I couldn't even understand what Antti was meaning.
Haha, I speak both languages and I ran into the same problem. But I like how Antti articulates the words in a clear manner so it makes it slightly easier for an Estonian to guess.
@@JK-AUTO yup
@@Noradory haha. I've been under a lot of stress lately and working a lot so I guess I was focused on something else while he explained it. I dunno.
@@Noradory Well not to me
@@Noradory ghosts just aren't something I think about usually. I don't watch that kind of movies so it's just not topical for me. That's why it took some time for me to guess it.
Lovely. I speak neither and I understood nothing!
Thought at one point he suddenly asked "what sense does this make at all" ("mitte järgmises?" sound some like "mitä järkee täs on?" + the intonation was all fitting as well). Core questions.
Enjoying this video, living in Finland now and I constantly hear Finns talk about this. Funny to see this in video form : )
it's almost like listening to heavy accent, where the similar text is clear almost right away but listening is wholely diffrent.
the example and the way it is explained is so misleading that it's no wonder that Kristofer can't seem to understand. I didn't immediately understand the word either, even though I speak Finnish as my mother tongue, for God's sake! 😃
1:35 Hindid made me smile and him laugh...:D
Can you make a video like "Can Lithuanian speaker understand Latvian" or conversely. I can participate :)
You're welcome to sign up to the volunteer list here so I contact you: forms.gle/aZeSFSsFexbmxE7UA 🤓
Omg, right now I write the same - I don't understand Lithuanians, maybe some words. But we know the difference between "alnis" in Latvian and Lithuanian 😂😂😂
OMG it is ridiculous how frustrated I feel when I understand what Antti says and then Kristofer understands nothing. I mean, yes, it is logical that Norbert has chosen people who do not actually speak the other's language, but. I cannot seem to un-understand what I understand. :D
The challenge between speakers of these languages was fun. I hope you revisit in the future. Also, was there a reason why Antti was speaking in kirjakieli? Just curious.
Varmaan yritti puhua mahdollisimman yleiskieltä, ettei murteisuus vaikuttais. Ei Antti nimittäin mitenkään täysin kirjakieltä puhunut. Käytti esimerkiksi sanaa "tää" eikä "tämä" jne.
@@glendaal67 Actually, I agree with you, now that you pointed things out that I missed. Also, I guess if he spoke a dialect, there would be problems with slang and loanwords, as well as not knowing the sound changes between dialects. Helsingin murre sounds pretty clear when compared with those northern and eastern dialects, if you ignore the Swedish slang, but that is just my ill-informed opinion...
Suomalainen potilas virolaiselle lääkärille: Minulla on tyrä, katsoisitko sitä. Yes, the Estonian doctor will understand, but probably will not agree to do that.
Oon suomalainen ja en ois millään arvannut sanaa. Niin jännästi kertoit sanaa.
Finns do not understand Estonian as its like a very different accent compared to normal finnish. Antti is speaking very pure writen Finnish, which is like the basis for all finnish accents so thats why it is easier for the Estonian to understand him than the other way around
Would be interesting to do this with other Baltic-Finnic languages too. As a Meänkieli/Tornevalley-dialect speaker, I managed to recognise some Estonian words due to sharing common Swedish origin.
Jums jāzin, ka BALTU valodas ir pavisam citā grupā, kā SOM-UGRU.
I read the English subtitles the whole time. Had no idea what he meant.
I bet the estonian guy would've understood better, if the finnish guy spoke spoken finnish
And not like this written, formal language
@@jimmiscarrey7175 absolutely. Spoken Finnish especially close to Helsinki is much more similar to Estonian.
@@cm00npenguin Still the same false friends. Also spoken finnish isnt a thing, what you know as "spoken language" is Helsinki dialect, and he's from Tampere.
@@are3287 Tampere Finnish is way more similar to Helsinki Finnish than kirjakieli. Your point makes no sense.
@@are3287 Also, I never called the Helsinki dialect "the spoken language". I said that Spoken Finnish *ESPECIALLY* (meaning not limited to) close to Helsinki is much more similar to Estonian. It would've been way harder if they were to speak a Savonian Finnish dialect.
Please do more videos about finnish! Example Finnish, Estonian, Swedish and Norwegian trying to understand each other! :) This video was so good! :)
swedes and norwegians will not understand finnish or estonia at all. norwegians are just too far from finland so they have very little exposure thus are mostly unaware of finnish. swedes are mostly ignorant but to it's understandable since they are by far the economic powerhouse of the nordic countries, they wouldn't have to understand and never have needed to
Man... the Uralic languages are on a whole different planet
I was sure it would be « enkeli », especially because he made a connection to religion.
I love Finnish Guy’s germinated consonants :) So, apparently the words for “soul” and “same” or loaned into Finnish. Soul probably from Swedish and same almost certainly so.
"Same" is also "sama" in Estonian
I checked the etymology dictionary. "Sielu" was invented by Mikael Agricola in 1500s, the same man who made the first Finnish translation of the Bible. He most likely took it from Swedish. "Sama" is a loan from Germanic languages as you thought.
'Sielu' was borrowed from the Old Swedish 'siel' or 'siäl', which later became Swedish 'själ'. 'Sama' is much older loan word though, it has cognates in almost every Finnic language, so it was probably borrowed from Proto-Germanic *samaz, or from Proto-Norse.
@@closetmonster5057 thank you. I had no idea “sama” was that old and that widespread.
very interesting thanks but 🧐 I somehow suspect Kristofer to have an already basic knowledge of Finnish - would a totally fresh Estonian have grasped as much ?
Kristofer said a really good guess actually😅
круто!!!
Правда? А я вот по фински ничего не поняла, кроме нескольких слов. Хотя, эстонский знаю, родом из Таллинна...
I was thinking Antti was talking about Heaven or Christianity; I knew those three words he wrote down but they slipped my mind, I guess. 😅 I really need to study more...
Räägin eesti keelt, myös ymmärrän suomea, oiken kiintoinen..väga huvitav )))
Mä luulin että "väga huvitav" tarkoittaa vähän huvittava (a little amusing), mutta se olikin todella mielenkiintoinen 😆 hehe mä rakastan eestin kieltä ❤
@@sonjass8657 mulla on noin A2 suomen taso, mut haluan ettenpäin oppia
@@mariannareinsalu39 hienoa!! Mä haluaisin myös oppia viroa, tiedän vaan miten sanoa "aitäh" ja "loksutada" maitopurkeista 😂 jos haluut jonkun kenen kanssa puhua suomea, mulle voi laittaa viestiä 👋 ma tahan õppida eesti keelt
Vamo Grêmio 🇪🇪
Antti's reaction when Kristofer said hindid LMAO 😅 in Finnish hintit means f**otts
O da esquerda é finlandês e o direito é estônio?
Sim.
@@sledgehog1 línguas urálicas da mesma raiz, só faltou o *húngaro*
Estonian is closer to the Karelian language then finnish.
I can understand why you say so, and Karelian, when we mean Viena dialect, is very highly mutually intelligble with Finnish. Also that what we call "Finnish", is not just an entity without variation, but has big amount of different dialects and more official and colloquial variants, as also Estonian does. In many Finnish dialects there are similar features with Estonian, that are not included in Standard Finnish. But probably in many loan words Estonian and Karelian dialects have more similarity.
@@mikahamari6420 My aunties spook in livi dialect, which much harder to understand. I can speak it just a little. It sounded finnish, but not.
@@statostheman I have once been in Aunus (Olonets). You are correct, Livvi is between Viena and Vepsian, so without prior learning the mutual intelligibility is much lower. Like in Estonian, already a small amount of learning helps, but with Viena dialect it just comes naturally.
@@mikahamari6420 Take example the word fork. In finnish its haarukka. In livi its kahveli. Which many in the Ostrobothnia region still uses this word. Here comes one word which many finnish speakers speakers chuckle a bit. invent in finnish is keksi. In livi its seksi. Which in finnish means totally different.
@@statostheman now I'm imagining being offered cookies in livi. "Saisiko olla keksiä"
Finnic is the exact same concept as Germanic
geez man it was so obvious!!!
I got it too, but we were reading the English subtitles, weren’t we?
@@peterfireflylund not im not have to read it, i can hear it
Its tricky ! 😅 I was guessing god or deity of some sort as well . Without subs .