Closest language to your language.

=>*Could you tell me which Dutch words, from the list,excist in Finnish (in an other form of course)? <=

Maybe its better that I give the translation in Dutch... :)

-ahoy = ahoy/ahoi/hoi
-deck = dek
-cruiser = kruiser
-dock = dok
-freebooter = vrijbuiter
-filibuster = vrijbuiter
-freight = vracht
-furlough = verlof
-hoist = hijsen
-keel = kiel
-keelhaul = kielhalen
-maelstrom = maalstroom
-leak = lek
-skipper = schipper
-sloop = sloep
-yacht = jacht

2 more Dutch words the English had to learn before they could sail a ship:

Foc´sle= fokzeil
starboard= stuurboord

Suomalainen: <<Egy széken ülök én a nyelvemet beszélek.>>

Just a slight correction: it should be "Egy széken ülök és a nyelvemet beszélem" (there is a separate type of conjugation in Hungarian of verbs standing with definite objects).

By the way, as I see it, Finns are better off than Hungarians with regard to "closest languages" - you can understand Estonian and Karelian with a little effort, judging from the examples. For Hungarians, the same could happen only if someone happened to get to the Khanti-Mansi region of Russia, which is a highly improbable situation. :)

By the way, I have quoted some examples earlier for similarity between Hungarian and Vogul, and, more remotely, Finnish. Here are some more:

Vogul and Hungarian:

"Hurem né vitnel hulivel husz hul pugi".
"Három nő a vízből hálóval húsz halat fog" (the word order is the same for the sake of comparison, but Hungarian would use a slightly different word order in reality)
English: "Three women are catching twenty fish from water with a net."

Finnish and Hungarian:

"Jään alla talvella elävät kalat uiskentelevat."
"Jég alatt télen eleven halak úszkálnak."
"Living fish are swimming in winter under the ice."

"Orvon silmä kyyneliä täynnä."
"Árva szeme könnyel tele."
"His/her orphaned eyes are full of tears"

"Miniäni antoi voita."
"Menyem adott vajat."
"My daughter-in-law gave some butter"

I´m sorry, I used the word ´German´ though I meant Germanic. Many of the Dutch words have come to our language through Swedish, but as you say, they certainly are originally Dutch (this is mentioned also in the dictionary of our local Rauma dialect). I am not expert on seamen´s language but at least these words exist in Finnish
ahoy = ohoi (an exclamation, isn´t it?)
dock = tokka
freight = rahti
yacht = jahti
skipper = kippari (Swedish: skeppare)

These words exist in our Rauma dialect but not in Finnish literary language:
deck = täkk
cruise = kryssät
hijsen = hissat

To Unkarilainen:
I wondered whether it would be 'beszélek' or 'beszélem' in that case. And I always mix the words én (I) and és (and). Thank you, köszönöm, for correction, távoli rokon Magyarországról (is this now correct?). There were also good examples with old common words that exist both in Hungarian and Finnish. I have to use these sentences next time when I tell about the Hungarian language to my students at school. 'Orpo/árva' is an ancient Indo-European loan word, cf. 'orphan' in English.

I speak Danish and the closest language to Danish is Norwegian, closely followed by Swedish.

Actually, sometimes i won't even notice that I am reading a Norwegian text because the differences are very small. Swedish uses a different spelling than Danish, but you just have to look at the words and forget about spelling rules. Then you'll easily understand what it means.

Danish: Jeg elsker dig
Norwegian: Jeg elsker dig
Swedish: Jag älskar dig

Danish: Jeg elsker dig
Norwegian: Jeg elsker dig
Swedish: Jag älskar dig

= I love you

Te amo: Spanish
Je t'aime: French
Te iubesc: Romanian

Je crois que les langues étrangères les plus proches de ma langue maternelle sont l'occitan, le catalan, l'italien et l'espagnol, dans cet ordre.

Vous confirmez ?

Frisian is the closest language to English, but it does not work the other way around, as Dutch is the closest language to Frisian the way things stand at present.

As far as Serbo-Croatian is concerned, Macedonian and Slovene (and then Bulgarian) are the closest languages to it. Communication is possible between a SC speaker and a speaker of any of the said languages.

greg said: <<Je crois que les langues étrangères les plus proches de ma langue maternelle sont l'occitan, le catalan, l'italien et l'espagnol, dans cet ordre.

Vous confirmez ?>>

That's probably true, greg. But I would put franco-provençal just above occitan on that list.

For example:

French:
Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

Franco-provençal:
Tôs los étres homans nêssont libros et ègals en dignitât et en drêts. Ils ant rêson et conscience et dêvont fâre los uns envèrs los ôtros dedens un èsprit de fraternitât.

Occitan:
Totes los èssers umans naisson liures e egals en dignitat e en dreches. Son dotats de rason e de consciéncia e se devon comportar los unes amb los autres dins un esperit de fraternitat.

Catalan:
Tots els éssers humans neixen lliures i iguals en dignitat i en drets. Són dotats de raó i de consciència, i han de comportar-se fraternalment els uns amb els altres.

Italian:
Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità e diritti. Essi sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono agire gli uni verso gli altri in spirito di fratellanza.

Castilian (Spanish)
Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.

What's interesting is how the other oïl languages seem further from French than the languages of the south (at least in orthography):

(Some of the diacritical marks probably won't show up correctly, but it's worth a shot.)

Picard:
Tos lès-omes vinèt å monde libes èt égåls po çou qu'èst d' leû dignité èt d' leûs dreûts. Leû re°zon èt leû consyince elzî fe°t on d'vwér di s'kidûre inte di zèle come dès frès.

Normand:
Touos l's houmes nâquissent libes et parels dauns lus taête et en dreit. Il ount byin de l'obiche et de l'ingamo et deivent faire d'aveu leus prochan coume si ch'tait pou yeus.

Poitevin-Saintongeais (poetevin-séntunjhaes)
Le munde trtouts avant naeçhu libres trtouts parélls den la dégnetai é den lés dréts. L´avant de l´aeme é de la cunsience é le devant coméyàe trtouts fratrnaument.

Walloon (walon)
Tos lès-omes vinèt-st-å monde lîbes, èt so-l'minme pîd po çou qu'ènn'èst d'leu dignité èt d'leus dreûts. I n'sont nin foû rêzon èt-z-ont-i leû consyince po zèls, çou qu'èlzès deût miner a s'kidûre onk' po l'ôte tot come dès frés.

<<(Some of the diacritical marks probably won't show up correctly, but it's worth a shot.)>>

Whaddaya know, it worked! Good job, antimoon!

" Je crois que les langues étrangères les plus proches de ma langue maternelle sont l'occitan, le catalan, l'italien et l'espagnol, dans cet ordre.

Vous confirmez ? "


Greg, l'Occitan et le Catalan ne sont pas des langues étrangères !!! (surtout l'occitan) - l'occitan est une langue Française au même titre que le "Français" (dialect francilien de la langue d'oil)...

<<Te amo: Spanish
Je t'aime: French
Te iubesc: Romanian >>

"Iubesc" has a Slavic origin.

Julian : merci pour ce comparatif lumineux ! Effectivement l'arpitan (francoprovençal) et le français paraissent singulièrement proches. Beaucoup plus en tout cas que l'occitan ou le catalan. Peut-être que certaines langues d'Oïl utilisent une graphie phonétique (avec des conventions propres) alors que la représentation écrite (arbitraire) du français est davantage étymologique et grammaticale

bernard : je voulais dire que l'occitan et le catalan sont étrangers au système d'Oïl. Mais ce sont bien sûr des langues de France, au moins partiellement.