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January 10, 2015

Solving the mystery about my blogs name & languages I've learned


I guess some of you might've wondered about the name of my blog. And some of you might be interested in what languages I've come across during my studies. (This post also includes a small excurse on Middle Breton and Middle Cymric.)

What does "kurkkusalaatti" mean and which language is it?
Kurkkusalaatti is (you might've guessed it) Finnish. The word means cucumber salad. 


How I came up with it?
Long story short, a friend and I were discussing about the many ways to say hello in Finnish. At some point I opened the dictionary. Every time I wanted to look up a word, I happened to open the dictionary at exact the same page.

Why I picked this name?
Well, actually there's no particular reason for it. I just thought that I could use the word, which almost forced itself upon me, as a nickname.

And now the language part... 

What languages did I learn over the years?
My first foreign language was English, starting in primary school. During my higher education I had to learn French (unfortunately I'm a bit rusty now). After my Matura, I really wanted to learn Finnish. Which is the reason I studied in Vienna (the only thing that keeps me apart from my Bachelor's degree is Latin!). During my studies in Vienna, I had to learn some Estonian (which I always confuse with Finnish, because it's so similar!). In the curriculum it said, that we have to do an EC (Erweiterungs Curriculum with 30 ECTS- Extending Study plan). So I picked Slavic Languages (15 ECTS). Where I learned some Russian (not fluent but able to read). I also picked New Irish (I'm not able to produce anything, I don't even remember all those rules about pronunciation... it's really, really, really hard to learn), which included two Irish language courses and a lecture about Middle Breton and Middle Cymric (Which I don’t speak or understand!).
Both of the last mentioned languages are extinct. Scientists try to figure out about the phonetic system and grammar of these languages. Middle Cymric is said to be very similar to modern Welsh. This “similarity” exists because Middle Cymric is the mother language of modern Welsh. There are many untranslated medieval texts in Middle Breton.

Here are some videos, so you can find out what these "exotic" languages sound like. - Just incase you've ever been wondering about...
Finnish
Estonian

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