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
