That word "neen"

[T. Hakala]

The most likely reason Finnish speakers have trouble with "that" and "who"
is due to the difference in interrogative and relative pronouns in
Finnish.  The interrogative pronoun "who" is "kuka" in Finnish, whereas
the relative pronoun "who" is "joka".  Or as my former Finnish instructor,
Andy Nestingen, so nicely explains:

"The nominative form of the relative pronoun in Finnish is 'joka,'....
Of course there are different nominative forms in English to distinguish
between people and things, who and which/that. In contrast, Finnish does
not make this distinction, and 'joka' can mean either a person or a thing.
So:

The boy, who is nice...Poika, joka on kiva...

The car, which is red...Auto, joka on punainen...

As a result, it would seem that a Finnish speaker who hadn't grasped the
distinctions made in English, and instead latched on to the most common
relative pronoun, say 'that,' which he or she used in place of 'joka,'
would consistently make the kind of grammatical error you mention."

So there you have it.  Don't be so hard on us Finns (my grandparents were
from Finland).  After all, we brought you the sauna!

Best,
Taryn Hakala

*************************************************************************
First line of the week:

This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's
resolution can achieve.

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On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> Yes, just yesterday I heard some one say "horse" when they meant
> "hoarse." My ears almost fell off!
>
> But seriously folks, on our distinguished colleagues' LinguistList, a
> seeker of wisdom asked what sorts of features distinguish Finns' use
> of English. In the summary, it was noted that Finns have considerable
> difficulty distinguishing the appropriate uses of "who" and "that";
> it was observed that one often hears Finnish learners of English
> using "that" when the referent is human (e.g., He's the man that I
> saw yesterday). Someone must straighten out the poor Finns before
> they destroy English! I was just in Helsinki and Joensuu and missed a
> golden opportunity to help in this worthy cause since I met a lot of
> people that could have used some help.
>
> dInIs
>
> >Bethany,
> >
> >I found your message about the word "neen" very interesting.  I have
> >lived in Appalachia my whole life and have NEVER heard that word,
> >other than it's derivative "needn't."  I learned something today!
> >Now, I will be sure to pay close attention to someone saying it.
> >However, the word that continues to bother me the most is "heerd"
> >for "heard."  It makes my ears cringe.
> >
> >Tori
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> Professor of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics and Languages
> 740 Wells Hall A
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
> Office - (517) 353-0740
> Fax - (517) 432-2736
>