That word "neen"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Well, see, it was a joke. Some of my best friends are Finns. My
apparently failed point was that many (most?) native speakers of
English don't always use "who" to refer to human referents; surely
the sentence I gave "He's the man that I saw yesterday' is common
among native speakers. I was just kind of giving it to the
LinguistList for being so dense.

dInIs





>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.
>
>*************************************************************************
>
>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
>>

--
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