"Merry Christmas" in Khanty

[Johanna Laakso]

From: Jouni J Kortesharju <kortesha at cc.helsinki.fi>

"And, to be honest, is it reasonable to expect that anybody could find the
expression for 'Merry Christmas' in Khanty in any dictionary available?" -
If it is NOT reasonable to expect that anybody could find some certain
information on uralistics anywhere, and somebody asks for that
information, then is it not a job for the specialists? Or should
specialists provide information only for other specialists?

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I have studied and used Uralic languages as living languages. Being so, I
have always considered it elementary to be able to find such expressions
as "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." If somebody composes a booklet on
such useful expressions of SEVERAL Uralic languages, checking the
information from native speakers, I am willing to pay up to 200 FIM for a
copy, depending on size and quality.
 Kazuto Matsumura's comment, "I wonder if the speakers of Khanty
are Christians. If they aren't, perhaps they don't need it: 'Happy New
Year' will do.", is good. I assume that there are indeed at least some
Christian Khanty, but they might speak about Christmas in Russian only.
Really, I do not know. But collecting confirmed information and passing it
on effectively is what this discussion is all about.
 By now, I have some information about "Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year" in Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Mari, and Mordvin. I
guess that the Karelian, Komi, Samish, and Udmurt translations would not
be too difficult to find.

HYVÄÄ JOULUA TOIVOTTAEN

Jouni Kortesharju