Äänestää and Other Finnish Verbs

Last Sunday there was president elections in Finland.

The Finnish verb for vote is äänestää. This verb wasn’t in the Verbix database, so it was added yesterday along with a number of other verbs. Although the verb wasn’t included in the Verbix database, the on-line conjugator conjugated the verb correctly. Just the warning was a bit annoying for this common verb.

Another verb that wasn’t there in the database until yesterday was ystävystyä ‘to become a friend’. This verb will probably remind about itself on 14.2. that is called ystävänpäivä ‘Valentine’s Day’ in Finland.

Links to Follow:

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The Finnish Verb Nauttia

The Finnish verb nauttia ‘to enjoy’ doesn’t have any equivalent among the closest language relatives.

The stem of this verb is an old Germanic loan, with a reconstructed word stem *nautijan- ‘to possess, to enjoy’. This stem is represented in today’s Swedish verb nöta ‘to spend’, with an older meaning ‘to enjoy’.

In written language the verb nauttia has been since the XVI century.

More:

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Swedish in Finland

Finland, areas with predominantly Swedish speaking population

Swedish speaking areas in Finland

Swedish language is a Germanic language that is spoken in Sweden and in Finland. In Finland, the Swedish language is the second official language. Swedish is spoken on coastal areas in Finland.

There are four main variants of the Swedish in Finland as shown on the map. The spoken variations differ quite a lot from each other, but as a written language they are all the same. The written language is the same in Finland and in Sweden.

Links to go:

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The Finnish Optative Mood

There is a less known mood in Finnish, the optative.

This mood is mainly archaic, and it appears mainly in poetry.

Although the Finnish optative mood is not used today, it has borrowed the 3rd person to the Finnish imperative mood.

Here are some samples:

 

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How to Use the Spanish Verb Conjugation Book?

There’s an “Easter Egg” in Verbix 9 for Windows.

An Easter Egg in software is a hidden feature that is not documented. In Verbix 9 the hidden feature creates a Spanish Verb Conjugation book and saves it as PDF. This article describes how to use the book. As a matter of fact, this book is used exactly in the same way as any verb conjugation book that you can buy in a bookstore!

1. First look up the verb from the verb index.

As in many verb conjugation books, the Spanish Verb Conjugation book created in Verbix for Windows 9.0 has an index of verbs.

Let’s find for example ‘ser’ (English ‘to be’).

 

2. Check the verb model that the verb refers to.

In the index the verb ‘ser’ is marked with number 1. This number refers to the verb conjugation table 1. Now that we browse the book to verb conjugation table 1, we find the verb ser conjugated in all tenses.

As in Verbix, irregular forms are displayed in red and regular forms are in black.

About the Spanish Verb Conjugation Book

The book has an index of 38,395 verbs.

The book comprises 231 pages.

Color coding clearly shows additional information of every verb form:

  • regular forms in black
  • irregular forms in red
  • forms that have changes in spelling due to orthographic rules are in blue
  • archaic forms are in purple
  • non-used (hypothetical) forms are in grey

The book is free!

 

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Runes in Finland?

I was looking for something — can’t really know for what — when I discovered a short article that I had teared off from some newspaper.

The article tells about a stone with runic inscriptions that has been found in Eksymäjärvi, near Oulu in Finland.

The article itself didn’t tell more than where it was found, who owned the stone, and that it had been sent to an archeologist. I didn’t find anything more related to this stone by googling today.

I look forward in hearing more about the stone. And of course information on when it was written and in what language.

More about runes:

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European Languages 600 BC

I read another day in the newspaper about a Sami person who told that, in order to learn Finnish and Finnish ethnohistory, they should study Sami.

Having read the text, I remembered a map in a book that I read recently. And the map showed how the only people that dwelled in Northern Europe were Sami.

The map to the right shows the linguistic situation in Europe in 600 BC. The Sami people are displayed in light yellow, and the other (Fenno-)Ugric languages in yellow. As seen the ancestors of today’s Finnish speaking population lived in today’s Estonia and in a very limited area of today’s Southern Finland coast area.

Since then both the Finnish and Germanic tribes have pushed the Sami northward.

More to read:

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Verb tables in PDF

One of the new features of the upcoming Verbix 9 is the possibility to create PDF documents of the verb conjugation tables.

This makes it possible to put your favorite verbs on your iPhone or any other gadget that supports PDF.

Or simply print out the verb table.

The PDF is supported first for Spanish verbs. Please vote for getting PDF support for other languages, too.

  • The verb cocer ‘to cook’ conjugated in all tenses: Cocer verb.
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Verbix 9 Beta Released

Today Verbix 8 Beta was relased.

It is the first public beta version of the upcoming Verbix 9.

Among new features are:

New user interface that clearly divides the software into language selection view and verb conjugation view.

The renewed verb conjugation view now contains the one-stop place for entering a verb:

  • Enter the verb infinitive in active language nad Verbix conjugates it;
  • Enter any conjugated form of the verb and Verbix returns the infinitive;
  • Enter the verb in any language and Verbix translates it to active language.

Verbix 9 Beta is available for download here.

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Ethnohistory on the Map

Did you ever wonder where the Teutones lived and when? If you did, then you can see the data at http://ethnohistory.verbix.com/Teutones/.

This new website displays ethnohistory records of 100′s of European people, where they originated and where they dwelled.

One of the best staring points on the Ethnohistory website is the page that groups the peoples by language: http://ethnohistory.verbix.com/languages/

Links to go:

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