[net.nlang] Scand. Languages - Finnish - Korean

clive@druri.UUCP (StewardCN) (11/01/85)

Actually, Finnish is related to Korean, believe it or not.  They are
both of Ural-Altaic origin.  Nothing like either Scandinavian or
Chinese.  


I liked hearing about the Norron.  A friend of mine in the Bodo/
Lofoten area let me know a little about the feeling of that wild root
in a Northern Norwegian.  And also of the local and unadmittedly mixed-in
Asiatics, the Samer or Lapps.

Add the Celtic you can find everywhere, and that's a pretty
interesting and beautiful place, besides the scenery.

Clive

matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) (11/04/85)

CLIVE writes:

> Actually, Finnish is related to Korean, believe it or not.  They are
> both of Ural-Altaic origin.  Nothing like either Scandinavian or
> Chinese.  

Not so fast!  When I studied Korean in college, my professor (Prof.
Wagner) explained that Korean was an Altaic language, that Finnish
and Hungarian were Uralic languages, and that there was something
called the "Ural-Altaic language group."  He cautioned, however, that
no one had ever proved the connection between the Uralic and Altaic
language groups.  So in my mind, the "Ural-Altaic language group" is
still just a hypothesis.  Can any linguist straighten me and Clive
out on this point?

Also, Turkish, like Korean, is an Altaic language, although Korean is
Mongolian and Turkish is (surprise!) Turkic.  Does that mean that my
college knowledge of Korean would be of any help if I wanted to learn
Turkish?  After all, Turkish uses a completely different alphabet
from Korean, and there aren't even any Chinese characters interspersed
with the alphabetic text to help me out semantically :-) .

					-- Matt Rosenblatt

edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards) (11/05/85)

In article <2780@brl-tgr.ARPA> matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) writes:
>CLIVE writes:
>
>> Actually, Finnish is related to Korean, believe it or not.  They are
>> both of Ural-Altaic origin.  Nothing like either Scandinavian or
>> Chinese.  
>
>Not so fast!  When I studied Korean in college, my professor (Prof.

>Also, Turkish, like Korean, is an Altaic language, although Korean is
>Mongolian and Turkish is (surprise!) Turkic.  
>
>					-- Matt Rosenblatt


 When you were listing the Altaic group you forgot one of the
 most important ones, namely Japanese.

 mark

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 gaijin: Doo nan deshoo ka. 
 nihonjin: Uso. Nihongo wa sono grupu ni haitenai. 
 gaijin : Uso ja nai hontoo da yo.