I am currently studying Systems Biology at Aalto University in Finland and as a consequence I am also trying to learn the Finnish language. Sometimes it can be very confusing, because although Estonian and Finnish are quite similar, there are also many false friends – similar words that mean completely different things.

The best pair that I have found so far are words for south and south-west. In Estonian south-west is edel, south is lõuna and lunch or noon is also lõuna. So in Estonian at lunch time (12 o’clock, lõuna ajal) the sun is in the south (lõunas), which is very nice and logical.

The Finnish word for lunch is also lounas, but the words for south and south-west have been switched, so that now etelä means south and lounas means south-west. As a result in Finnish at lunch time (lounaan aikana), the sun is in etelä (south) and will only reach lounas (south-west) in a couple of hours, depending on the season. Alternative explanation is of course that Finns do have lunch when the sun is in lounas and this time just varies heavily depending on whether it is currently summer or winter. :)

Kaur :: Sep.12.2010 :: Naljakas :: No Comments »