# Forum Other Languages Germanic languages Scandinavian  Scandinavian language in your country?

## Kamion

Fellows, fellows. Now we have to do something. The Scandinavian lounge is the least used in this entire forum and now I think it

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## maati

I love everything about the Scandinavian countries... apart from the weather  ::  I'd like to move there one day...
I was getting round to learning Norwegian last year as I found a relly nice book for beginners in a shop, with a cassette. But since improving my English & Russian takes me plenty of time I could hardly find more to start learning another language. Maybe one day...
In Poland all Scandinavian countries are highly admired but only few universities offer studying Scandinavian languages. If you decide to take up such course tou have to prepare to "defeat" around 15 competitors.

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## joysof

I'm still friends with a lovely Norwegian. Any more lovely stories about lovely Norwegians? I'd take one about an affable Norwegian, in fact. Or a taciturn Finn. Not strictly Scandinavian, I suppose.

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## bad manners

> Or a taciturn Finn. Not strictly Scandinavian, I suppose.

 Don't give me no Finns. They are simply wanna-be Russians. Same winter caps (but not quite up to the standard). Same steam bathes (not quite up to the standard again). Same drinking habits (not quite up to the standard either).

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## joysof

> Originally Posted by joysof  Or a taciturn Finn. Not strictly Scandinavian, I suppose.   Don't give me no Finns. They are simply wanna-be Russians. Same winter caps (but not quite up to the standard). Same steam bathes (not quite up to the standard again). Same drinking habits (not quite up to the standard either).

 Lovely high cheekbones, though.

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## Pravit

Jag heter Tivarp!

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## Kamion

ojojoj Tivarp, har du l

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## Pravit

Ahhh! I don't understand what you're saying! I just thought it was funny because I google searched for "Tivarp" and it came up in a Swedish name list.   ::

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## Kamion

haha, that

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## Zhenya

Finns are NO wanna-bes at all, although their land have been owned, for most of its life-time, by the swedes, and then lost to russia in war, it has always remained its own national consious!  
Even if the finnish are very similar to the swedish, culturally (A Swedish person feel very at home in Finland, and most Finns learn Swedish in school), They are NO wanna bes what so ever!  
If your interested in the Finnish (and also to great extent the swedish and mutual samic) spirit, read something of the author Arto Paasilinna who captures the northern soul! 
Finally there are no better "Saunas" (or "Bastu", in Swedish) than in Finland , and I have tried them in both Suomi, Sverige and in Rossija! 
Best Regards

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## Jasper May

[EDIT]Leave it, stupid comment.

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## Pinczakko

perhaps Finnish is the next language I'd like to master after Russian.  Eventhough there are no Scandinavian around me, I'd be very glad to learn this language. In pursue of learning new technologies have forced me to learn quite a lot of language, Finnish is one of them, due to my interest in Linux and also in some of computer related research in University of Helsinki . I'd be very grateful for assistance in learning this language  :: .

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## Zhenya

I know several languages amongst them, English, Russian, French, and Swedish, due to my knowledge in Swedish, and that Swedish culture (and some basic words) is so simillar to Finnish I have learned a bit, though the languages is otherwise very different... 
So I can help you a little, although if you'd been interested in Swedish, instead of Finnish (when you said you wanted to learn a Scandinavian language) I could have helped you a lot more....

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## Kamion

Finnish and Swedish are like English and Mandarin. They don

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Yes but the, due to their common history and close cultures, they have words the are really the same... 
Storgatan - Torikatu
Spelm

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## Zhenya

Swedish acctually also have "many" words incommon with Persian that are exactly identical....For example the word for "Roof" which in both Swedish and Persian is "Tak" So even though I one doesn't generally think of Swedish as a close language to Persian, it has got more incommon than you'd think

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## Kamion

> Swedish acctually also have "many" words incommon with Persian that are exactly identical....For example the word for "Roof" which in both Swedish and Persian is "Tak" So even though I one doesn't generally think of Swedish as a close language to Persian, it has got more incommon than you'd think

 mm that

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## Zhenya

Preciselly, while the slight simillarites in some words between Swedish and Finnish come from their mutual history and their geografical closeness...  ::

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## Kamion

> Preciselly, while the slight simillarites in some words between Swedish and Finnish come from their mutual history and their geografical closeness...

 oooh, you

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I always classed scandinavian langauges as easy, now i lived on the scottish island of Shetland, and they speak there norwegian the majority of the time aswell as english and gaeliic its so interesting. .. . i learned to speak norwegian there and now i feel as though i have a good command of it! 
Well. . as i said i thought of scandinavian languages as easy but there are some difficulties to each one which is a pain and i am going to try describ eit!
Danish, easy to learn you know fairly simple grammar, and then pronounciation SO DIFFICULT, so therefore anybody who wants to be a good linguist you know that way you have perfected it. . this is a BIG flaw well. . to me because you cant tell the pronounciation like you can in say, German, Spanish etc BLOODY ST

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## VendingMachine

[quote=Anonymous]BLOODY ST

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## Zhenya

Well, finnish is of course a scandinavian language, because its a scandinavian country, but it's not from the same language group.
I speak both Swedish and some finnish - and my teacher in finnish says that, regardless the big differences in swedish and finnish, swedes are the one's, generally, which have it most easy to learn finnish, because; 
1. Finland has quite a number of words that are common and loanwords from sweden because Finland has been Swedish for most of it's lifetime (over 600 years)
2. Pronunciation for swedes is simple because all the letters and sounds in Swedish are also in finnish, exept for "a with one dot over it". So for swedes you just have to skip letters and sounds - like the many "sh, ch" sounds in swedish, which dont exist at all in finnish
And of course when ever countries have got a big influence on eachother, one get's more familliar with oneanother's languages aswell...

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## Zhenya

I noticed in my last message that it may be interpreted as if there is only one letter from swedish that don't exist in finnsh - there are more, like b,g, and so on...

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## VendingMachine

> Well, finnish is of course a scandinavian language, because its a scandinavian country, but it's not from the same language group.

 Bollocks, my old china. Finnish is not a Scandinavian language - it's an _Ugro-Finnic_ language. And Finland is not even a Scandinavian country - it's a _Nordic_ country alright, but Scandinavian it isn't. This question has been discussed at Scandinavian forums and discussion groups ad nausea yet many people still make this stupid mistake. Du paastaar at du taler svensk, men du ved ikke hvad forskellen mellem skandinaviske og nordiske laender er...

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## Zhenya

hehe ok, nu ska vi inte bli upprorda Det finns dock fortfarande manniskor som raknar Finland till Skandinavien, troligen eftersom F. har varit svenskt sa lange...men oavsett, sa stammer ju iaf det andra jag skrev  ::

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## Zhenya

What forum was that - got any link?

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## VendingMachine

> hehe ok, nu ska vi inte bli upprorda Det finns dock fortfarande manniskor som raknar Finland till Skandinavien

 ja vissssssst (er det hvad man siger paa svensk?) men de kommer ikke fra Skandinavien, de som paastaar det. Nogen deler af Finland er praeget af den svenske sprog, svenske kultur, men i det hele taget er Finland et helt andet land - nordisk ja, men ikke skandinavisk. Det er normalt bare udlandninger der tror at Finland tilhoerer til Skandinavien. Paa dansk (jeg ogsaa tror paa svensk og norsk) findes der forskel mellem 'nordisk' og 'skandinavisk'. Laes her: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Scandinavia

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How interresting is that site Vending Machine, What is your name? Wow you can speka good Danish hehe.
I'm Ignacio, do you spek spanish? Im obssessed witht eh Norwegian language, and i also like swedish and danish. Explain more about this eqivalent to the Stoed in Norwegian please. .. .  
Thanks 
Ignacio

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## Zhenya

yes but you know since most people speak swedish - with a lovely accent, in the capitol Helsinki - Helsingfors, that's what counts, hehe...

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## VendingMachine

> yes but you know since most people speak swedish - with a lovely accent, in the capitol Helsinki - Helsingfors, that's what counts, hehe...

 Many people speak passable Russian in the capital of Kazakhstan - does it make Kazakhstan a Slavic country? Besides, I wouldn't say that most people in Helsinki speak Swedish - most will have been taught it at school and some do speak it quite well but the majority speak it quite haltingly or not at all. Many can speak some very basic Swedish but won't. Now, Turku or, say, Porvoo is indeed a different story...

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## Zhenya

yes of course, it was somewhat a joke...

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## Zhenya

Still almost 300 000 Finns, speak swedish. Here is a good link http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/finnswedes.html 
You from Norway Vending?

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## Kamion

> Still almost 300 000 Finns, speak swedish. Here is a good link http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/finnswedes.html 
> You from Norway Vending?

 Jag

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## Zhenya

Nej det

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## Zhenya

Det tycks, Kamion, att det

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## VendingMachine

[quote=Kamion]Jag

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## Zhenya

> Da vej der jab nem!

 What does that mean?

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## VendingMachine

> Da vej der jab nem!
> 			
> 		  What does that mean?

 Ved du ikke? Det er dansk-russisk for "la os drikke". Paa russisk staver man det давай дерябнем, men paa dansk skriver man da vej der jab nem.

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## Zhenya

::  Jag lyckades aldrig kryptera det till ryska! 
Da vaj Da vaj!

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## Kamion

[quote=VendingMachine][quote=Kamion]Jag

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## Zhenya

Absolut, jag njuter oavbrutet!

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## VendingMachine

Og jeg skaaler uafbrudt.

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## brett

> Don't give me no Finns. They are simply wanna-be Russians.

   ::    ::  Vad? 
Det ar inte sadan ting som en "Russian wanna-be".Finland, och alle landen omkring dar, vil fly Russian-ness  ::   ::   ::   
Jag vil lara finska, men dar ar mera nyttig sprak for mig, som far min tid.
Kanner ni allt Hedningarna? De ar vad fick mig pa finsk och svensk kultur.
Ursakta for min svenska.Var dig alle i fred ratta min svenska! (Var snell och!, egentligen).

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## Zhenya

hehe kul svenska,  ja my

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## brett

Kylla? Hyva on! Ajattelen etta suomeksi on kaunis.On minun suosikki kieli.Men det ar sorglig som jag kanner inte grammatiket.Jag behover hitta suomelainen privatlarare pa Australien.Dar maste vara pa minst en suomelainen i mitt land vilken skulle lara mig.Jag har gav mycket arbete att lara det, men jag hitter inte mycket boker och larare.Sa, man forlorar sin skjuta.
Ett mest vackert sprak.Det ar latt veta varfor J.R Tolkien grep det for sin Elvisk pa Lord of the Rings.Han tankte ocksa som det ar sa vackert ett sprak.

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## Zhenya

> Jag behover hitta suomelainen privatlarare pa Australien.Dar maste vara pa minst en suomelainen i mitt land vilken skulle lara mig

   ::  
r

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## Kamion

Det heter finskl

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## Zhenya

jooo jag t

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## Zhenya

Finska

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## Zhenya

Till sist m

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## brett

Halusin sanoa "One loses one's momentum". Kanske det skulle ha varit battre se "Man forlorar sin driva pa det"?

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## Zhenya

> "Man forlorar sin driva pa det"?

 Inte mycket b

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## EmDii

> I think that "haluin" is "i wanted"

 Halusin. Min

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## basurero

Doesn't Finnish have something like 14 cases? Argh, nightmare!  
I want to go on an exchange to Finland, but the language is too hard.

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## Оля

Tabasaranish (Dagestan) has 48 cases. Don't go on an exchange to there  ::

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## Vincent Tailors

EmDii, 
What does it mean in Finnish in Ievaan Polkka? That... "yak zup zop parvi karidola tyz parivila dyz tandula"? and so on?

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## basurero

> Tabasaranish (Dagestan) has 48 cases. Don't go on an exchange _ there

 WHAT?? How is that possible??/ Lol, I bet they even have a special case for talking about the weather....  ::

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## EmDii

> Doesn't Finnish have something like 14 cases? Argh, nightmare!   
> I want to go on an exchange to Finland, but the language is too hard.

 
The nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals, infinitives, and participles do have 15 cases, yes.  ::  
For example, let's take the word "auto" (a car):
(I'll use the Finnish names for the cases, because I have no idea of their names in English)  
nominatiivi _auto, autot_  (a car, cars) 
akkusatiivi _auton, autot_  (a car, cars; машину  :: ) 
genetiivi _auton, autojen_  (car's, cars') 
nominatiivi _auto, autot_  (a car, cars) 
partitiivi _autoa, autoja_  (a car, cars... this is hard to translate. It is usually connected to a verb's aspect) 
essiivi _autona, autoina_  (as a car, as cars) 
translatiivi _autoksi, autoiksi_  (into car, into cars -- as in "transform into a car" etc.) 
inessiivi _autossa, autoissa_  (in a car, in cars) 
elatiivi _autosta, autoista_  (out of / from a car, out of / from cars) 
illatiivi _autoon, autoihin_  (into a car, into cars) 
adessiivi _autolla, autoilla_  (this can be used to describe ownership: у машины есть) 
ablatiivi _autolta, autoilta_  (from a car, from cars -- assuming one was not inside the car, but somewhere near it) 
allatiivi _autolle, autoille_  (to a car, to cars -- once again, not inside the car, but near it) 
abessiivi _autotta, autoitta_  (without a car, without cars) 
komitatiivi _autoineen_  (with his/her/their car/cars) 
instruktiivi _autoin_  (ugh, this is hard... the most common usage of this is _jalan_ -- by foot )      
Though this might sound hard, you can get along without knowing many of these.  ::  We get many exchange students to my school every year, and after a year's stay they usually speak Finnish very well already. So don't be afraid!  
Vincent Tailors: 
I had no idea what you were talking about, but found out. The words are just gibberish sounding like Finnish.

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## basurero

THanks for the example - very interesting stuff. But how do you have cases for an infinitive (do you mean a verb eg цитировать)?

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## EmDii

> THanks for the example - very interesting stuff. But how do you have cases for an infinitive (do you mean a verb eg цитировать)?

 
A verb can become nominal, meaning it is considered to be a noun. This is called infinitive in Finnish. 
an example of the 4th infinitive: 
laulaa (to sing) -> laulaminen (singing, generally: "I like singing")

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## basurero

Finnish is cool. 
Oh yeah, Finland's ice hockey team owns.

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## EmDii

Yes, very cool.  
I don't really care about hockey, sorry.

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## Alware

> Though I love my mothertongue, I still wonder why anyone would really like to learn it. It is difficult -- very very much more difficult than, for example, Swedish.

 I'm starting to learn it now (second time  ::  ) Hopefully I'm not gonna quit.

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## Alware

> I had no idea what you were talking about, but found out. The words are just gibberish sounding like Finnish.

 Well, those are  few words in the middle while the rest is definitely in Finnish 
Nuapurista kuulu se polokan tahti
jalakani pohjii kutkutti.
Ievan

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## EmDii

> Well, those are  few words in the middle while the rest is definitely in Finnish

 Yes, it is. I, however, thought that we were talking only about this: http://dojo.fi/~rancid/loituma__.swf  
Translating that whole text is quite a process, it being a dialect -- do you / does anyone want me to?

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## EmDii

Talking about Finnish grammar, I came across this program which can show about 1000 inflexions for every Finnish verb: http://www.wakkanet.fi/%7Epahio/esitteet.html 
The program's also in English.

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## Alware

> Translating that whole text is quite a process, it being a dialect -- do you / does anyone want me to?

 I found this translation in the net, I'd just ask you to say is it correct? and how close it is to the original text? 
The sound of a polka drifted from my neighbor's 
and set my feet a-tapping oh!
Ieva's mother had her eye on her daughter but
Ieva she managed to fool her, you know.
'Cause who's going to listen to mother saying no
when we're all busy dancing to and fro! 
Ieva was smiling, the fiddle it was wailing
as people crowded round to wish her luck.
Everyone was hot but it didn't seem to bother
the handsome young man, the dashing buck.
'Cause who's going to mind a drop of sweat
when he's all busy dancing to and fro! 
Ieva's mother she shut herself away
in her own quiet room to hum a hymn.
Leaving our hero to have a spot of fun
in a neighbor's house when the lights are dim.
'Cause what does it matter what the old folks say
when you're all busy dancing to and fro! 
When the music stopped then the real fun began
and that's when the laddie fooled around.
When he took her home, when the dancing was over
her mother angrily waiting they found.
But I said to her, Ieva, now don't you weep
and we'll soon be dancing to and fro! 
I said to her mother now stop that noise 
or I won't be responsible for what I do.
If you go quietly and stay in your room
you won't get hurt while your daughter I woo.
'Cause this fine laddie is a wild sort of guy
when he's all busy dancing to and fro! 
One thing I tell you is you won't trap me,
no, you won't find me an easy catch.
Travel to the east and travel to the west but
Ieva and I are going to make a match.
'Cause this fine laddie ain't the bashful sort
when he's all busy dancing to and fro.  
Anyways I'll try to translate it myself.

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## EmDii

Alware, 
The translation is a good one; it is at the same time rhythmically good and close the meaning of the original.  
You're really going to try and translate it? How long have you been studying Finnish? It's going to be a really tough job: the text is in the dialect of Savo, and as Finnish is written as it's pronunciated -- well, it's full of words etc. not found in proper Finnish, not even in a normal dictionary.  
I'll give you a representation. 
Here's the first verse: 
Nuapurista kuulu se polokan tahti
jalakani pohjii kutkutti.
Ievan

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## Alware

[quote=EmDii]You're really going to try and translate it? How long have you been studying Finnish? It's going to be a really tough job: the text is in the dialect of Savo, and as Finnish is written as it's pronunciated -- well, it's full of words etc. not found in proper Finnish, not even in a normal dictionary.  
I'll give you a representation. 
Here's the first verse: 
Nuapurista kuulu se polokan tahti
jalakani pohjii kutkutti.
Ievan

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## awb

there's not a lot of scandinavian language material.  there's especially little for danish. 
and finnland isn't scandinavian. 
oh and cases in finnish aren't as scary as they seem.  it's just like learning prepositions in any other language.

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## EmDii

> and finnland isn't scandinavian.

 Finland is not a Scandinavian country, but I have long since stopped caring about that, because _everyone_ makes the mistake.

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## kalinka_vinnie

Everyone makes this mistake because they learn it from people like you! Finland is not a scandinavian country and Finnish is not a scandinavian language. Profess that in every post you make and educate the world!   ::

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## EmDii

> Everyone makes this mistake because they learn it from people like you! Finland is not a scandinavian country and Finnish is not a scandinavian language. Profess that in every post you make and educate the world!

 I think I've got better things to do. 
Anyhow, I have never claimed that Finland is a Scandinavian country (and even less that Finnish is a such language).

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## mekko

Andrei Silnov

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