The Finnish language is one of the most unique languages in Europe, belonging to the Uralic language family rather than the Indo-European group like Slovenian. Unlike Slovenian, which has grammatical gender, Finnish completely lacks gender distinctions, making it fascinatingly different. Another interesting feature is that Finnish has no future tense; instead, context and time expressions determine whether an action happens in the future.
Both Finnish and Slovenian have complex grammatical cases, but Finnish has 15 cases, whereas Slovenian has only six, making it more challenging in this aspect. However, Finnish pronunciation is relatively straightforward, as words are pronounced exactly as they are written, unlike Slovenian, where certain letter combinations can change pronunciation. Another unique aspect is the extensive use of vowel harmony, meaning that certain vowels cannot appear together in the same word.
One of the most fascinating things about Finnish is its long compound words, which can sometimes be extremely difficult for foreigners to understand. Unlike Slovenian, Finnish does not have definite or indefinite articles which simplifies sentence structure in some ways. However, Finnish verbs change depending on whether something is happening to the speaker or someone else, making verb conjugation more complex.
The Finnish language also has many words that express nature and emotions in ways that are hard to translate into Slovenian. Despite these differences, both languages share a rich cultural background and are considered relatively difficult for English speakers to learn. Finnish has a musical quality due to its rhythm and vowel sounds, which makes it enjoyable to listen to.
Another fun fact is that Finnish has borrowed very few words from other languages, unlike Slovenian, which has many Germanic and Romance influences. Finnish words can be very long, but they are built logically, making them easier to understand once you know the structure. While Slovenian has dual grammatical forms for two objects, Finnish does not, which simplifies sentence construction in some cases.
Me and Edin learnt some Finnish words ourself, like Kiitos/ thank you, Moi/ hello and Moikka/ goodbye.
Overall, Finnish is a fascinating language with many features that make it different compared to Slovenian.
Zdravo, sem Matej in obiskujem program logistični tehnik. V okviru projekta Erasmus+ sem na štiritedenski mobilnosti v mestu Jyväskylä na Finskem
