old Finnish?

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tahra
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old Finnish?

Post by tahra » Sat Mar 07, 2009 2:48 am

Hi.

I study Finnish and I was asked to translate some sentence from the back of very old photography. Could you help me? Is it the old Finnish?

Sentence is: Antaka tämä Lusille että näkke isän.

Thank you very much in advance.

Best regards,

Maja



old Finnish?

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Kai
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by Kai » Sat Mar 07, 2009 10:18 am

Give this to Lusi so she can see father
It is what it is, make of it what you will.

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Pursuivant
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by Pursuivant » Sat Mar 07, 2009 11:20 am

Lusi might be "Lucy" written how its pronounced.
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."

EP
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by EP » Sat Mar 07, 2009 1:33 pm

I guess Pursuivant is right. It is not old Finnish, it is just Finnish with many spelling errors.

"Antakaa tämä Lucylle että (hän) näkee isän."

Give this to Lucy so that she can see her father.

I suppose the father had died or left and Lucy had never seen him.

tahra
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by tahra » Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:45 am

Thanks, wonderful!

I think that Lusi has emigrated to USA and her father has stayed in Finland....

Maja

enk
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by enk » Sun Mar 08, 2009 10:54 am

It's somewhat dialectal Finnish and I'd almost bet that the writer hadn't been
living in Finland for quite some time by that time and was actually
an emigrant. The Finnish written by emigrants to the USA looks like that
and it can be quite interesting sometimes to figure out what they're trying
to say :D

-enk

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Pursuivant
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by Pursuivant » Sun Mar 08, 2009 12:43 pm

tahra wrote: I think that Lusi has emigrated to USA and her father has stayed in Finland....
More probably the other way around.
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."

EP
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by EP » Sun Mar 08, 2009 2:18 pm

In those days nobody born in Finland would have been named Lucy (or Lusi). She was born in the US and was given a local sounding name.

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Pursuivant
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by Pursuivant » Sun Mar 08, 2009 2:28 pm

Or it could be a sibling (sister, brother) sending a picture over of the (grand)father and saying keep this for the child... it after all doesn't say its Lusi's father who is to be seen. And people did move back and forth in those days, it wasn't 100% one-way emigration.
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."

FraserinFinland
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by FraserinFinland » Sun Mar 08, 2009 7:32 pm

The classic speech by JFK, ich bin ein Berliner. Eddy Izzard explains why Germans think JFK is a donut


kwman
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by kwman » Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:05 am

Hello.

I'm the holder of the photograph in question. First, thank you all for the translation, and for your interest.

The name on the back of the Photo is definitely Liis. Liis is probably my grandmother. Her name was Elizabeth, and she was known as Lizzie in the U.S. And my father assures me that she was known as Liis or Liisa to the Finnish relatives.

Liis was born in the United States, to Finnish parents. When she was still a child, her mother died and her father opted to move back to Finland, leaving Liis in the care of relatives in the U.S.

So the message "Give this to Liis so she can see father" fits perfectly with the family history. The man in the photograph is then almost certainly my great-grandfather. And it's exciting to know that.

So again, thank you all for this knowledge.

--Kevin

EP
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by EP » Tue Mar 10, 2009 12:29 pm

LiisA. A very common name still in the 1950`s, not so much nowadays.
her mother died and her father opted to move back to Finland, leaving Liis in the care of relatives in the U.S.
Now I start to think: Would a modern day and age man leave his child behind? The world has changed, and I bet he thought that Liisa would be better off in the US, but still... I cannot imagine that men around me would be able to leave their children just like that...

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Pursuivant
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by Pursuivant » Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:20 pm

Liisa or Liisi... then again travelling in the turn of the century with an infant or a toddler? Granted though giving children into foster care wasn't that uncommon in those days, not talking of my grandmother being sold in the market, but even better off families sent children to be "brought up" elsewhere.
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."

CH
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by CH » Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:08 pm

EP wrote:Now I start to think: Would a modern day and age man leave his child behind? The world has changed, and I bet he thought that Liisa would be better off in the US, but still... I cannot imagine that men around me would be able to leave their children just like that...
I would guess the widower part was more the reason for the child living with relatives, or I think that's what often happened at that time.

And yes, I would think this happens today, too (and not only for men). At least for migrant workers mom and/or dad may be working far from home or abroad while the children are left with grandma. Not exactly the same situation, but still.

opinto
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Re: old Finnish?

Post by opinto » Fri Jun 11, 2010 12:32 am

Upphew wrote:
opinto wrote:Blogi on Suomea qieliopi suomeqsi se on syventtävät opinnot ei mitään pysyä qaistalla tarqoitan Vieras qiili miellä omaamme Vieras qiili
Using q in Finnish is quite rare nowadays, so proper words would be: kielioppi, suomeksi, kaistalla, tarkoitan, keili(?)
haluan oppia puhumaan suomea peremmin Kirjoitaa se


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