Well...I suppose I can't add much to what others have already said....I think you are probably just expecting too much....as you learn more Finnish some of these words you would probably be able to guess at... Of the two you mentioned I would have "guessed" that semmonen" was the same as semmoinen"...though "justis" would have stumped me...I would probably try to figure it out from the context in which it is being used....ABR wrote:Many people ask here about common Finnish words that don't show up in dictionaries. I've often been annoyed with this, the latest straws being "semmonen" and "justis".
In English dictionaries, if a word is informal or slang we put it in the dictionary and note it as such. This is in keeping with a "descriptive" philosophy -- that it is the job of dictionaries to document the language, not to "prescribe" how it should be used.
Anyway...here is another forum that can be quite useful:
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1924440
Languages are not rigid, "cast-in-stone" things...they are always shifting and moving... It seems with English, and the other "big languages", there are so many more speakers that it can be commercially worthwhile to produce dictionaries that are constantly updated.... Yet with Finnish there does seem to be a surprising amount of material on the web....I haven't found it too difficult to find resources....in fact, I hardly ever look at any hard copy stuff. If I can't figure something out, I'll either ask, or I'll just be patient...eventually I'll find something that helps....might even be some months later....
Heck, I even thought I might be able to write a couple of sentences in Pacific Northwest "logger speak" and totally baffle anyone who tried to read it. But, no, even wikipedia has a section on Pacific Northwest logging jargon....
Does anyone know what a "Swedish fiddle" is?....not that I knew before checking the link.... And I'm not sure I could have even guessed...
