Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site osu-eddie.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!osu-eddie!zwicky From: zwicky@osu-eddie.UUCP (Elizabeth D. Zwicky) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Hor.Hacking Finnish/Estonian/Hungarian/Turkish Message-ID: <688@osu-eddie.UUCP> Date: Wed, 30-Oct-85 13:44:19 EST Article-I.D.: osu-eddi.688 Posted: Wed Oct 30 13:44:19 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 02:41:19 EST References: <522@tjalk.UUCP> Reply-To: zwicky@osu-eddie.UUCP (Elizabeth D. Zwicky) Organization: Ohio State Univ., CIS Dept., Cols, Oh. Lines: 19 In general, Finnish is not all that irregular; it's just that the regularity is somewhat more complex than English speakers expect. The only irregular verb I have come across in Finnish is _olen_, to be, which is irregular in almost every language in the world. Finnish has a complex set of ordered phonological rules, and begs to be taught by a linguist, who can teach the rules, instead of the bare facts. It makes a lot more sense that way. It isn't any easier, but it makes more sense. It also has 16 cases, give or take; 2 are almost entirely poetic. Telling it by a lack of clusters is misleading though, because it has clusters medially, just not initially or finally. (The rule is that only a single consonant can occur next to a boundary; within a word clusters can occur where the syllable boundary falls between the consonants). I like it precisely because it is so regular. Spelling is almost completly phonetic. -Elizabeth D. Zwicky