| Oulu `nää´ Still Going Strong |
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| By Edward Dutton | ||||||
| Sunday, 30 July 2006 | ||||||
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Although the Finnish language is changing fast, with a heavy American-English influence in Helsinki, it seems that Oulu’s dialect is still going strong. Oulu’s famous ‘nää’, meaning ‘you’ and as distinct from the sää (sinä) used everwhere else, is still commonly used according to recent research reported in The Kaleva. The term is seen by some as a treasure worth preserving while others simply want it to disappear. All over Finland different terms are used for the word ‘you.’ In Helsinki it is ‘sä,’ in Kokkola (on the middle West Coast) it is ‘sää’ and in Joensuu (in the East of Finland, near the Russian border) it is ‘sie.’ Naturally, this is slightly confusing for foreigners attempting to learn Finnish. In recent years there has been some concern about the degree to which the Finnish language is being influenced by English. According to various Finnish linguists, English influence can be seen everywhere. There is the phrase ‘pitkässä juoksussa’ which means ‘in the long run’, a direct translation from the English phrase which is even used on the television news. Equally ‘kingi’ is increasingly replacing the Finnish ‘kuningas’ (king) and direct English loans such as ‘cool,’ ‘alright’ and ‘anyway’ are frequently heard as are English language swear-words.
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