Free Republic

Finnish is known for its challenging grammar and vocabulary, which can be daunting for learners. It features a complex system of cases—15 in total—which can change the endings of nouns based on their function in a sentence. Additionally, Finnish is a language isolated from other European languages, so there are few cognates for English speakers to rely on. Nevertheless, Finnish is a language worth learning for its unique position in the world. Finland boasts a high standard of living, stunning natural landscapes, and a rich cultural history. Learning Finnish can enhance your experience if you plan to travel or work...

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin was one of the youngest leaders on the global stage today. She was also a far-left narcissist and a national disaster. Sanna Marin was a hardliner on the Ukraine War. She says Ukraine represents Western values. Last week Ukraine arrested one of the top Orthodox priests in the country. Only government approved churches are allowed in Ukraine today – sort of like in China. Back in August video leaked of Sanna Marin partying with celebrity friends. She was urged to take a drug test after videos of her partying it up with her celebrity friends...

'Michigan appears to be going in an...unprecedented direction,' the Michigan Catholic Conference warned.(LifeSiteNews) – Michigan lawmakers are on the verge of passing a radical pro-LGBT civil rights bill that would significantly threaten religious liberty in the state. Michigan is currently led by pro-abortion Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who won a second term last fall by 10 percentage points. Michigan’s’ State House and State Senate are also run by Democrats, who have not had majorities in those chambers in 40 years and are clearly capitalizing on their newfound power. The Michigan State Senate passed SB 4 last week by a 23-15...

Cool site with video news clips in slow and simple Finnish. Closed captioning too. Something like VOA's Special English TV. To BRL and other Freepers learning Finnish. Study hard. Master these languages and make friends. Communists are global, so the right needs to be linked up as well to trade notes and concentrate efforts against the globalist conspiracy. Meanwhile, never stop delving deeper into English. In this degenerate era of lame education & literature, we all have gaps in our English, no matter how much we may believe otherwise. And opposehigh rising terminal (HRT) (uptalk), infantile "verbing", and other attacks...

Most Europeans descend from a combination of European hunter-gatherers, Anatolian early farmers, and Steppe herders. But only European speakers of Uralic languages like Estonian and Finnish also have DNA from ancient Siberians. Now, with the help of ancient DNA samples, researchers reporting in Current Biology on May 9 suggest that these languages may have arrived from Siberia by the beginning of the Iron Age, about 2,500 years ago, rather than evolving in Northern Europe. The findings highlight the way in which a combination of genetic, archaeological, and linguistic data can converge to tell the same story about what happened in...

The Finnish Epic Behind Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News December 19, 2001 Generations of readers have cherished Middle Earth, the fantasy universe sprung from the mind of storyteller J.R.R. Tolkien. Now, his magical world has been brought to life with the premiere of the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. While the author's imagination was vast, Tolkien's world and its cast of characters do have roots in real-world history and geography, from the world wars that dominated Tolkien's lifetime to the ancient language and legends of ...

Finnish Orthodox Church Written for Virtual Finland by Leo, Archbishop of Karelia and All Finland The ‘Iljan praasniekka’ is an annual festival held at Ilomantsi Church, dedicated to the Prophet Elijah. The festival is celebrated on the day of the Prophet Elijah in July; this is one of the oldest pilgrimage sites of the Orthodox Church of Finland. The location of the monasteries of the Orthodox Church of Finland before and after the Second World War. The largest Orthodox Cathedral in Western Europe, the Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki, by architect A.M. Gornostajev, was consecrated on October 13, 1868. Procession at...

Officially, Sweden doesn't keep a record of the languages its inhabitants speak. That fact was infuriating to Mikael Parkvall, a linguist at Stockholm University, so he decided to find out for himself. What is the most popular non-Swedish language in Sweden? After poring over various statistics and studies, Parkvall came to a conclusion: Arabic was very likely to now be the second most popular language in the Scandinavian country. Parkvall's study focused on native languages rather than second languages, which he says are a better judge of what languages are actually spoken in a country (while English is widely spoken...

CHICAGO (AP) — Frequent sauna baths may help you live longer, a study of Finnish men suggests. It would be welcome news if proven true — in Finland where hot, dry saunas are commonplace, and for Americans shivering in a snowy Nordic-like winter. Previous research suggested that saunas might improve blood vessel function and exercise capacity, and lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension. The new study links long, hot sauna baths with even more benefits, including fewer deaths from heart attacks, strokes, various heart-related conditions and other causes.

(AP) GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. A linguist at Grand Valley State University fascinated by the way many in the Upper Peninsula speak --their "ehs," "hehs" and "holy whahs" -- is heading there to study how local and ethnic identity are linked to language. Kathryn Remlinger, an English professor, has researched the dialect for years, tracing certain words to the area's early immigrants and the 12 languages that formerly coexisted there. Now she's returning to the Keweenaw Peninsula, once home to a thriving copper mining industry, to learn how settlers' attitudes toward their native languages affected the dialect that developed in the...

Johnny in Topeka can’t read, but Janne in Helsinki is effortlessly finishing his storybooks. Such a disparity may be expected by now, but the reason might come as a surprise: It probably has much less to do with teaching style and quality than with language. Simply put, written English is great for puns but terrible for learning to read or write. It’s like making children from around the world complete an obstacle course to fully participate in society but requiring the English-speaking participants to wear blindfolds. Adults who have already mastered written English tend to forget about its many quirks....

Mayor Martin J. Walsh has fired a 25-year-old city youth worker after learning the Roxbury woman was among 11 protesters who chained themselves to 1,200-pound, concrete-filled barrels in Milton on Thursday, snarling morning rush-hour traffic and stalling at least two ambulances, the Herald has learned. As mayor, you have to make tough, difficult decisions. This is not a difficult decision,” Walsh said. “This was not based on the fact of this woman protesting. It was based on the fact of putting the public safety of other people at risk.” Nelli Ruotsalainen, a part-time youth communication specialist for the Boston Centers...

A Finnish man attempted to 'hijack' a plane using a Toblerone chocolate bar, demanding to be taken to Sochi so he could watch the Winter Olympics. Antti Oskari Manselius, 23, from Finland, had wrapped two economy class blankets around his head, wearing a third as a cape when he waved the chocolate bar 'like a sword' as he walked towards the cockpit. Manselius also made a false bomb threat on the Cathay Pacific flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong on February 14, and said he was robbing the plane, airplane staff said. SNIP He said he was trying to entertain...

When I had the honor of leading the True Finn Party to electoral victory in April, we made a solemn promise to oppose the so-called bailouts of euro-zone member states. These bailouts are patently bad for Europe, bad for Finland and bad for the countries that have been forced to accept them. Europe is suffering from the economic gangrene of insolvency—both public and private. And unless we amputate that which cannot be saved, we risk poisoning the whole body. (Excerpted fom WSJ, full article at link.)

HELSINKI—The euro zone's attempts to reassure bond investors that it can fix its debt problems may be derailed Sunday when Finns go to the polls to elect a new government. According to recent opinion polls, voter support for the nationalist True Finns Party has soared in recent months, partly in response to dissatisfaction with the fact that taxpayers in this most northern of the euro zone's 17 members have been asked to bail out Greece, Ireland and Portugal at the same time as welfare benefits are being cut at home. The True Finns oppose any aid to fellow euro-zone members,...

Last year more than 100 foreign delegations and governments visited Helsinki, hoping to learn the secret of their schools' success. In 2006, Finland's pupils scored the highest average results in science and reading in the whole of the developed world. In the OECD's exams for 15 year-olds, known as PISA, they also came second in maths, beaten only by teenagers in South Korea. This isn't a one-off: in previous PISA tests Finland also came out top. The Finnish philosophy with education is that everyone has something to contribute and those who struggle in certain subjects should not be left behind....

ON TOLKIEN Growing up with language The Shakespeare of model languages is J.R.R. Tolkien. His best-selling fantasy novel, The Lord Of The Rings, now considered a literary classic, achieved much of its believability from the depth of its invented languages: Quenya, Sindarin, Adu^naic and others. The following article provides a broad overview of Tolkien's seminal work with model languages. Tolkien was exposed to languages to a remarkable degree. He learned Latin, German and French from his mother. At school, he learned or taught himself Middle English, Old English, Finnish, Gothic, Greek, Italian, Old Norse, Spanish, modern Welsh and medieval Welsh....

    Finnish rune singer Jussi Juovinen Author J.R.R. Tolkien   The One Ring of Sauron, engraved with Elvish writing(© 2001 New Line Productions, photograph courtesy New Line Cinema)   Map of Finland detailing Viena Karelia area(Map from National Geographic Television)   Anthropologist Wade Davis (left) and Finnish rune singer Jussi Juovinen(Photograph by Markku Nieminen)   Map showing modern language groups of Scandinavia   Cultural and Linguistic Conservation What does it mean when one culture changes or vanishes from the Earth? How does a language influence or embody a given culture? And what does it mean to a people,...

The memory of John Morton has faded even more than his signature on the original Declaration of Indepedence. He was the first of the signers to die, and since then his name has been largely been forgotten. I'll be visiting the National Archives in Washington, DC in April and would like any recommendations on how to best research pre-1776 documents kept there. John Morton is my relative and I'm trying to do research on why he changed his mind at the last minute and decided to vote in favor of independence; even though he was sent by his Tory constituents...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Three Finnish men working for a mobile phone company in Dubai have been detained by Iran while fishing near a disputed island in the Gulf, the Finnish embassy said on Wednesday. The three had apparently drifted into Iranian-controlled waters accidentally while on an angling trip from the United Arab Emirates, said Esa Hurtig, charge d'affaires at the Finnish embassy in Abu Dhabi. Mobile telecoms equipment firm Nokia Siemens Networks told Reuters the three men worked for it in the trade and tourism hub of Dubai. "There are three Finnish citizens who were fishing and strayed into an...