Okay, all you guys, you asked for this. I will now give my diagnosis
of your condition. I have no hesitation anymore. It is quite clear
to me that many of you are suffering from an incurable condition:
the notorious "nominatiivi, genetiivi, akkusatiivi, partitiivi,
essiivi, translatiivi, inessiivi, elatiivi, illatiivi, adessiivi,
ablatiivi, allatiivi, abessiivi, komitatiivi, instruktiivi" envy.
You see, thanks to this truly wonderful system of cases, the Finns
have become the most philosophical nation in living history.Yes,
just think about it, which small nation can boast an equal number
of "Library of Living Philosophers" volumes? And why is that?
Well, it does take a lot of philosophical acumen (and a sense of
paradox) to realise that one prefers "sisällä" to "sisässä" while
always saying "sisäosissa" instead of "sisäosilla". Indeed, as I was
born in Tampere, I must say that "synnyin Tamperella"; however, as I
now live in Helsinki, I must say that "asun Helsingissä",
never "asun Helsingillä". So, moving from Tampere to Helsinki
demands just the sort of self-reflexive thinking one must have in
philosophical thinking.
And Nokia? Well, that is easy. If you are at Nokia´s payroll, you
must say that "olen Nokialla", of course. The unambiguous nature of
digitalised communication demands this (a whiff of Bohr´s Principle
of Complementarity?) But if you are at the University (any Finnish
University will do here), you will either say "yliopistolla"
or "yliopistossa"
academic freedom, you know
Cheers, Juha
--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "aquila_grande"
<aquila_grande@...> wrote:
> Well, what I said about partitive, was a sort of joke.
>
> But I do not think the finnish case system is archaic. Actually it
is
> highly inovating. Neither do I think it is cumbersome.
>
> I know two forign languages besides Norwegian and English, namely
> Italian and Finnish. Actually I know much more Italian words than
> finnish words. Nevertheless, I think it is much easier to form a
> sentence in Finnish than Italian.
>
> I also know some German, a language I find extreemly rigid and
> cubersome.
>
> I know it is not politicly correct to link language and technical
> abilities, but nevertheless I think there is some connection.
>
>
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