The 12 favorite Finnish words of Finnish poets
After the good reception of the post “The 10 things that make a Finn happy” on both the English and Spanish version of Big in Finland, I became interested in writing a similar post. The closest thing I found is a list of the 12 favorite Finnish words , chosen by Finnish poets (original here).
Finnish words on a scrabble board. None of the 12 favorite Finnish words of Finnish poets are there (yet). Source (CC: by)
According to the poets, the list of the 12 favorite Finnish words goes as follows. There is no single defining criteria to the list, really. The words were not chosen by how they sound, what they represent, or by their relevancy in the everyday life of a Finnish poet. Maybe the list includes a bit of all of that. This is the Top 12.
1. Aalto – a sea wave
2. Hiljaisuus – silence
3. Kuulas – serene, clear
4. Taival – journey
5. Kehtolaulu – lullaby
6. Lumi – snow
7. Maailma – world
8. Lauha – tempered
9. Metsäpirtii – a cabin in the woods
10. Aamunkoi – sunrise
11. Nuttu – baby’s clothing
12. Lauantai – Saturday
I believe, and this is personal, that the ones that were voted onto the list by their relevance were Lauantai (of course, the day of resting), metsäpirtii (the Finnish forest cabin that every Finn has), lumi (the snow they see for the most part of the year) and hiljaisuus (the silence, something that the Finns revere and love, as it is better to say nothing than to say something bad).
Maybe not so common but desired are aamunkoi (wanting the sun to come back after 20-hour long nights in the months of winter is pretty important), lauha (mild temperatures when it is -30 degrees Celsius out there is also desirable) and kuulas (this one maybe becomes especially important on Sunday mornings while fighting a hangover).
Nuttu might be on the list because the Finns don’t wait as long to have babies as people of other nations do. Finally, aalto and maalima don’t tell me much besides being beautiful words, so we would have to ask the poets about the reason of them being on the list.
What are your favorite words in the English language? And in Finnish, of course. If I have mistranslated some of those 12 Finnish words, please also let me know in the comments.
Topics: Finnish language, Finnish people |
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Hehehee..good words mostly though there are two or three that I as a genuine Finn wouldn’t have even really known the meaning of.
Thanks for commentig Heli! What is your favorite Finnish word? 🙂
It’s such an interesting and beautiful list! My favourite words from above were ‘aamunkoi’ and ‘aalto’.
Thanks for the yet another great post. Since this entry is about words I guess I’m allowed to be pedantic here 🙂
A cabin in the woods is spelled as metsäpirtti.
Aamunkoi .. this is a bit difficult to explain but comparing this to sunrise takes half of the meaning away in my mind. Sunrise (auringonnousu) is only the physical part of aamunkoi as, at least to me, it encompasses the moments before the actual sunrise and also the physical and mental feeling of nature coming back to live after the night. And I always think of summer mornings when talking about aamunkoi, it’d be hard to describe a cold winter morning with the word aamunkoi. There’s also something akin to revival, which is most vivid during summer time.
The magical experiential essence of it felt deep within <3