Finglish

Finglish or Fingliska is form of Finnish spoken by immigrants to the USA and Canada that has been relexified with English vocabulary adapted to Finnish phonology and morphosyntax.

The term "Finglish" was introduced by professor Martti Nisonen in 1920s in Hancock, Michigan.Verify source|date=October 2007

History

Finglish originated amongst the first and second generation Finnish immigrants in US and Canada. Since few of them had any higher education or language skills, many of them ended up in menial and industrial jobs, where they learned English in practise. The language skills of the first generation American Finns remained always limited; second and third-generation American Finns usually were more or less bilingual. Finglish emerged as a pidgin with something they already knew (Finnish) and something they were bound to learn (English).

Most of the Finnish immigrants were from provinces Savonia, Tavastia and Ostrobothnia, and the grammar also reflected those dialects. The most common characteristic of Finglish are

# almost all voiced consonants in English are replaced by their voiceless counterparts in Finglish; /f/ is likewise replaced with /v/:
#:lumperi (lumber), piiri (beer), rapoli (trouble), karpetsi (garbage), vörnitseri (furniture)
#three contiguous vowels are not allowed. They are broken up by inserting either a back or front glide depending on the phonetic environment:
#:leijata (to play) sauveri (shower)
#syllabic consonants are modified by inserting a vowel in front of them:
#:kaluna (gallon) hanteli (handle)
#words should end in a vowel. The preferred word-final vowel is /i/ but /a/ is also encountered:
#:reimi (frame) kaara (car), heerkatti (haircut), loijari (lawyer)
#when the word in English begins with two or three consonants, all but the last consonant are dropped before the word is acceptable for Finglish:
#:raikki (strike), touvi (stove), rosseri (grocery)
#vowels are written phonetically, as in Finnish:
#:reitti (straight), raippi (stripe)
#:disappearance of possessive suffix:
#:meitin haussi (pro "meidän talomme", "our house")

Words used in Finglish often have completely different meanings in standard Finnish; they have become expressive loans: ruuma (room; in Finnish "cargo hold"), piiri (beer; "district"), leijata (to play; "to hover"), reisi (crazy; "thigh") or touvi (stove; "halyard"). Finglish compound words can produce combinations completely incomprehensible to native Finnish speakers, like piirikäki (beer keg; "district cuckoo").

Finglish is not bound to survive, and its native speakers are now in their 80s and 90s.Verify source|date=October 2007 The descendants of most American Finns are today either completely monolingual, or, if they have kept their ties to their foreparents' language, speak ordinary Finnish beside English.Verify source|date=October 2007

Example of Finglish:

"Frank ja Wilbert oli Saran kanssa kaaralla käymäs vilitsis. Ne kävi haartveerstooris ostamas loonmouverin ja Sara kävi ottaan heerkatin piutisaluunasa. Kun ne tuli haussiin, niin mamma laitto äpylipaita."

which translates as

"Frank and Wilbert were with Sara visiting the village by car. They went to hardware store to buy a lawn mower, while Sara had a haircut at beauty salon. When they came back to home, mom served apple pie."

For comparison, without Anglicisms:

"Frank ja Wilbert olivat Saran kanssa käymässä autolla kylässä. He kävivät rautakaupassa ostamassa ruohonleikkurin ja Sara kävi laitattamassa kampauksen kauneushoitolassa. Kun he tulivat kotiin, äiti laittoi omenapiirakkaa."

Relatively few words from Finglish have become standard Finnish, but note "kämppä" "log cabin", "(temporary) accommodation" from English "camp" and "mainari" "miner".Verify source|date=October 2007

External links

* [http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/finglish_by_kent_randell.pdf Finglish Report by Kent Randell]