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To: muawiyah
Finnish is definitely not anything like Swedish (and therefore not like Norwegian or Danish, either). Ethnically and linguistically the Finns are not "Scandinavian" like those other three.

The article mentions Finnish being in the same category as Hungarian, which I knew. I also have heard that these two are related to, of all things, Korean.

9 posted on 03/18/2004 9:54:27 PM PST by Charles Henrickson (A Swedish-American who has known many Finns and Koreans.)
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To: Charles Henrickson
Ethnically most of the Finns and all of the Estonians are from the same stock as all other Scandinavians. The Saami are "different", but they're not Asiatics either.

Finland, Estonia and Hungary were all conquered by Mongolian and Turkish people in the early Middle Ages under conditions which brought about a linguistic change.

The Saami are a remnant (80,000+ people) of what may have been Europe's first population of modern humans. After the Black Plague which killed 90% of the Norse people in Norway, the Coastal Saami were enticed to take up Norse farms (presumably so taxes could be paid). 10% or less of the Saami suffered from the Plague although they live in an area where the dominant lifeform is the rat (and other rodents, e.g. lemmings). Their language is quite ancient ~ maybe more than we realize.

19 posted on 03/19/2004 6:19:35 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: Charles Henrickson
The Uralic-Altaic languages are related. Whether the people speaking them are closely related is a good question. Even Japanese has an Uralic-Altaic component, as well as a Polynesian component, and something else which is probably not related to any other current language group. Maybe the Jomon language is the "third part".
20 posted on 03/19/2004 6:23:51 AM PST by muawiyah
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