Mediamaster woes, Part X

So, I come home, and my (non-)wonderful Nokia Mediamaster 260C has decided to reset itself completely, and remove all the channels from its memory. However, all the timers and recordings are intact, thank goodness, though obviously there have been no recordings done over the weekend. As I am now rerunning the setup, I would like to teach you some useful words in Finnish:

  • "perkele" - devil
  • "vittu" - vagina (a highly versatile word which essentially fills the same role in Finnish as "fuck" does in English.)
  • "saatana" - devil (same beast, different word. We're very inventive. We have many more words for the devil, much like for snow.)
  • "paska" - crap

(I have to say that I am taking some masochistic pleasure in watching this thing break in new, innovative ways every time I leave the house...)

Update: Jani of SKM is providing a lesson in advanced swearing in Finnish. It's very useful. Especially since my digibox crashed twice while trying to watch the final episode of Angels in America...



Comments

You might want to underline the potential of the word "perkele", it being the silver bullet solution for any situation. The word itself has a quite long history, according to Veijo Meri it heritages from the baltic languages, Perkúnas being the god of the thunder in lithunian. Close-enough words appear in multiple languages throughout the history. Anyway, for non-finnish readers of Janne's blog: next time something fucks up, give it a try. You probably miss it with half of a mile, because of the tricky 'r', but damn if it doesn't feel good.

--Jyri, 17-Jan-2005

They do not have a word for the third most important emotion in English. They do not have a word for 'vitutus'. This, I think, explains why the whole angloamerican world is seeing a shrink as we speak.

('Vitutus' is the strong feeling of being very pissed off at no one in particular. The feeling is usually caused by something clear, but it is not directed at anything particular. It is a combination of rage and frustration. Usually quite passive-aggressive.)

--J-Ko, 17-Jan-2005

Yeah, you gotta "drill" the "r". If you're thinking of the French "r", you're way off. It's the same kind of "r" the Japanese Yakuza use :).

--JanneJalkanen, 17-Jan-2005

I've been trying to learn and remember little snippets of Finnish for a while now, and it's goddamn hard to remember what is what :) . The bad thing, is where I live ( Australia ) no one knows/ teaches Finnish..seems I'm on my own :( . I'll have to travel overseas to an english-speaking country just so I can learn the language :p ..but it does feel damn good to use the few words I do know in an argument and watch my adversary make the face to the equivalent of 'Abuh?' lol.

--Jordan, 16-Jul-2006

Jordan, http://www.dundernews.com/ is a society for Finns living in Australia. Maybe they could help?

--JanneJalkanen, 17-Jul-2006


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"Main_blogentry_170105_1" last changed on 19-Jan-2005 15:13:34 EET by JanneJalkanen.