# Another question for the board's overworked linguists: How is it that I can recognize written Finnish? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2025, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101 "2025-06-25T02:47:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/61 "2025-06-27T19:40:16Z")
> [@Moonrise](#): > > And if I hear people speaking Spanish but I can’t understand a single word, it’s because it’s actually Greek. That’s kind of amusing, because the German idiom for “It’s all Greek to me” is “Seems like Spanish to me” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/62 "2025-06-27T21:29:13Z")
Chart of “Greek to me” equivalents [Reddit - The heart of the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/TVYP3OUNTs) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/63 "2025-06-28T00:29:31Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > That’s kind of amusing, because the German idiom for “It’s all Greek to me” is “Seems like Spanish to me” That’s amusing because my native German speaking colleague used to say he could understand every language except Greek. When challenged with any language but German or English, he would answer, “That’s Greek to me.” ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/64 "2025-06-28T00:57:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Hungarian’s easy, because it sounds like Klingon. And no, that’s not a joke: Hungarian is closer to Klingon than it is to any Earthly language. I speak Hungarian and have never heard that comparison made. Klingon is guttural, harsh, with short words. Hungarian has long agglutinated words that sound sing-songy to me because the emphasis is almost always on the first syllable. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/65 "2025-06-28T01:06:52Z")
I’ve heard it said jokingly about Hungarian, that it so strange it may as well be an alien language, ie, Klingon. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/66 "2025-06-28T01:10:35Z")
That I’ll buy. lol ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/67 "2025-06-28T01:24:00Z")
Leo Szilard would agree: > And so," [Fermi](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi) came to his overwhelming question, “if all this has been happening, they should have arrived here by now, so where are they?” – It was [Leo Szilard](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard), a man with an impish sense of humor, who supplied the perfect reply to the [Fermi Paradox](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_Paradox): “They are among us,” he said, “but they call themselves Hungarians.” > When the question was put to [Edward Teller](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller) – who was particularly proud of his [monogram](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monogram), _E.T._ (abbreviation of _extraterrestrial_ )[[2]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)#cite_note-Marx-2) – he looked worried, and said: “Von Kármán must have been talking.”[[6]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)#cite_note-6) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/68 "2025-06-28T01:45:30Z")
Hm, the “FF” name I’m most familiar with is apparently spelled with an “Ff”: > **[Fflewddur Fflam](https://prydain.fandom.com/wiki/Fflewddur_Fflam)** > > Fflewddur Fflam Son of Godo was an aspiring bard, wanderer, and the intermittent ruler of a small cantrev in the northeast of Prydain. After his failed trial before the Council of Bards, Chief Bard Taliesin gave Fflewddur an enchanted harp, which had... And I wasn’t joking about Hungarian. The Klingon language used in Star Trek was literally based on Hungarian. Which, since it’s so far separated from any other Earthly language, actually manages to be closer to the invented language based on it. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/69 "2025-06-28T06:36:01Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Hm, the “FF” name I’m most familiar with is apparently spelled with an “Ff”: Apparently, the same with the one I’m most familiar with: > **[Ffestiniog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ffestiniog)** > > .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct,.mw-parser-output .geo-inline-hidden{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}52°59′N 3°56′W / 52.99°N 3.93°W / 52.99; -3.93 > Ffestiniog (/fɛsˈtɪnjɒɡ/; .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IP... ETA: the OneBox doesn’t get past all that cruft. Ffestiniog is a town in Wales. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/70 "2025-06-28T08:59:15Z")
Perhaps I’ve misunderstood you, but Hungarian isn’t “far separated from any other Earthly language”. It is part of the Uralic family along with Finnish and Estonian, plus a dozen languages spoken in Siberia, like Mari. A language isolate like Basque, Ainu or Sumerian would have been a better fit in that respect. Come to think of it, basing Klingon on the latter would have allowed for some intriguing plot possibilites. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/71 "2025-06-28T12:46:43Z")
> [@Moonrise](#): > > Perhaps I’ve misunderstood you, but Hungarian isn’t “far separated from any other Earthly language”. It is part of the Uralic family along with Finnish and Estonian, plus a dozen languages spoken in Siberia, like Mari. A language family is pretty broad, though. For comparison, Spanish, German, Greek, Russian, and Hindi are all the same language family, too, but none of them are all that closely related. Hungarian isn’t the most isolated human language, but it’s still more isolated than the languages spoken by most humans. And I don’t think Star Trek ever tried to make a plot point of it. The creators of the language just picked a relatively-isolated language because they wanted something that would sound unfamiliar to most viewers. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/72 "2025-06-28T13:17:27Z")
So far as I can tell, the idea Klingon is based on Hungarian is just a rumor. Hungarian doesn’t sound anything like Klingon, and they, at least at a quick study, don’t really share all that much in common except maybe an agglutinative structure. I’ve heard it was influenced by Native American and other languages. Once again, it seems to be part of a joke based on Hungarian’s perceived impenetrability to English speakers. > **[Interview with Marc Okrand, Inventor of Klingon – The National Museum of...](https://languagemuseum.org/interview-with-marc-okrand-inventor-of-klingon/)** > > The NML visited the annual MFLA (Maryland Foreign Language Association) conference at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, MD on October 20th and 21st. Their keynote speaker was one of our own Associate members, Dr. Marc Okrand, the inventor of... > [@](#): > > _What were some of the influences on the development of the language you had from other languages, either real languages or other con-langs such as Sindarin?_ > There were no intentional influences. I tried to not make Klingon resemble anything. But, having said that, you can’t help being influenced by what you know, and what I studied mostly were American Indian languages and languages of Southeast Asia. So things from those languages undoubtedly crept in, but, as I said, not on purpose. I just used various notions from all over the place and jumbled them together in a way that was systematic. - Marc Oknard, creator of Klingon So, no, Klingon was not “literally based on Hungarian” unless you have better sources than the creator himself. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/73 "2025-06-28T13:29:17Z")
_Frasier_ had an episode where the title character was supposed to learn a Hebrew prayer to recite at a friend’s son’s bar mitzvah, but his Jewish co-worker pranked him by teaching it to him in Klingon instead. Klingon doesn’t sound much like Hebrew, either. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/74 "2025-06-28T14:00:16Z")
As I recall from other discussions, Okrand picked features that were very rare in human languages - such as a sentence order ([Object Verb Subject](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject%E2%80%93object%E2%80%93verb_word_order)) that is used only by three known languages (and not Hungarian) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/75 "2025-06-28T14:22:09Z")
Yeah, I think it was propagated in the spirit of “there are aliens among us; we call them Hungarians,” and I suspect, knowing many Hungarians myself, probably half-propagated by them, or at least with little pushback against the notion. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/76 "2025-06-28T14:28:10Z")
Huh. Well, I can’t argue with that. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/77 "2025-06-28T14:56:33Z")
Ah. I remember that catchphrase - Von Neumann, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/78 "2025-07-03T22:53:37Z")
The first time I heard “Prisencólinensináinciúsol” was crazy. It was English but with no identifiable words so I could just appreciate the sounds. Now, I can hear English words and phrases in there, blunting the effect. The video @Q.Q.Switcheroo has even more identifiable words. I would love to be able to hear what English sounds like to people who don’t understand a word of it. > [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > As a result, it’s somewhat harder for Finns to understand Estonian than for Estonians to understand Finnish. The same is true for Spanish-speakers trying to understand Portuguese. I can understand maybe about half of Brazilian Portuguese and less of the European variety. > [@Moonrise](#): > > She stopped in front of one and said “This is weird. It really looks like Finnish, but I don’t understand a single word.” It’s not just me, then. As for Klingon, I thought Mayan languages or Quechua, the language of the Incas, was closer to its sounds than any language I’ve heard. I listened to some samples and they sounded rather “normal.” Really, the only weird sounds in those languages are the [ejective consonants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ejective_consonant), which sound so cool. I’m thinking that Klingon sounds most like American English, the language of a truly alien people. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2026, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/79 "2026-04-03T20:31:01Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I also spent some time in the USSR, but all I took away from there was CTON (stop), Pectopah (restaurant), da and nyet. You could pick up some of those words riding the Metro through East Hollywood, from the newspapers people were reading, the last time I did that. Today I’m not sure, given hiw feq oeople read print papers. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101/80 "2026-04-06T15:02:09Z")
> [@Moonrise](#): > > Inuit languages […] looks like Finnish Indeed, there’s a theory that [Inuit-Yupik-Unangan (formerly Eskimo-Aleut) languages are distantly related to Uralic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo%E2%80%93Uralic_languages). The great Danish linguist Rasmus Rask was the first to make the connection, since he had access to both Greenlandic and Finnish speakers. Holy circumpolar, Batman! They all came from Siberia, Uralic speakers heading west to Europe and Inuit speakers east to America. There’s the similar syllabic structure, as you noted. Both Finnish and Inuit have the plural ending in -t. The Inuit dual in -k is still found in Ob-Ugric (while in Hungarian the dual was lost and -k came to mark the plural), and similar case endings. There are said to be lexical matches too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-for-the-boards-overworked-linguists-how-is-it-that-i-can-recognize-written-finnish/1020101.md?page=5)