# Can anyone translate Finnish?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 25, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606 "2011-04-25T01:13:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/1 "2011-04-25T01:13:37Z")
This is a paragraph from a Finnish genealogy page that online translators will only partially translate. Can anyone tell me what it says?
XI Matti Ollinpoika Finnilä, b. 1633, d. 2.5.1697 Veteli.
6.8.1646 tuomittiin Matti Olavinp. kuolemaan koska
oli harjoittanut huoruutta irtolaisnaisen Kaisa Jaakontyttären
kanssa joka oli synnyttänyt lapsen. 8.3.1651 ilmoitettiin
Matti Olavinpojan kuolemantuomio hovioikeudessa
muutetun sakoksi.
---
### Author:  [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/2 "2011-04-25T04:30:16Z")
XI Matthew Ollinpoika Finnila, b. 1633, d. 05/02/1697 coffin.
06/08/1646 sentenced Matthew Olavinp. death because
was engaged in _ **migrant hire** _ Kaisa James Daughter
with which had given birth to a child. 08/03/1651 reported
Matt St. Olaf’s death the Son of the Court of Appeal
modified into a fine.
The bold italics part was actually Dutch–sometimes if you use Google Translate and it gets stuck on words, you can let it “detect language” and that helps!
So a migrant worker knocked up Kaisa James daughter so he got put to death, looks like?
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### Author:  [@Walther\_Ego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walther_Ego)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/3 "2011-04-25T06:48:19Z")
XI Matti Ollinpoika Finnilä, b. 1633, d. 2.5.1697 Veteli.
XI Matti son of Olli (Olli is a version of Olavi or Olav or Olof) Finnilä (this is probably his family name, but is the place of birth then unknown?), b. 1633, d. 2.5.1697 in Veteli (in Middle Bothnia, he may have just died or both born and die here).
6.8.1646 tuomittiin Matti Olavinp. kuolemaan koska
6.8.1646 sentenced Matti s of Olavi to death (I’m replicating the odd word order in original here) because
oli harjoittanut huoruutta irtolaisnaisen Kaisa Jaakontyttärenkanssa
had “exercised whoredom” (:eek:) with vagrant Kaisa daughter of Jaakko
joka oli synnyttänyt lapsen. 8.3.1651 ilmoitettiin
who had given birth to a child. 8.3.1651 announced
Matti Olavinpojan kuolemantuomio hovioikeudessa
Matti son of Olavi death sentence in royal court (don’t take this too literally, the king probably never saw his)
muutetun sakoksi.
changed to fines.
So he was born, died. He had sex with a vagrant woman, was sentenced to death but higher court changed to fines. He probably spent 5 years in prison waiting to be hanged.
It is written very briefly and with few verbs. The word order is strange, so the clerc had possibly learned to write Swedish or Latin first.
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### Author:  [@A.Gwilliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.Gwilliam)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/4 "2011-04-25T11:28:16Z")
> [@Rasa](#):
>
> The bold italics part was actually Dutch–sometimes if you use Google Translate and it gets stuck on words, you can let it “detect language” and that helps!
Except when it gets it completely wrong…! 😉
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### Author:  [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/5 "2011-04-25T18:01:19Z")
Thanks guys. Those kids in the 1600’s, I’ll tell you. Morals were going to pot. (ha) I have also learned that my father’s oldest sister was illegitimate - (the records actually said “bastard”) - guess there wasn’t much to do in Finland in the winter.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/6 "2011-04-25T18:06:28Z")
> [@pohjonen](#):
>
> Thanks guys. Those kids in the 1600’s, I’ll tell you. Morals were going to pot.
One of my ancestors was sentenced to death for stealing three handkerchiefs at the age of 14.
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### Author:  [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/7 "2011-04-25T18:13:12Z")
> [@Walther\_Ego](#):
>
> Matti son of Olavi death sentence in royal court (don’t take this too literally, the king probably never saw his)
“Hovioikeus” translates more accurately to “Court of Appeal”, though.
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### Author:  [@Sofis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofis)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/8 "2011-04-25T19:29:41Z")
> [@auRa](#):
>
> “Hovioikeus” translates more accurately to “Court of Appeal”, though.
At the time a hovrätt/hovioikeus would have been the highest court, directly representing the authority of the crown. Still not the same as a royal court, and the queen ([Kristina](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina,_Queen_of_Sweden) was queen regnant in 1651) would still not have been in attendance, of course.
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### Author:  [@Walther\_Ego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walther_Ego)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/9 "2011-04-26T06:00:44Z")
I found the translation by choosing Hovioikeus in Wikipedia, then chose English and it directed me to Royal Court (Hovrätt). Which doesn’t, of course, make it an official translation. The most straight-forward translation would have been “court court” 🙂
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### Author:  [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/10 "2011-04-26T14:12:26Z")
There seems to be (at least) two places called Finnilä in the neighbourhood, one quite close to Veteli and the other on the outskirts of Gamlakarleby/Kokkola.
BTW If they were from this area wouldn’t they rather be Swedish than Finnish speakers?
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### Author:  [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/11 "2011-04-26T14:38:04Z")
> [@pohjonen](#):
>
> Thanks guys. Those kids in the 1600’s, I’ll tell you. Morals were going to pot. (ha)
In the 1600’s in Finland the church and the crown were at the peak of their power and pervasiveness. The (biblical) legislation was strict, strongly enforced and the punishments swift and severe. Teenagers were under special monitoring by the church for such sins as dancing. No worse time before or since to be a ruly, horny youngster. A good time for religious, submissive bookworms, though, as the school system developed by leaps and bounds.
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### Author:  [@Walther\_Ego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walther_Ego)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2011, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/12 "2011-04-27T07:03:14Z")
> [@Floater](#):
>
> There seems to be (at least) two places called Finnilä in the neighbourhood, one quite close to Veteli and the other on the outskirts of Gamlakarleby/Kokkola.
>
> BTW If they were from this area wouldn’t they rather be Swedish than Finnish speakers?
If the record is originally in Finnish, then his priest preached in Finnish. Swedish-speaking congregations had their records in Swedish.
“Finn” does not really mean anything in Finnish, so the original name could well be Finnby in Swedish, then translated to Finnish as Finnilä. And such a name makes only sense if it is given to one of relatively few villages where people speak Finnish.
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### Author:  [@vifslan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vifslan)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-translate-finnish/579606/13 "2011-04-27T13:45:14Z")
As you move northwards through the coastal strip where Swedish is spoken in Ostrobothnia (roughly 180 by 25 miles in size), Kokkola/Gamlakarleby is where the Swedish-speaking Finns become a definite minority. Though this is largely caused by the latest round of municipal reforms, as four former municipalities have been consolidated into one, and only Kokkola was bilingual to begin with.
By the way, the Court of Appeal in question would have been situated in Turku.