tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post5081514471496308097..comments2024-02-03T10:27:22.640+00:00Comments on Nordic Voices in Translation: Don't be fooled by the surnameDavid McDuffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01515361544462041148noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-61665055690531203262009-07-05T19:20:30.887+01:002009-07-05T19:20:30.887+01:00I see a comment on the origin of my name and my la...I see a comment on the origin of my name and my language situation. Unfortunately most of it as published here is wrong. Karmela Belinki: Karmela is Hebrew, OT,means "God's fruitful vineyard" (Mount Carmel in Israel). Belinki is Russian-Jewish and means "little white", probably from a river, which runs i.a. through Lithuania and parts of Belarus, where my paternal family Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10199281991582211810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-23521121449915846512009-03-22T14:48:00.000+00:002009-03-22T14:48:00.000+00:00The language situation in Helsinki was certainly d...The language situation in Helsinki was certainly different from that in other parts of Finland, and there is a surviving street patois which consists of a blend of Finnish and Swedish. Rosa Liksom has used it in some of her fiction. <BR/><BR/>Finland's Jewish population between the world wars was never more than about 2,000. There are details <A HREF="http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/sf/David McDuffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01515361544462041148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-72463562210037367162009-03-22T14:30:00.000+00:002009-03-22T14:30:00.000+00:00With regard to the name Karmela Bélinki, hardly a ...With regard to the name Karmela Bélinki, hardly a Finnish one, I don't think I ever met her, but I spoke to her on the phone in autumn 1979. She said that her language situation was quite complicated and that she used three languages quite a lot. When she went mushroom picking, she knew the terms better in Finnish, or Swedish, I don't remember which. The third language, which I think she spoke Eric Dickenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11473407452357469485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-67207170806483310952009-03-21T20:45:00.000+00:002009-03-21T20:45:00.000+00:00I've come across "pakkoruotsi", and I do have some...I've come across "pakkoruotsi", and I do have some sympathy for schoolkids living in, say Yli-Ii or some other remotish part of Finland who are forced to learn a language they will never use. But especially for well-educated people living in the capital, the Swedish language is a serious part of their history. I wonder whether schoolchildren in many Finnish-speaking parts of Finland would be lessEric Dickenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11473407452357469485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2041385492321829905.post-31228435130781420452009-03-21T17:28:00.000+00:002009-03-21T17:28:00.000+00:00It has to be said that a majority of Finns don't w...It has to be said that a majority of Finns don't want to be forced to learn Swedish. The introduction of pakkoruotsi/tvångsvenska ("compulsory Swedish")in Finnish schools was not exactly popular. There's a discussion of the whole subject <A HREF="http://www.finlandforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35636&start=0" REL="nofollow">here</A>.David McDuffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01515361544462041148noreply@blogger.com