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Upcoming Talk - "From maissi to mokkasiini: Amerindian loanwords in Finnish"
Upcoming Talk - "From maissi to mokkasiini: Amerindian loanwords in Finnish"
By Meaghan Peuramaki-Brown 28 October 2015 @ 11:49am
Upcoming talk presented by the Calgary Finlandia Cultural Association
Dr. Harri Kettunen (University of Helsinki)
Monday, November 9th, 2015, 18:30-20:00
Valhalla Room, Scandinavian Centre (739 20 Ave NW, Calgary, AB)
"From maissi to mokkasiini: Amerindian loanwords in Finnish"
Abstract: Loanwords from Amerindian languages are relatively frequent in the various Spanish dialects around Latin America – and numerous also in the variants of North American English. However, the further you go from the Western Hemisphere the less frequent these loanwords become. Finnish has borrowed words from Amerindian languages via neighboring Indo-European languages, primarily from Swedish. Most (75%) of these words have to do with the flora and fauna of the area – or the natural world in general. These include words such as chili, kaakao (cacao), suklaa (chocolate), maissi (corn, maize), tomaatti (tomato), tupakka (tobacco), jaguaari (jaguar), hurrikaani (hurricane). Others include cultural items and phenomena, such as anorakki (anorak), kanootti (canoe), sikari (cigar), and mokkasiini (moccasin). This presentation focuses on the origin of these words and their cultural background. The topic will be explored from the perspective of linguistics, indigenous writing systems, zoology and ethnozoology, botany and ethnobotany, archaeology, anthropology, and iconography.
