Ujfalvy’s place in the development of Finno-Ugrian language studies in the second half of the 19th century in France

The article presents the work of Charles Eugène de Ujfalvy de Mező-Kövesd [Hung. Mezőkövesdi Ujfalvy Károly Jenő] (1842–1904), still less known French-Hungarian researcher, who played an important role as an initiatior of the Finno-Ugrian language studies in France. His interests were very wide and he worked hard with a real scientific passion. He left behind numerous publications on linguistics, anthropology and ethnography, which contributed to the increase of the general knowledge about Asia’s many peoples in the second half of the 19th century

Friendly barter in the Gulf of Finland, and wandering meanings

Przyjacielski handel wymienny w Zatoce Fińskiej a wędrujące znaczenia Punktem wyjścia tego studium jest nazwa handlu wymiennego w Zatoce Fińskiej, dobrze znanego w historii relacji fińsko-estońskich. Nazwa tego handlu zawiera słowo, którym określa się przyjaciela lub znajomego w językach bałtycko-fińskich, kilku słowiańskich i jeszcze paru innych w Europie. Artykuł pokazuje możliwości poszukiwania źródeł słowa. Może ono pochodzić z języka staroruskiego lub greckiego albo nawet należeć do najstarszej warstwy słownictwa europejskiego. Słowo to jest tak stare i było tak szeroko używane, że sprawa jego etymologii pozostaje otwarta, ale bardzo ciekawe jest jego ewoluowanie znaczeniowe.A point of departure for this study is the name of barter in the Gulf of Finland, well known in the history of Finnish-Estonian relations. The name of this barter contains the word which is used to descibe a friend or a good acquaintance in Finnic, several Slavic and a few other languages in Europe. The article shows possibilities of survey of the origins of this word. It can originate from Old East Slavic or Greek or even it belongs to the oldest layer of European vocabulary. This word is so old and has been so largely used, that its etymology is still open, but the evolution of its meanings is very interesting

Factors influencing conservatism and purism in languages of Northern Europe (Nordic, Baltic, Finnic)

This paper shows common extralinguistic factors influencing conservatism and purism in languages of Northern Europe (Nordic, Baltic, Finnic). Users’ motivation, environment, culture, history and conscious policy are the keys to understand some tendencies in the slower rate of change of these languages

Reduplicative syllables in Romance languages

The article deals with the reduplications in Latin and in Romance languages. While in Latin there were only reduplications of monosyllables, Romance languages have a lot of polysyllabic (mostly disyllabic) reduplications. This development could arise due to a bigger expressivity of vulgar Latin mixed with vernacular languages and to their contacts with other languages: Germanic (mostly English and German), Celtic, Slavic, Turkic and Hungarian, in which the polysyllabic reduplication is the most common

ICT innovations from Finland, and Finnish digilect in electronic media culture

The article deals with ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) innovations that were entirely or partially invented in Finland (Nokia mobile phone technology, IRC, Linux, input to invent SMS). In the paper we discuss the current electronic communication that developed media culture and new codes, which combine pictural and language elements: emoticons and emojis as well as texting. Finland is the first country in the world to create its own national emojis (63 so far). Finally, we show characteristics of the Finnish texting, i.e. “cyberslang” (mainly in younger people’s communication), in other words “digilect” called after publications by a Hungarian linguist Ágnes Veszelszki

Finnish Biblical terminology

The article is devoted to the Biblical terminology from the New Testament in the history of the Finnish language, with focus on the Gospel according to St. Luke. The author analyses the first translation of the Bible by Mikael Agricola (1548) and compares it to the Greek original (Textus Receptus) and Latin Vulgata, as well as the German Luther Bible (1522) and the Swedish Gustav Vasa Bible (1541), which undoubtedly served as models to Agricola in forging the Finnish religious language, and, at the same time, in shaping the Finnish written language (his prints were the first ones in Finland). Also, the subsequent Finnish versions are compared: 1642, 1776, 1938, 1992 (the latter is now used by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland), as well as two Finnish slang versions from 2001 (one of which is based on the standard Finnish version from 1938, and another from 1992). In the comparisons, one can find interesting inventions as well as numerous inspirations and continuations between the analysed versions

FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSERVATISM AND PURISM IN LANGUAGES OF NORTHERN EUROPE (NORDIC, BALTIC, FINNIC)

This paper shows common extralinguistic factors influencing conservatism and purism in languages of Northern Europe (Nordic, Baltic, Finnic). Users’ motivation, environment, culture, history and conscious policy are the keys to understand some tendencies in the slower rate of change of these languages

Pierre Loti’s Turkisms and their translations in Polish

The article deals with three connected “Turkish” novels by Pierre Loti [a pen name of Julien Viaud] (1850–1923), a French writer deeply enamoured with Turkey (although at the close of the end of the Ottoman Empire). The main object is to present Turkish words, phrases and sentences that Loti used often in order to enrich his works by local elements. The second aim is to show Polish (yet pre-war) translations of those novels, paying special attention to their Turkish elements

Langues non romanes dans les pays romans d’Europe

The paper presents the situation of non-romance minoritary languages which has lived for centuries in countries, where the official language is a romance language. Consecutively are described: Basque in Spain and France, Breton in France, Flemish in France and Belgium, Alsatian and Lotaringian in France, German in Italy, France and Luxemburg, Hungarian with its dialects in Romania, Slavic languages in Romania, Moldova and Italy. The most endangered are languages without their own state, such as: Basque, Breton, Alsatian and Lorraine Franconian, because they can defend their legacy only in conditions of the domination of the big official language, often in lack of the common linguistic norms. However, the survival of languages depends, after all, on the ethnic consciousness and determination of a given community