Dr Danny Bate

Screenshot of a video, presented by Janek Rubeš, sat at a pub table, with three blurry figures in the background.

Tried to go out with colleagues for a cheeky after-work beer, ended up the background of an Honest Guide video. We were trying to be sneaky.

And, somehow, the Italian city of 'Trieste'...

This comment is a like knighthood for me. This is exactly how I aim for my writing to come across. Thank you.

Well put!

Thank you for reading it!

Finnskogen - Wikipedia

I think it's this? The map didn't claim to be current, more like c. 1900
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnsko...

That's one word for what I'm feeling...

Love that idea! I'd include it in a Modern Greek episode. It'd be great to get an in-depth view on the katharevousa/demotic divide, which is one of those things I know about but don't fully understand (see also: Bokmål/Nynorsk in Norway)

I'll be thrilled to know you've read it! Final proofs will get the green light today or tomorrow, so what it now contains will be what folks will read...

What a lovely comment to bestow on the piece, thank you!

Well said!

Very fascinating and I think this emphasises one of my favourite pet ideas: languages perhaps ought to be taught more like a network of relations than as unrelated entities. The more you know, the more you know, and turns out this works even for Finnish. (Btw "torg” is market in modern Swedish too).

Thank you for the fact and the endorsement, Nik!

Lovely piece by Danny as always.

My personal favourite Proto-Germanic loan in Finnish is “varas” (thief), which is ultimately from “*wargaz” (wolf/criminal).

It’s also the source (via Old Norse “vargr”) of Tolkien’s “warg” in English.

First, Dr Danny's always a great read

Second, it's great to see someone else get bit by the same fascination bug you've had since you got your tiny Finno-Ugric brain connected to the Anglosphere at just before school age

I'm thinking of 'kassa' again

😍

Ah, good to know, and yes, that has to be the case 😊

"historical linguistics can break down the walls between languages!"

This!

Everywhere you look, there's so much more contact, so much longer ago than most people expect 😀

Thank you for reading it!

You Know More Finnish Than You Think Linguistics illuminates the linguistically obscure – or so I’ve always thought. It’s a common theme of my online output that a little bit of historical linguistics goes a long way, maki…

I've strayed into another language family, and made Finnish the subject of this month's post. Under the surface though, it's a piece about prehistoric languages, and how millennia-long linguistic contact can make foreign languages seem more familiar.
dannybate.com/2025/08/03/y...

A renaissance is a medieval concept. And the Renaissance is profoundly a medieval phenomenon.

Palestinian children have been killed at a rate of more than one child per hour during Israel's war in Gaza.

“A whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years,” UNICEF’s executive director said.

Here are some of their stories: wapo.st/3UCiAjn

Always enjoyed the word Lammas, and the Lammas Lands scattered around the country.
Years ago I catalogued maps of the Lea valley before the reservoirs arrived: twisting river channels, fishermen's pubs and Lammas Lands, all now vanished under a landscape made of straight lines. Lost world.

See you at 5pm, bring your own loaf.

That's a lovely word there: 'Lammas', the first day of August, from Old English hlāfmæsse, made up of hlāf ('bread, loaf') and mæsse ('Mass').

It was end of July, Lammas-tide had come, and the hay and the corn harvests were being gathered in all around the little hamlet. Despite her nerves and delicate constitution, Mouse wanted desperately to be part of it all, part of the great collective dance of scythe and fork, so Bear's Sisters laid blankets at the edge of the field, under the shade of an apple tree. As the hamlet folk worked, she sat and watched, looking after the precious vittles – the pasties and seed-cakes and bread and cheese, and the cool flasks of buttermilk and stone bottles and jars of ginger beer and cider. After the laughter and chatter of luncheon, she fell asleep, curled up by the yellow fleabane and the silver mugwort. Above, a stately buzzard circled in the cloudless sky, an old friend of Old Fox and no harm to Mouse. The Bears and hamlet folk waved to him and his wings dipped gold and rust in the heavy, still air.

'I asked chatgpt and—'
I'm going to ask the augurs what the gods think about it instead

The more usual Old English word for the animal was ened, related to current words in Dutch (eend), German (Ente) and Lithuanian (antis).

Via Slavic, I presume the same root is behind the charming ути-ути, an interjection "used to beckon ducks" in Mari.
mari-language.univie.ac.at/dict.php?sea...

Good question. I'm not aware of any compounds containing it (one way for old words to linger on), so if there are remnants, they'll exist in dialects and non-standard Englishes

Thank you for the vote of confidence!