Finnish and Irish, linguistic Connections. Paper
V
(A) Early Inhabitants of the Baltic region.
Archaeological Finds from the 6th to the 3rd Millennium
BC
Movements around the Baltics, c2000 BC
Who were the Indo-European ancestors?
(B) North of the Urheimat: The Balts
The great Migration West: Germans and Celts
The great Migration east
(C) Linguistic Comparisons of PIE with its Descendents
Differentiation into Dialects
Conclusion
Balts, Iranians, Indians, Germans and Celts - Peoples of common Ancestry
(A) Early Inhabitants of the Baltic region.
After the last Ice Age had peaked, 16,500 years ago, both Indo-European
ancestors and the survivors of older stock emerged from refuges across
Europe. Some 6,500 years after this, their Palaeolithic descendents
were again put to the test with the advent of the Younger Dryas cold
event.
The Baltic territories had been returned to cold steppe and tundra
during the second stage retreat of the ice cap, called the Gotiglacial
(15,000 – 8,300 BC). Hunters fished in the Baltic Sea, as the climate
warmed in the sub-Arctic climatic conditions of the Late Glacial Period,
up to 6,800 BC. Around 7,000 BC, early Indo-Europeans had begun to
follow the reindeer northwards to the eastern Baltics. Herds always
stayed near the edge of receding ice.
Hunters of the Mesolithic period, who survived to 6000 BC, again
colonised the Continent. The broad archaeological story begins around
5,500 BC. The trail of development becomes somewhat clearer as soon
as mankind begins to leave behind enduring artefacts. Sites at which
these are found are taken to represent different cultures.
From 7,500 to 5,500 BC, the Boreal period of the northern hemisphere
brought a dry climate, with cold winters and short summers. Hunter-fishermen
of the western Maglemose culture and the eastern Ertobelle cultures
lived in small groups in a forest culture. The latter disappeared
around 4500 BC with the onset of a period of adverse climate. Overall,
the culture persisted up to 3,400 BC, when climate again improved,
prompting fresh migrations.
Most migrant, pre-historic groups perished because of misfortune
and natural selection. The task of assigning later archaeological
finds either to survivors or later arrivals is a tentative art. The
Russian steppe did provide a certain stable environment for the Indo-European
groups who stayed there.
Proto-Indo-European tongues could not have developed at uniform speed
but with spurts during and after expansion. Local influences on the
speed of dialect formation complicate analysis for dating proto-languages.
For example, contact with speakers of an earlier substrate language
probably caused the radical changes which led to the formation of
Old Irish by 500AD.
The mechanism behind expansion merits consideration. Want, on the
margins of a sustainable settlement, caused people to seek a more
secure existence elsewhere. Domestication of the horse gave Indo-Europeans
a perfect vehicle for relocation in the 3rd and 2nd millennia. Indo-European
culture developed a means to combat adversity. Upwards social mobility
allowed for meritocracy. Penetrating religious thought underpinned
an innovative, intellectual class.
Archaeological Finds from the 6th to the 3rd Millennium BC
In the late 6th and 5th millennia BC, Kurgan herders, with characteristic
burial mounds, lived on the Russian steppes. The Russian word ‘kurgan’
relates to an elaborate grave and derives from a Turkic word for ‘castle’.
The Linear Ware (or Long House) cereal farmers lived in the Danube
basin. Megalithic people, skilled in large stone-works, lived in the
north-eastern European forests in the 4th millenium.
The Secondary Products revolution of the 4th millennium ushered in
advances in processing cheese, leather and beer. Skills in mining,
smelting and casting copper ore were improved. The village-based Tripolye
branch of the Danubian farmers specialised in growing fruit and in
animal husbandry. The Sredny Stog branch of the Kurgans practiced
both cereal farming and animal husbandry. The Funnel Beaker people
had begun to settle, to the south of the Megalithic people. They may
have derived from the older hunter-gatherers in the Baltics.
In the early third millennium, the Baltic forest culture came under
the influence of the expanding Danubian culture. Southern Balts took
up farming. From 3400 – 2300 BC, a new people took advantage of the
sub-Boreal climate: the comb ceramics pottery tribe. Their pots were
decorated with small indents like comb teeth. These people are believed
to have been of Finno-Ugric origin.
Movements around the Baltics, c2000 BC
Immigrants, from the western spur of the IE Urheimat, introduced the
Globular Amphora culture into the Baltics from 1800 – 1700 BC. They
brought new religious rites, fortified hill-top settlements, small
rectangular houses, domesticated horses and cord impressions on pottery.
The Battle Axe spur arrived next, to the central and southern Baltics.
They brought characteristic burial rites, pottery and boat-shaped
stone axes. The Battle Axe culture replaced the Globular Amphora and
Comb Ceramics cultures around 1500 BC. Economic activities included
tillage, textiles, cattle and sheep. Archaeology points to a migration
by the Kurgan Pit-grave people from their steppe zone north of the
Black Sea around 2300-2200 BC. They may be regarded as the forebears
of the Battle Axe people.
These changes in the Baltic culture could only have been facilitated
by east-west migrations through the steppes corridor. Before the Kurgans
ever appeared in Central and Northern Europe, the Balkans and Anatolia,
they had come under extensive cultural influences north of the Black
Sea. This would suggest the development of dialects before migration
and mixing with local European cultures began.
Who were the Indo-European ancestors?
As the information available improves, analysts now most usually consider
that PIE was spoken on the Russian steppes in the 5th millennium BC.
Theories on the ascendancy of the Danubian or Anatolian cultures are
no longer supported.
Ascribing more or less equal dynamism to the IE migrations which
survived to leave their mark, the IE Urheimat can be located in the
Sredny Stog culture of the eastern sector of the Ukraine. Thus early
IE groups were settled in Kurgan territory, to the north the Black
Sea, as the Finns migrated westwards from the Urals.
In support of this, a list of words, which the Finns took from proto-Celts,
is given in the Addendum. The borrowed words indicate a stable and
prosperous relationship between the two races. The Germans and Indo-Iranians
similarly left behind a store of words. These linguistic impressions
indicate that the borrowing had occurred mainly after initial differentiation
of Indo-European, by 3500 BC.
Migrations which followed on included (i) to the east, the Tocharians
and Indo-Iranians, (ii) to the south-west, the Anatolians, Greeks,
Armenians and Albanians, (iii) to the west, Italo-Celtic and Germanic.
People who did not move became Balto-Slavs.
Kali
Notably, the evident similarities between the Gaelic and Hindu cultures,
briefly explored in Papers I-II, had to be present, in a single, parent
culture. After 5,000 years of separation, comparisons possible, of
religion, language, law and music, require this. The comparisons made
between Tocharian and early Gaelic clothing and between the languages
of these peoples indicate migration, from a place where early proto-Celtic
was established, before the major Celtic push westwards began.
There is the question whether the patriarchal Kurgan or the matriarchal
Tripolye culture was dominant in Indo-European formation. Overlapping
IE and Finnish settlements shared fairly extensive contiguous areas.
These probably stretched along much of the Kurgan homeland and into
that of the Tripolye. From Yamna on the Black Sea, southwest to Usatavo,
would appear to be the extent, east-to-west, of the proto-Indo-European
heartland.
IE culture genrally was well developed by this time, amongst the
Kurgans and, most likely, accculturated Tripolye people, from the
east of their range. The expanding culture went on to cover a roughly
circular territory from the lower reaches of the Dnieper, NE and SW.
From this region, it is likely from 3000 BC on, that spurs comprised
of linguistically differentiated IE tribes were formed.
Linguists and archaeologists both point to the use of fortified hill
settlements on high river banks from the earliest Chalcolithic Period
up into recorded history. The word for ‘town’ is found in both ancient
and modern IE tongues:
Irish German Lithuanian Old Prussian Old Indic Sanskrit
baile Burg pilis pil pūr pūh
The division of labour, between warrior and labouring classes, is
also indicated linguistically and archaeologically. The frequency
of double graves reflects the custom of self-immolation of the widow.
This custom is recorded in Lithuania during the 14th century. As the
sun is the source of fire, so fire is the gateway to the next life.
All Kurgan sites show the importance attached to stock – the bones
of cattle, sheep, goats and dogs are ubiquitous. The names of archaeological
elements, given hereunder, further confirm a prehistoric homeland
for Indo-European languages.
Sanskrit Avestan Lithuanian Irish
cereals yavah yavo javaĩ eorna
O Slav Lithuanian Irish O Prussian Latin Gothic
grain zrŭno žirnis (pea) caurn syrne granum kaurn
O Slav Lithuanian
seed sěti sètiēmuo síol semen saian
Kurgans gained metallurgical skills before the end of the 3rd millennium
BC from Near East, Transcaucasia, Anatolia and Transylvania. They
found copper in the central European mountains and introduced the
Bronze Age to Europe.
In the 3th millennium BC, the Balkan-Danubian Usatavo culture, on
the north-western side of the Black Sea is tentatively linked with
the proto-Greeks. In later times the area was home to the Dacians
and Thracians. East of this, the Yamna Pit Grave culture is linked
to the Indo-Iranians. The Sintashta-Petrovka culture arose during
2200-1800, east of the Urals. It was linked to the Poltavka culture,
a late development of the Yamna culture.
(B) North of the Urheimat: The Balts
Balto-Slavic culture is identified with the Battle Axe culture. The
Corded Ware culture lay to the west of this, along northern Europe.
The language, as did PIE before it, disintegrated with second-wave
migrations east, west, north and south (Latvia). Lithuanians remain
as the undisturbed core of the original IE stock. Lithuanian, said
to be the purest form of the Indo-European language, is more comparable
with Sanskrit than other Indo-European descendents.
The great Migration West: Germans and Celts
The Germanic tongue resulted from the occurrence of major changes
in grammar, vocabulary and phonology. These came about from merging
of proto-Balto-Slavic language (of the Western Corded Ware culture)
with that of the Funnel Beaker people and of another southerly Indo-European
dialect. It was around two millennia after this culture that the inferred
off-shoot, the Jastorf culture, is identified with early Germanic.
The south-central Indo-European dialect was spoken by other migrants
of the western spur, who are identified with the Globular Amphora
culture. This has been associated with the La Tène period of the early
Celts, c500 BC. The proto-Celts may, therefore, have derived from
this spur. In any event, proto-Celts were living to the south of the
proto–Germans, around 2,500 BC.
Celts and Germans remained mutually intelligible for another 1,000
years. They were the last of the IE groups to remain so and to this
day share not only placenames on the European Continent but vocabulary
and, more importantly, many grammatical structures (Papers X-Y).
Celts from Bell Beaker stock, in southern Germany, extended their
range across Europe, c2000 BC. The related Baden culture of the northern
Balkans is thought to have produced the forebears of IE culture in
Italy. The ultimate linguistic and cultural characteristics of any
IE group depended upon the admixture of aboriginal races.
In their appearance in divers tribes and cultures, Celts migrated
westwards, for the most part, until they covered a vast swathe of
Europe. Eventually they came to Ireland, between the years 500 BC
and 500 AD. In their most western outpost, they converted to Christianity.
However, they kept their ancient faith alive, in the richest mythology
in Europe: the lore which they had brought from the steppes.
The great Migration east
Far to the east of Yamna lies the contemporaneous (3rd millennium)
Afanasievo culture. It is considered to be the original homeland of
the Tocharians, who travelled to China. Many groups related to them
will also have migrated eastwards, perhaps. However, it was this people
who left records, written around 500 BC. Supporting argument for their
migration from the west derives from original IE linguistic forms,
believed to give rise to later linguistic developments, in early Greek
and Indo-Iranian.
The Afansievo, Yamna, Corded Ware and Globular Amphora cultures may
all be dated around 3600-3000, indicating that Proto-Indo-European
may stretch back to around 4,500 BC. The language spoken by all these
groupings, around 3,000 years BC, was late Indo-European. Proto-Anatolian
was the only significant off-shoot to
have differentiated
.
The Sintashta-Petrovka culture thrived up until
1800 BC. It was characterised by compact,
fortified settlements. Bronze metallurgy was
highly developed and, with animal husbandry
(cattle, sheep and horses), comprised the main
economic activities. The involved mortuary rituals
reflect many aspects of Aryan rituals in the Rg
Veda. Buried vehicles, characteristic of Yamna
graves, included the oldest, dated spoke-wheeled
chariots - buried with two-horse teams. It is likely
that these sites were home to early Indo-Iranians.
The Sintashta-Petrovka culture is the earliest of an
archaeological complex of bronze age early Indo-
Iranian cultures, called the Andronovo complex. The exact extent of
the relationships between the main four sub-cultures, based on archaeology,
is not easy to determine. Towards the 1500s BC, these cultures moved
eastward, across Central Asia. They reached the rich ores of the Altai
mountains. They survived until the last millennium BC. The area encompassed
was vast, reaching as far east as the earlier Afanasievo culture.
The Vedic rite used race horses. The two-horse teams at Sintashta
meant that the ritual required fast animals. In both cases the careful
arrangement of certain bones and the ritualistic consumption of horseflesh
is implied. The Vedic procedure included the sacrifice of a goat,
symbol of Pusan, the god of pathways. At Sintashta, horses and cattle
were killed with a single ram – perhaps to guide the beasts in the
right path to the spirit world.
Lack of Archaeology at the Points of farthest Migration, east and
west
Migration from the IE homeland to the east, west and south is well
attested. The trail of archaeology by the early Indo-Europeans goes
from the Ukraine towards the Himalayas but does not show the ingression
into India of Indo-Aryans. This should positively be regarded, since
the tools of ancient history tend themselves to be primitive, for
the purpose. There is little archaeology to link the Irish with Continental
Europe either. It has been suggested that this is because they all
came by sea from the Middle East. The likely explanation, in both
cases, is that the migration occurred with small groups and more or
less peacefully.
(C) Linguistic Comparisons of PIE with its Descendents
The importance of the Indo-Iranian bloc is evidenced by the linguistic
connections to Tokharian and modern Indo-European languages which
have held on to their original structures (Hindu, Iranian, Slavonic,
German and Celtic (Welsh and Gaelic). From their original, inferred
range, it is clear that the Germano-Celts and Indo-Iranians formed
a core stock at the margins of the IE homeland.
Linguistic differentiation, however, was well underway by 2000 BC,
when the written word, in tandem with archaeology, begins to inform
our appreciation of ancient times. The question arises as to how evident
is the linguistic bond between the clearly related Irish, German and
Hindi (Papers X and Y).
Cognates for ‘seeing/knowing’ in Indo-European derivatives are a
widely shared:
Original language: PIE
*wid (to see/know
– the asterisk indicating a reconstructed word)
Ancient language: Sanskrit Greek Latin
East-Centre-West Veda (sacred lore) eidon (I saw) videre (to see)
of Urheimat Jñana (knowledge)
Modern language: Russian German Irish
Centre-West videt (to see) wissen (to know) fios (knowledge)
The example given, and indeed others, indicate a good basis for linking
the spoken word - over the millennia and across territories as widely
apart as Ireland and India. There are, as is to be expected, challenges
to such analysis.
‘Centum/Satem’ Rule
Indo-European languages are commonly divided into ‘centum’ and ‘satem’
languages, after the Latin and Avestan words for ‘one hundred’. Balto-Slavs,
although on the ‘satem’ side of the ‘centum-satem’ split, have been
assigned the Middle Dnieper culture. They came under the influence,
in this way, of western ‘centum’ languages. Other ‘satem’ languages
(eg Indo-Arian) have been assigned to the Yamna horizon.
The ‘centum-satem’ division may not therefore be used, without refinement,
to track the descent of eg Slavic and Indo-Arian. Despite its classification,
Russian is closer to German than to Sanskrit. Greek (a ‘centum’ type)
is closer to Sanskrit than to any other language.
That there should be some lack of clarity like this, at the core
of the Indo-European family, is to be expected, with the complex interactions
of the early tribes. Indeed, it supports the case for saying that
the great migrations east and west radiated from such a core.
Differentiation into Dialects
Only a properly robust choice of indicators will provide a useful
tool for determining the branching descent of languages analysis.
One language can borrow significantly from others spoken nearby, for
example, whether or not they come from different branches of a parent
tongue. This principle is exemplified by vocabulary shared between
Finnish on the one hand and Irish, German and Hindi in the other.
One issue is clear: both Irish-Finnish and Irish-Hindi linguistic
connections must all, perforce, be ancient.
A linguistic trail, covering Greek and Indic languages, is as follows:
Close PIE Dialects c300 BC
Indo-Arian
___ Hellenic ____________ Iranian____________ _ Indic _
Mycenaean/Doric Scythian Mitanni Old Persian Vedic
Epic Bactrian/Avestan Bengali/Marathi and
Modern Greek Ossetian Pashtu Modern Persian Sindhi/Romany etc
It may be that, following on an initial differentiation of PIE languages,
a proto-Greek spur moved from north of the Black Sea, leaving an Indo-Iranian
cluster, to which the proto-Celts were still very close.
The core Indo-Iranians went east of the Caspian, moving to the Middle
East, to Central and to South Asia. Persian and Avestan are the main
languages used when the literature of their civilisation was committed
to writing.
It has been argued that Latin and Greek can be clearly separated
because Latin has no dual number, no aorist tense and no middle voice.
Indo-Aryan languages, on the other hand, have these features. In stating
this, it was overlooked that modern Irish kept the dual number.
Charlemagne, by Dürer.
Conclusion
A coherent picture emerges that IE peoples shared a common Urheimat.
Connecting archaeology to linguistic groups, given the flux of movement
by early tribes is, nonetheless, tentative.
The repository of Celtic words in Finnish shows, in an original manner,
that a Celtic grouping was well formed by 3000 BC, to one side of
the Indo-Iranians. This allows the placement of the early Celts at
the heart of the Urheimat. Previous lack of evidence forced scholars
to delay the Celtic advent until the La Tène period – 2,500 years
later.
That it can be said that Celtic developed from the earliest times
in Indo-European history, is consistent with the close ties between
the Hindu and Irish cultures to this day. It is unlikely that the
Celts, as a later cultural development, would have retained essential
elements of IE culture as did the Hindus.
Addendum: Modern Finnish and modern Irish Words which have a common
Root/Consonant Cluster
Finnish and Estonian are members of the Baltic-Finnic group of languages.
Most of these are disappearing. Hungarian is a member of the wider
Finno-Ugrian (Uralic) family.
In Finnish, nouns are inflected using suffixes. Irish and German
use prepositions with noun case endings. There is nonetheless the
following similarity between Irish and Finnish prepositions and suffixes:
Finnish Irish
paati-ssa - in the boat sa bhád – in the boat
paati-lla – with the boat leis an mbád – with the car
Finnish can boast of a richness of noun case inflections, with 15
cases. Irish has five or six (the locative case, in placenames such
as ‘an Muileann gCearr) is no longer learnt). Grammarians for languages
which have lost noun inflection sometimes say that this results from
innovation and shows development. The net result, however, is the
loss of a grammatical instrument and nuanced meaning.
To trace Indo-European back beyond the Sredny Stog Urheimat, a typological
similarity between Indo-European and north-western Caucasian languages
may suggest IE is a branch of Uralo-Altaic, which was influenced by
a Caucasian substratum.
A number of IE languages have, in any event, left their traces on
Finnish. A small number of proto-Indo-European words during 4-3,000
BC were absorbed proto-Finno-Ugrians. These include ‘nimi’ (name),
‘vesi’ (water) and ‘nainen’ (woman), for which corresponding words
in Irish are ‘ainm’, ‘uisce’ and ‘nighean’.
The earliest interactions between proto-Indo-Europeans and proto-Finno-Ugrians
must have occurred in the adjoining heartlands of both languages;
the territory north of the Black Sea for the IE peoples and eastwards
to the great bend of the Volga for the Finns – where several Finno-Ugrian
languages persist.
Loanwords from differentiating IE sources, such as the Indo-Iranians,
were absorbed by different Finno-Ugrian groups, suggesting a common
expansion began at roughly the same time. The Celtic and German word
for sea was adopted as ‘meri’, which with other similar words, indicated
that the Finns were an inland people and only picked up these words
as they reached the Baltics.
Proto-Celts, Saxons and Indo-Iranians were using their common tongue,
but in ever-specialising ways, as the prospect of their grand migrations
to Northern and Central Europe and South Asia grew nearer. Some Indo-Iranian
words share a Celtic root. The provenance of these, therefore, cannot
be said with definition.
Finnish Irish
ostaa - to buy Ostán – hotel
varsa – a foal faolán - a wolf (dental exchange)
marras (dead) marbh (dead)
{as in marraskuu – the dead month (November)}
The argument that Indo-Iranian borrowings came from the South-Asian
migrants coming west would imply a radically different mechanism for
borrowings from Celtic. With such a stock of Finnish words taken from
the Celts, who share as many and more common roots with the Indo-Iranians,
it is likely that the same transfer mechanism to Finnish occurred
in both cases.
The list below contains Irish words related to Finnish - together
with some German and Hindi words similarly connected. The processes
of gradual change in words, such as metathesis, operates in this case
though markedly less than with German cognates of Irish.
Irish and Finnish maintain a high degree of ancient linguistic purity.
No doubt, the proto-Celtic experience is a marker for the noble character
of all our ancestors, some 5,000 years ago. The ultimate origins of
words can be difficult to determine but, in the list below, some effort
has been made to exclude words which derive directly from Latin or
are of modern devising.
There are reasonable grounds, therefore, to suggest that most of
the words in the list below are of ancient derivation. They cover
the notions of settlement, trading, wealth, ownership and social order.
Of food, festivals, theatre, dancing and story-telling.
Finnish Irish German Hindi
aasi – ass asal (m, ass) Esel (m, ass) --
aate – concept iodam (m, concept) Idee (f, idea)
aike – period achar (m, period)
aisti – sense aiste (f, essay) -- --
apina – ape -- Affe (m, monkey)
auki – open oscailte (open) -- khulā (open)
bailata – party bail (f, prosperity) -- --
kaarre – curve/career coradh (m, bend) Karriere (f, gallop/career)
--
elvitaa – revive bith (Lit. m existence/lenition) -- --
hallinta – to reign halla (m, hall) -- --
haltija – owner -- halten (to hold) --
herra – man fear (m, man) Herr (m, man) --
hilli – coal gual (coal) Kohle (f, coal) koelā (charcoal)
hunaja – honey -- Honig (m, honey) --
iva (mocking) íde (f, mocking/lenition, exchange) -- --
kaani – khan ceann (m, head) -- khan - head
kamari – room seomra (m, room) Kammer (f, closet) kamrā (m, room)
kani – rabbit coinín (m, rabbit) Kaninchen (n, rabbit) --
karhea – rough cruaidh (rough) -- --
kari – rock carraig (f, rock) -- karā (hard)
karva – hair gruaig (f, hair/consonant cluster) -- --
kasa – pile casla (m, creek/stony place) -- --
katu – street cathair (f, city) -- --
kasku – sto y casc (m, cast/story-tellers) -- --
kaupata – sell -- verkaufen (to sell) --
keihäs – spear gae (spear, O.Irish) germanisch (spear-carrying) --
kello – bell clog (m, clock) Glocke (f, bell) --
keppi – stick cipín (m, twig) -- --
kierukka – coil ciorcal (m, circle/consonant cluster) Kreis (m, circle)
--
kiperä – bent crapailte (bent/metathasis) -- --
koira - cur -- Kalb (m, calf/dental exchange) kutta (m, dog)
kori – basket coirb (f, basket) Korb/Koreb (m, basket) --
koulu – school sgoil (f, school) Schule (f, school) --
kuningas – king -- König (m, king) --
kumma – strange -- komisch (strange) --
kuulua – be heard chuala sé (he heard) -- --
kyse – question ceist (f, question) -- kyā (what ?)
laakea – level loch (m, lake) Loch (n, hole) --
laho – rot lobhtha (rotten) -- --laiskasti – lazy leisciúil (lazy)
-- --
lapsi – child leanbh (m, child/loss of nasal) -- --
lanka – thread cf Irish ‘fad’ and German ‘Faden’ lang (long) --
lasti – load last (m, load) Last (f, load) --
lausua – say luadh (mention, praise/dental exchange) -- --
lehti – paper léite (read [from paper]) -- --
liuos – solution -- Lösung (f, solution) --
loiskia – splash loscadh (extinguish)
maa – piece of earth magh (f, plain) -- --
mahti – might smacht (m, might) Macht (f, might) --
mehiläinen – honeybee mil (f, honey) -- --
meinata – plan meon (m, mentality) Meinung (f, intention) --
meri – sea muir (f, sea) Meer (n, sea) --
merki – mark marc (m, mark) merken (to notice) --
mestari – master máistir (m, master) Meister (m, master) --
meteli – clamor meitheal (m, group of labourors) -- --
mörskä – dump marbh (dead) -- --
nainen – woman nighean (f, daughter) -- --
niemi – cloak néal (m, cloud) Russian: niemets (German/mute)
naku – naked noctaithe (naked) nackt (naked) naņga (naked)
nimi – name ainm (m, name) Name (m, name) nam (name)
noki – soot anocht (tonight) Nacht (f, night) --
olut – beer ól (drink) -- --
pää – head pálás (m, residence of head) Palast (m, palace) --
paatti – boat bád (m, boat) Boot (n, boat) --
pari – pair péire (m, pair) Paar (n, pair) --
peli – game peil (f, football) -- --
piinata – pain pian (f, pain) -- --
pikku – small beag (small) -- baccā (m, child)
pukki – billy-goat poc (m, billy-goat) Bock (m, billy-goat) bakrā
(m, goat)
punki – mite ponc (m, dot) Punkt (m, point) --
raha – money – -- -- Raja (m, wealthy man)
rauha – peace -- ruhig (quiet) --
rettti – wheel roth (m, wheel) Rad (n, wheel) --
rikas – rich righe (m, king) reich (rich) --
ritari – knight ridire (m, horseman) Reiter (m, knight) --
saksa – German sacsanach (German) sächsisch (Saxon) --
seistä – stand seasta (permanent) -- --
sekä – in addition agus (and/methatesis) -- --
soinnutus – harmonisation soinneanta (calm) -- --
soma – pretty sona (happy) schön (fine) sundar (pretty)
sukia – brush scuaib (f, brush) -- --
seitsemän – seven seacht (seven) sieben (seven) sat (seven)
silmä – eye súil (f, eye) -- --
taide – art taide (m, research) -- --
tänti – aunt aintín (m, aunt) Tante (f, aunt) --
tanssi – dance damhsadh (m, dance) tanzen (to dance) --
tarjous – offer tairiscint (to offer) -- --
tila – ground talamh (m, ground) -- --
tilkka – small drop of a certain liquid -- -- tilika (dye mark on
lady’s forehead)
tollo – dummy dúr (stupid/dental exchange) Tor (m, fool)
toimi – measures (policy) tomhas (measure, extent) -- --
tökkiä – dig tochailt (dig) -- --
tori – marketplace tóir (f, trail) -- talāsh (to search)
(trampled upon) (trampled upon) (to trample)
tora–quarrel torann (noise of action) -- tornā (to break)
tumma – dark dorcha (dark/dental exchange) dunkel (dark) --
turve – turf -- Torf (m, turf) --
tytär – daughter – -- Tochtar (f, daughter) --
utare – Udder úth (m, udder) Euter (n, udder) --
uuni – oven oighean (m, oven) Ofen (m, oven) --
väki –folks focal (m, word) Volk (n, people/metathesis) --
valli – embankment balla (m, wall/lenition) Wall (m, rampart) --
valta – power -- walten (to rule) --
vati – basin -- Vase (f, vase/dental exchange) --
villi – wild -- wild (wild) --
virka – office -- Werk (n, labour) --
vitzi – joke -- Witz (m, joke) --
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