I assume, Arto, that when you refer to the difference between Italian and Spanish in the context of language, that you mean a difference among the Finno-Ugric as differentiating Finnish and Estonian, rather than that the Finnish and Estonian are like the two Romance and Indo European languages of Italy and Spain. Being a native English speaker I speak almost all languages, but like most of my fellow English speakers I don't realize it. But I do think there is no Finno-Urgic in English, and no one has answered me on the Basque. Is that of that Finno family? Or is it another separate language. Remember that the Russian and other Balkan languages yet use a derivation of the Greek alphabet. I can read Cyrillic if I take the time to shape the letters to the Greek derivation, and many of the words are more Latinate than Greek, so transliterate into the Romance languages.
A side point, I met an Estonian gentleman years ago, he joined my company bowling league (I hated bowling, but did it for social reasons). He was amazed that when I read his name (Uibopu) I pronounced it correctly - but I sang choral songs in Finnish years ago. Best, Jon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arto Wikla" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Roman Turovsky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Stewart McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Lute Net" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 10:46 AM Subject: Re: OT: Why was the K'berg MS stolen? > > There are a couple more Finno-Ugric in upper Volga region (Chuvash, etc.) > > but these will probably be extinct in a 100 years.... > > And do not forget the Estonians! They are even joining the EU next spring! > I nearly can understand Estonian, but not quite... :-) > Perhaps the difference is a little like between Italian and Spain? > > Arto, a Finn > > > >
