This was interesting, as language quizzes usually are, thank you!
I got: Finnish (native), Estonian (closely related, learned), Swedish (learned), Norwegian (close to Swedish, "verdens" I know on the name of newspaper), Spanish (learned enough to know) and English (yes).
Close ones: Danish (of course near Norwegian, couldn't guess the exact form), French (Spanish helps in Romance, "pays" is familiar because of Netherlands, but I got "de" instead of "du"), German (learned some, knew "Welt", but didn't the right combination).
"Countries of the World" uses preposition "of" in expressing the relation of possession or part/whole. For example in Finnic languages this is expressed using genitive, like in "maailman valtiot" with -n (in Estonian this -n has dropped out in the end of the word). English equivalent would be World's Countries. I wasn't sure about every language, which one they use, but Romance languages use "de" or some variation of it.
Finnish is a small language, so we learn at least English and Swedish, which is also official language in Finland (Swedish speakers learn Finnish, but they know it, because they are bilingual). I am far from polyglot, but interested in languages, like you clearly are!
Yes, Finnish genitive case expressing possession has ending -n, which is attached to the root of word meaning owner. For example my name is Mika and cat is "kissa" in Finnish. So, "Mikan kissa" means 'Mika's cat'. In sentence "Helsinki on Suomen pääkaupunki" 'Helsinki is the capital of Finland' the country name Suomi is in genitive case with -n (and there is also a vowel change in the stem of the word, but this feature is not peculiar to genitive).
Cool! I wouldn't say I'm intrested in languages per see, I just want to learn a few. I know English and Telugu, I want to learn Spanish, French and Dutch. And just for you, maybe I'll learn finnish.
Great! I checked, according to Wikipedia Telugu had in year 2011 83 million speakers, so it is a big language.
Learning languages serve many functions. If there is a practical function, some small language is very special knowledge compared to big language like Spanish or French, which has speakers on many continents. On the other hand, there is also a pleasure of learning. Every language is carrying the culture of the speakers and they should be preserved like treasures. We need lingua franca like we are using English here, but every language is valuable part of human history (and they change, it is natural development in them).
I am learning Estonian to understand it better, because I want to read biographies in original language. It is not the only reason, I want also talk with it. This is part of my Finnic heritage, the motivation comes from it.
There are infinite reasons to learn languages, and I wish you enjoyable learning!
I got: Finnish (native), Estonian (closely related, learned), Swedish (learned), Norwegian (close to Swedish, "verdens" I know on the name of newspaper), Spanish (learned enough to know) and English (yes).
Close ones: Danish (of course near Norwegian, couldn't guess the exact form), French (Spanish helps in Romance, "pays" is familiar because of Netherlands, but I got "de" instead of "du"), German (learned some, knew "Welt", but didn't the right combination).
"Countries of the World" uses preposition "of" in expressing the relation of possession or part/whole. For example in Finnic languages this is expressed using genitive, like in "maailman valtiot" with -n (in Estonian this -n has dropped out in the end of the word). English equivalent would be World's Countries. I wasn't sure about every language, which one they use, but Romance languages use "de" or some variation of it.
You seem to be very multilingual!
So, is the n in Finnish showing that it belongs to the world? Like 's?
Yeah, the de/du is one of the first thing you learn when learning a romance language.
Yes, Finnish genitive case expressing possession has ending -n, which is attached to the root of word meaning owner. For example my name is Mika and cat is "kissa" in Finnish. So, "Mikan kissa" means 'Mika's cat'. In sentence "Helsinki on Suomen pääkaupunki" 'Helsinki is the capital of Finland' the country name Suomi is in genitive case with -n (and there is also a vowel change in the stem of the word, but this feature is not peculiar to genitive).
Learning languages serve many functions. If there is a practical function, some small language is very special knowledge compared to big language like Spanish or French, which has speakers on many continents. On the other hand, there is also a pleasure of learning. Every language is carrying the culture of the speakers and they should be preserved like treasures. We need lingua franca like we are using English here, but every language is valuable part of human history (and they change, it is natural development in them).
I am learning Estonian to understand it better, because I want to read biographies in original language. It is not the only reason, I want also talk with it. This is part of my Finnic heritage, the motivation comes from it.
There are infinite reasons to learn languages, and I wish you enjoyable learning!