I once chatted with a guy from Hawaii, we started talking about languages. I mentioned that while…

silly-jellyghoty: > homunculus-argument: > >> homunculus-argument: >> >>> I once chatted with a guy from Hawaii, we started talking about languages. I mentioned that while I’ve heard very little of it and hardly seen more of it written down, the Hawaiian language seems to have extremely similar balance of vocals and consonants as Finnish does, so it’s actually pretty likely that there are some words that exist in both languages, but mean one thing in Hawaiian and a completely differen thing in Finnish - much like in Japanese. >>> >>> He didn’t find it plausible, so we agreed to disagree. Later on he mentioned that his name is [firstname] Kalani Kanaele, and when I told him what that translates to in Finnish, I had to spend like 20 more minutes trying to convince him that I’m actually not fucking with him. >> >> Okay so in finnish, “kala” means “fish” - just any fish, fish in general, and “kana” means “chicken”. “Ele” is “gesture”, as in a physical movement that an animal or human does to nonverbally communicate something. The -ni suffix is a possessive referring to oneself, essentially “my”. In finnish, compound words are of the “if it doesn’t exist yet, I can make one up on the spot” variety, so almost all nouns can be slapped together to refer to something specific. >> >> So, broken down like this and put back together, this dude’s name translates to “the chicken-like gesture that my fish makes.” > > This is pure poetry