4 ms·
After living in Finland a few years we got a dog, so I was often holding a big bone in my hand and saying the Finnish word for it, "luu". Something felt so corr
by regandersong 1y ago
After living in Finland a few years we got a dog, so I was often holding a big bone in my hand and saying the Finnish word for it, "luu". Something felt so correct and ancient about it, like luu is - and could only ever have been - the word that means the concept of a bone. I looked it up and luu is Proto-Finno-Ugric, and one of the oldest words to stick around in the Finnish language.
I have great respect for that first person to shake mammoth bone in another person's face saying "luu". They nailed it.
- pavlov 1y agoThe other “uu” words in Finnish feel ancient too. When Finnish children are asked to come up with rhymes, these are often the ones they suggest: luu = bone kuu = Moon suu = mouth muu = other You can practically imagine the apes in the first act of the movie “2001” coming up with these words to describe their environment. (The monolith could be a “muu muu”, the Other Other, to distinguish it from the basic “muu” of the other tribe.)
- Cyuonut 1y agoBelonging here: puu = tree