Origins of Finnish vocabulary

Finnish vocabulary uses word derivation and compound words extensively, but there must be some root words to start from. The Finnish root words can be roughly classified and dated as follows:

• Original Uralic words, dating back over 6,000 years ago. These include words like kala (fish), lumi (snow), and nähdä : näkee (to see). The amount of these words is relatively small, but their frequency is often high.
• Words that have relatives in other Finnic languages and possibly in some other Uralic languages, too. The origin is often unknown or debated. For example, saari (island) is a Finnic word, perhaps a loanword from an unknown language,
• Descriptive (expressive) words, which have phonetic features that associate them with sounds, such as humista : humisee (to sigh, referring to e.g. sounds of trees) and kalske (clang, clash). They are formed rather freely in Finnish, and they are difficult to date.
• Oldest Indo-European loanwords, possibly about 5,000 years old, such as sata (hundred, cf. Persian “sad”) and porsas (young pig; cf. English “pork”).
• Baltic loanwords, from language forms related to present-day Lithuanian and Latvian (which are Indo-European languages), about 4,000 years old, such as sisar (sister) and kirves (ax).
• Old Germanic loanwords, from languages related to present-day German, English, Swedish, etc., about 2,000 to 3,000 years old, such as kulta (gold), laina (loan), and airo (oar).
• Slavic loanwords, mainly from 9th century AD to present day. Examples of old words: pappi (priest) and sirppi (sickle). Newer words include siisti (tidy, clean) and toveri (comrade, pal).
• Swedish loanwords, during a long period starting in the 11th century, such as ankka (duck), kakku (cake), maanantai (Monday), mummo (grandmother), uuni (oven), and lääke (medicin).
• Newer loanwords, from different languages, normally via Swedish, such as appelsiini (orange, originally from Dutch), kurkku (cucumber, originally from Czech), and kapteeni (captain, from French via Swedish).
• International words, first adopted usually from Swedish, later also directly from other European languages such as German, French, and English. Examples: raketti (rocket) and demokratia (democracy).

The following table shows the most common words in written Finnish, together with explanations of their origin.