Research reveals Old European origins of Finnish learned borrowings
It may at first seem purely speculative to ponder whether Finnish culture contains echoes from the cultural tradition of Old Europe, and whether it's even possible to identify them. There are indeed echoes from very long ago, and language functions like a "storehouse" where these ancient elements are kept. Linguists know this to be characteristic of the Finnish language in particular. Some very old features have been preserved in Finnish, which has even been called the "refrigerator" of language history.
As an example let's consider two words, their old age being proof of this preservative role: "kuningas" (king) and "airo" (oar). Both are Germanic loanwords from at least 1700 years ago. They are from a period when the Goths still lived on the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea and interacted with the Baltic Finnic peoples. These interactions took place before the Goths wandered south until the Crimean peninsula. The final syllables for the words "kuningas" and "airo" (-as and -o) indicate that they originate from Gothic. These sorts of words were typical in the Gothic language, which is proved by old Gothic texts. In the later phases of the history of the Goths' germanic relative languages, the last syllables changed and eventually disappeared completely: in Old Norse, it is konungr – in Modern Swedish konung; Ancient Norse ár – Modern Swedish år. In Finnish, however, the ancient phonemic structure for these loanwords remains to this day. There are plenty of other such examples in the Finnish lexicon.
Finns grow herbs and spices in their gardens such as oregano, cumin, sage, anise hyssop, mint and basil. The names of these plants have been traced back to Ancient Greek. For example cumin became a Finnish word (kumina) through many stages: Gr. kyminon; Lat. cuminum; Middle Saxon komin; Old Swedish kumin; Modern Swedish kummin. However, as traditional research extends back to Ancient Greek, it's only halfway there. Even the Greek kyminon is actually a loanword from the Old European language.
Historical linguistic studies have shown that many Finnish learned borrowings, adopted from Swedish, originate from the cultural circle of Old Europe. Loan words that have traveled great distances and taken root in Finnish belong to many areas of civilization. Such words include "aromi" (aroma), "ankkuri" (anchor), "hymni" (hymn), "kamiina" (stove), "keramiikka" (ceramics), "metalli" (metal), "myytti" (myth), "oliivi" (olive), "teatteri" (theatre), "viini" (wine), as well as derivatives of the Greek word psykhe, such as "psyyke" (psyche) and "psyykkinen" (psychic).
Psyche, goddess of the soul, and Eros, god of love. The Greek word psykhe and the Goddess's cult come from Old European cultural tradition.
When speaking of Western civilization, one traditionally thinks of the influence of Ancient Greek language and culture. However, according to new research, these conservative perspectives should be revised. It should be noted that many Old European achievements, together with their terminology, have influenced European culture – and thus also Finnish culture – in the guise of the Greek language.
Harald Haarmann, Virpi Lehtinen and Auli Kurvinen
Read this blog in Finnish here.