Suomen kieli käyttöön/Taso 6/Ilkka Jääskelainen

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Finland has its own version of the Worldwide Idols[[1]] TV phenomenon (Pop-Idol, American Idol, and in Finland, Idols [Italic textww.mtv3.fi/idols/].

Partial Text of the Article

Suomen toiseksi viralliseksi idoliksi valittu Ilkka Jääskeläinen on ottamassa vasta ensiaskeleitaan ammattimuusikkona. Idols-kilpailussa nuoren miehen lahjakkuus tuli kyllä kaikille selväksi, mutta varsinainen työ on vasta alussa. ”Ei se Idols-tittelikään itsekseen tullut. Kyllä siihenkin piti tsempata. Sitä enemmän, mitä pitemmällekilpailu eteni”, Ilkka toteaa.

Idoliksi valitsemisen jälkeen Ilkalla riitti vientiä kiivaaseen tahtiin. Esiintymisten, haastatteluiden ja kuvausten määrää hän ei itse ehtinyt edes matalakiidossa laskemaan. Joululomalla idoli pääsi hetkeksi huokaisemaan ja pohtimaan itsekseen, miten hänen elämänsä onkaan muuttunut. ”Omasta mielestäni olen kuitenkin yhä se sama Ilkka kuin ennen idoliksi valitsemista. Ja Ilkkana aion myös pysyä.

Textual Analysis

Suomen toiseksi viralliseksi idoliksi valittu Ilkka Jääskeläinen on ottamassa vasta ensiaskeleitaan ammattimuusikkona.

Ilkka Jääskelaäinen, chosen to become Finland's second official Idol, is just taking his first steps as a professional musician.

See the discussion section below for more information about the word order in the original finnish and its english translation.

Because Ilkka was not previously a idol but has become one, the translative form of "idoli" is used. The word "idoli" has come to Finnish from English and therefore the transitive form is "idoliksi" not "idoleksi".

"toinen" and "virallinen" are adjectives and must agree in case and number with the object they are describing ("idoli"). Hence all three words are in the translative case.

"valittu" (chosen) is a participle[[2]] form of the verb valita (to choose). Its role is partly adjectival and partly verb, just as "chosen" can be in English. It is properly known as the passive past (or second) participle. It is passive because we do we are not told who is choosing and past because the action has already happened.

"on ottamassa" is an verbal expression using the third infinitive inessive construction.[[3]] This expresses an ongoing or continuous action (in this case "is taking").

first step is the compound word ensiaskel, being ensi (short form of ensimmäinen - first) plus askel (step). Words ending -en/-el/-er/-ar like "askel" have stems ending in -e- so the stem of this word is "ensiaskele-". As these are the first of many steps for Ilkka, it is appropriate that the case form for the word is partitive and plural. The plural indicator i is added making askelei- and as the word in its present form as two vowels at the end, the partitive marker -tä is added, making the partitive plural form enesiaskeleita. But now we must add the possessive suffix for Ilkka because they are HIS first steps. The usual possessive suffix for the third person addeded directly to a noun is -NSA or -NSÄ, but when added to an inflected form ending in a short vowel, the form is different. Instead the last vowel is lengthened and an -n is added. Hence "His first steps" is constructed as "ensiaskeleitaan".

ammattimuusikkona is in the essive case. This case sometimes often carries the meaning of a temporary state of being, as in this case. It can often be rendered "as a ..." when translating into English. It is also used in time expressions to express when something is going to happen. E.g. "maanantaina" on Monday in which case the English time expression "on.." is the appropiate translation.

Idols-kilpailussa nuoren miehen lahjakkuus tuli kyllä kaikille selväksi, mutta varsinainen työ on vasta alussa.

In the Idols competition, the young man's talent became absolutely apparent to everyone, but the real work still lies ahead.

kyllä is often and most usually translated as "yes", but it is also a word of emphasis, and its meaning in this sentence is as strengthening word. So his talent was not just "selvä" (clear) it was very or absolutely clear ("very" and "absolutely" being words that convey the same strength of feeling in the translation as does "kyllä" in the Finnish).

If one thinks about questions and replies in Finnish, a question (e.g. Oletko Amerikkalainen? - are you American?) is usually answered with the question verb in either positive or negative form (e.g. "Olen" or "En ole", in other words we are confirming or denying the verb in the question. In its construction, the word "kyllä" is a word of confirmation, more like the English word "affirmative" but as we use affirmative in English so rarely the word Yes is the best translation.

Answering with "kyllä" is a little stronger than just replying with the verb. So answering to "Oletko Amerikkalainen" with "Kyllä" is more like saying "I am!" rather than just "I am" or "yes". If you extend the gap in pronounciaton between kyl- and -lä the affirmation is emphasised even more (e.g. I most certainly am!).

!!!!Did you find this useful?? were you looking for more analysis??? why don't you now have a go and try to do some analysis of the rest of this material?!!! Do what you can, and leave what you can't!

”Ei se Idols-tittelikään itsekseen tullut.

Kyllä siihenkin piti tsempata

Sitä enemmän, mitä pitemmällekilpailu eteni”, Ilkka toteaa.

Idoliksi valitsemisen jälkeen Ilkalla riitti vientiä kiivaaseen tahtiin.

Esiintymisten, haastatteluiden ja kuvausten määrää hän ei itse ehtinyt edes matalakiidossa laskemaan.

Joululomalla idoli pääsi hetkeksi huokaisemaan ja pohtimaan itsekseen, miten hänen elämänsä onkaan muuttunut.

”Omasta mielestäni olen kuitenkin yhä se sama Ilkka kuin ennen idoliksi valitsemista.

Ja Ilkkana aion myös pysyä.

Vocabulary

ammattimuusikkona = ammattimuusikko (essive)[[4]] as a professional musician

ammatti = profession

muusikko = musician

ensiaskeleitaan = ensiaskel (ptv. pl. 3rd p. possessive his first steps

Suomen =Suomi (gen.) Finland's / of Finland / Finnish

Suomi =Finland

toiseksi = toinen (trans.) becoming the second

toinen[5] = second/ 2nd / another (ordinal number)[[6]]

valittu = valittaa (2nd part. pass.)[[7]] chosen

valita = to choose

vasta (adv) = just / recently

viralliseksi = virallinen (trans.) becoming the official

virallinen = formal / official

!!!!Yes the vocabulary list is incomplete. Why not try adding to it?!! Its easy!!!

Discussion

Click on the discussion tab at the top of this page to join the discussion about this learning material.

Discussion about word order

This discussion concerns the sentence "Suomen toiseksi viralliseksi idoliksi valittu Ilkka Jääskeläinen on ottamassa vasta ensiaskeleitaan ammattimuusikkona"

Word order/Phrase construction. Translating this sentence word by word (transliterating) into English makes it a little difficult to understand. It transliterates as something like "Finland's becoming second official Idol (the) chosen IJ is taking his first stems as professional musician", which is why the English sentence is re-arranged. But careful analysis of how the sentence builds shows that Finnish can just keep in adding adjectives without the need for a major restructuring, whereas in English, meaning is hard to extract when the sentence contain rather too many verbs, adjectives or adverbs. It can only easily become understood when these elements are moved into clustered sub-clauses.

Let's analyze how a sentence like this is built up gradually in successive layers. You will then hopefully see that it is ENGLISH that has the problem and not FINNISH! The following illustrates why the Finnish can build steadily whereas in English sentences sometimes need reconstructing as they gain complexity.

Ilkka Jääskeläinen ottaa ensiaskeleitaan

IJ takes his first steps

Ilkka Jääskeläinen on ottamassa ensiaskeleitaan

IJ is taking his first stems

Ilkka Jääskeläinen on ottamassa ensiaskeleitaan ammattimuusikkona

IJ is taking his first steps as a professional musician

Suomen Idoli Ilkka Jääskeläinen on ottamassa ensiaskeleitaan ammattimuusikkona

Finnish Idol IJ is taking his first steps as a professional musician

Suomen toinen virallinen Idoli Ilkka Jääskeläinen on ottamassa ensiaskeleitaan ammattimuusikkona

Finland's second official Idol IJ is taking his first steps as a professional musician

Suomen toiseksi viralliseksi idoliksi valittu Ilkka Jääskeläinen on ottamassa vasta ensiaskeleitaan ammattimuusikkona

(transliteration) Finland's becoming second official Idol (the) chosen IJ is taking his first stems as professional musician.

(or reconstructed) Ilkka Jääskelaäinen, chosen to become Finland's second official Idol, is just taking his first steps as a professional musician.

All that has happened is that writer added the word valittu (chosen) as another adjective attributed to Ilkka Jääskelainen. Because this is a change of state, the noun "idol" and its attributes (second officially) are also put into the translative case. But the addition of the extra particple makes when meaning very unclear in English unless the word order is changed to create a main verb clause (IL "is taking" first steps") and a sub-clause containing all the attributes.

The above illustrates quite nicely why it is a good idea to get the feel of how sentences are constructed, especially in written Finnish. As spoken Finnish this most like would be spoken with sub-clauses (like the English translation has) or even break the ideas into two or more sentences. So things are not so bad as they may seem!

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