Nyelvtudományi közlemények 91. kötet (1990)

The Finnish construction holme poikaa
and its background
In his article Typology and Universals on a Eurasian East-West Continuum
(1980), Robert Austerlitz states: "There is a typological continuum
which stretches from Fenno-Scandia (let us think of Lapp) in the West to
Japanese in the East" (235). In another article he speaks of the gigantic
North-Eurasian cultural belt where such features as parallellism and alliteration
play very prominent roles in folk poetry (Austerlitz 1984. 18).
At the western border of this typological contunuum we find languages
of quite another type, belonging to the Indo-European family, viz. Germanic,
Baltic and Slavic languages. In the course of time, these languages and the
Fenno-Ugric languages have mutually influenced each other. It can often be
difficult to decide in what direction the influences have gone.
In a recent article, Terje Mathiassen (1984. 123ff) proposes that we
should speak of a "Sprachbund" between the Slavic, Baltic and Baltic-Finnic
languages. He gives a good bibliography covering the earlier discussion on
the subject (147ff).*
From the point of view of the Baltic-Finnic languages, however, it is
impossible to leave out the Germanic languages if we want to speak of
a "Sprachbund" on the coast of the Baltic sea. As can be seen from the
great number of loan-words, the Baltic and the Germanic languages have
for a very long period exerted considerable influence on the Baltic-Finnic
languages, and it is often difficult to see if a caique is due to Baltic or
Germanic influence (see e.g. T. Sköld 1980. 250f). We must then, of course,
compare with earlier versions of these Indo-European languages, when they
stood much closer to each other than they do today, and we must often take
into account constructions that have now disappeared.
I would like, however, to add a reference that — for some reason or other — does not
seem to occur in recent works on the subject, namely H. Sköld 1931. 74-79.
Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 91. 1990.