Colloquial Politeness vs. The Old School

Dutch is a Living Language and develops interesting twists to match the needs of contemporary communication. Ease of use and swiftness are important features to keep the kids learning and using the opportunities of Dutch mother tongue and not fall into the easy trap of Amsterdam street dialect blending any common word of any language together into a horrifying mess. It is OK to spell "Cadeau" as "Kado" to follow the pronunciation. Why go "weekeinde", "weekend" is just fine. And so is officially also the Surinam Dutch with its utter efficiency and lack of confusing polite forms. No need for "would you", "may I" or "please", tell what you want in an easy way - to the point, "give me!"

Iedereen houw van Duku.

So based on Van Dale, "Bitch, geef mij Duku!" should do the trick and translates "My dear Girlfriend, may I have some money, please?" So why should somebody English then get upset if a South African call agent asks (to his/her best polite ability) "Gimme your serial number, Maaan!" meaning simply "Sir, may I have the serial number of your unit, please?" Simply not efficient and sheer waste of time, eh?

Finnish for Foreigners - just teeny-weeny little bit...

Speaking polite, correct Finnish is very difficult. In Finland, Lenita Airisto is still - among the TV old-timer news readers - one of the very few gifted who can do it without sounding ridiculous.

<--- Lenita, knows the difference between "mämmistyisitkö" and "mämmistyisittekö".

With the 30.000 or so ways to modify a single verb, all those post and pre-positions, fancy way of stating the time plus the infamous conditional makes Finnish a true brain-twister. Try using the singular variant of everything else but plural form of the person in a same sentence - without an error while having a civilized conversation. Nobody but Lenita actually even dares to try it anymore.

In Finnish the above request for a serial number would be: "No anna se sarjanumero nyt ja vähän äkkiä, senkin Äijänkäppänä!"


Now Opossums, analyze the following sentence grammatically:

"Lämmittäisittekö mämmimme mämminlämmittimellänne?"

Answer using the comment option below, include English translation and phonetic pronunciation marks as well. Correct answer wins a box of Mämmi, Finnish Easter delicacy.

Mooses says: Finnish = Words made in Heaven, Grammar made in Hell!