From David, who notes: Here are some seal pups on Kangaroo Island, commonly known as New Zealand Fur Seals (kekeno in Māori) they are quite prolific in Australia, and have bred to almost plague like proportions in some areas. That last photo, awwwww. Click for full size!
© David, all rights reserved.
What wonderful photos. And how cool -- seals, of all things! They are so beautiful.
They’re all cool, but that last one -- the lines, the shading -- gorgeous!
Bubbly blubber.
“She’s up there and I’m hungry.”
“Gotta climb.”
“Mmmhmmm.”
Both the seal pups* and the interesting rocks feature very nicely in the photos.
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* = Finnish has a word, that’s specific for seal pups: kuutti.
Ice Swimmer: Funny how “kuutti” sounds like it was a finnisized form of English “cute”.
lumipuna @ 6
Yeah, there’s a random Finglish vibe to it. Not sure if it was ever used in actual Finglish spoken by Finnish Americans.
In this song, some place names and a few things are in Finglish. Can you English speakers catch them? (Warning: There is an accordion accompaniment, sexist bragging and racist stereotypes from 1930 in the lyrics) The singer is Hiski Salomaa, who was an immigrant, anarcho-syndicalist and a tailor apart from being a singer. “Lännen lokari” is in this context “logger from west”, a migrant worker.
I’ve gotten fairly good at actually hearing the words (and being able to sing along) in Finnish and Icelandic, but I have to have the words in front of me for a while, and listen in a very focused way to be able to pick them out in the first place; lather, rinse repeat. They aren’t the easiest languages to distinguish words when it comes to song, but you could say that about most languages, I think, given how often lyrics are misheard. All that said, Finnish is easier than Icelandic. Icelandic is softly slurred a lot.
Caine @ 8
Yeah, I’ve seen multiple written versions of the Finnish lyrics of the song, slightly different. Here are the Finnish lyrics (which are a mixture of standard Finnish, Savonian dialect and Finglish) as I’ve heard them:
Täss on lokari nyt lännen risukosta,
olen kulukenna vaekka missä.
Olen käynynnä Piutissa, Luisissa,
Rätulaatissa, Miiamissa.
Olen kulukenu merta ja mantereita,
ja Alaskan tuntureita.
Ja kaikkialla hulivilityttäret muistaa
Lännen lokareita.
Ja lokari on lokari ja hellunkin ottaa,
vaekka toisen emännästä, ja vesj ei tuu silimiin,
vaekka ne taukoo iistin plikat näkymästä.
Sillä Piuttis on ruusu, ja Loisissa on tähti,
ja Alaskassa pulumusia, ja kaikki kuiskii:
ookkos sä nähnynnä lännen kulkuria?
Misson Meksikon Lempi ja Honolulun Impi,
Ja Vilippiinin keltanen likka.
Siellon lokari ollut heitin keskellään,
mutta onkos ollu Iistin Iikka?
Miss on kulkurin kulta, sytän iskeepi tulta,
niin kaunis on heillä jo tukka.
Sä kun laulun kun kuulet, niin linnuksi luulet,
taasen rakastuupi lännen Jukka.
On Riskossa käyty, on Orekoni nähty,
miss on kesä sekä lumiset vuoret.
Takotass on puitu, Palm piitsill on uitu,
ja hellutettu vanhat ja nuoret.
Mutt kun punapuun kantoon kun torppansa laettaa,
niin sillon se ilon päevä koettaa!
Vaekka mualiaman myrskyt meitä tuuvittaa,
niin vapaus se varmasti voettaa.
Accordion? That’s just unsuitable for modern audiences. Also, the lyrics are a Finnish version of Authentic Frontier Gibberish.
I usually struggle to follow song lyrics even in Finnish, English is nearly impossible.
This reminds me, I just recently saw confirmation on Wikipedia that Harkonnen (in Dune) was indeed based on the Finnish surname Härkönen, as the writers sought inspiration for names from a California phone book.
Lumipuna, now that’s cool! I didn’t know that. Does the name mean anything in particular?
I think it means “son of ox”, although the writers wouldn’t even care what language it was. Most common Finnish surnames refer to either some ancestor’s given name or a local geographic feature associated with a family’s house. Often these were semi-randomly assigned (in late 19th century) to people who didn’t previously have a surname.
I’ve sometimes seen anglisized versions of Finnish immigrant surnames, and Harkonnen seemed to exhibit similar styles of modification.
Heh, so a good name for the Baron.
Oh, and here’s my sort of translation of the Authentic Frontier Gibberish
Here’s a Logger from Western bush
I’ve been to places so many
I’ve been to Butte, St. Louis,
Red Lodge and Miami
I’ve gone over seas and continents
and fells in Alaska.
And girls of easy leisure everywhere remember
the Western loggers
And a Logger is Logger and takes a broad,
even one married to someone else
and no tears will be in his eyes
even though no gals from back home East will be in his sight.
For in Butte there’s a rose and in Los/Louis* there’s a star
and in Alaska snow buntings
and all are whispering,
“have ya seen the Hobo of the West”.
Where’s Love from Mexico and Virginia from Honolulu
and a yellow gal from Philippines,
there the Logger is among them,
but has an Ethan from East been there?
Wherever is the darling of the Hobo,
the heart is shooting fire
so beautiful is just their hair.
If you hear the song, you will think it’s bird,
again falls in love Johnny from West.
I’ve been to Frisco, I’ve seen Oregon,
with the summers and the snowy mountains.
In Dakota I’ve been threshing, I’ve swum at Palm Beach,
and seduced the old and the young.
But if you make your house in a redwood stump,
happy days will come.
Even though storms of the world will rock us,
the freedom will certainly win!
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* = Not sure if that’s supposed to be St. Louis or L.A.
Uh, you guys did see today’s music choice, yeah?
Those are Australian Sea Lions, not New Zealand Fur Seals. Note the blonde patch on the males neck, the mane. Kangaroo Island is home to not only Australian Sea Lions and New Zealand Fur Seals but also the Australian Fur Seal, although they are rarely spotted in tourist locations such as Admirals Arch.
The easiest way to tell NZ Fur Seals and Australian Sea Lions apart is by their colouration. Sea Lions will have different shades of greys, blacks, brown and blondes to them depending on age and sex. The pups are harder to differentiate and normally the shape of the head/nose is the best way to tell.
Australian Sea Lions are a threatened species and you should feel lucky and honoured to have seen them. Well done!