On Tuesday 11 April 2006 22:02, Per Jessen wrote:
James Knott wrote:
Linux or Linus? Linus Torvalds IS Finnish, but quite probably also speaks Swedish.
As I recall, he lived in a Swedish area of Finland, so by nationality, he's Finnish, but by language he's Swedish,
A "Swedish area of Finland"? - that's like calling Hamburg "a German area of Denmark". Or York "an English area of Denmark". Let's not go there :-)
Not really. It is an area of Finland populated by people with Swedish as first language. Not 'may probably speak Finnish', but first language. Swedish is one of the two official languages of Finland
According to wikipedia, the omnipotent source of all fact:
"Seine Familie gehört zur schwedischsprechenden Minderheit in Finnland. Er besuchte ab 1988 die Universität Helsinki."
Whatever languages Linus may or may not speak, he is clearly Finnish, though he belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority. How Linus sees himself is his matter, but for most intents and purposes he is Finnish.
Is this relevant to how he pronounces things?
Personally, I speak three languages like a native, and another two close enough for only natives to tell otherwise. My nationality is still only Danish.
Da kan du godt hvide hvordan man ikke udtaler ting :) Nevertheless, the point wasn't nationality, it was pronunciation. I know Danes who say "lie-nux", and they really should know better
/Per Jessen, Zürich whose command of Finnish is limited to "Yksi, Kaksi, Kippis". Enough for a good night out, I believe. Apologies about the speeling.
one, two, cheers? Kolme olutta!