This thread has caused me to do some thinking ... I HATE THAT! My father's native language was Finnish. While he didn't sing much, or often, there has always been one song that I grew up with. It wasn't until I was 13 that he allowed himself to teach me any Finnish. When he was 8 he attended his first school where english was the norm. He and his brother and his sister were very cruelly taunted because they couldn't speak english. He never got over that.

For years I've tried to sing that one song "right", and I mostly fail. It's because there is a certain "lilt", or softness, in Father's dialect that is impossible for me to catch. I know several Finnish speakers in my home area, and we discuss this often.

I know when I sing them that song, they smile and nod pleasently, but I know I'm not getting it right, and I probably never will. I still will sing it often, but just to myself. As this thread mentions ... I don't want to be insulting to native speakers. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson