Suomen ja viron ääntäminen on hyvin samanlaista. On kuitenkin tiettyjä äänteitä, joihin tulee kiinnittää huomiota.  Tärkeimmät näistä ovat viron kielen kirjaimet

B D G ja P T K

B, D ja G äännetään kuten suomen P, T ja K.

Esim: (suluissa ääntämys)

Andrus (antrus) – Virolainen nimi

sadam (satam) – satama

tuba (tupa) – huone

saba (sapa) – häntä

Helsingi (helsinki) -  Helsinki

Vabaduse väljak (vapatuse väljak) – Vapauden aukio (Tallinnassa)

Viron kielen kirjainten P, T ja K ääntäminen riippuu niitä ympäröivistä kirjaimista. Perussääntönä on, että vokaalien välissä ne ääntyvät kaksinkertaisena äänteenä.

Esim.

aasta (aasta) – vuosi

alati (alatti) – aina

väike (väikke) – pieni

matus (mattus) – hautajaiset

Huom virolaiset nimet:

Anti (antti)

Erki (erkki)

Vokaalisointu

Virossa ei ole suomen kielessä esiintyvää vokaalisointua. Tämä hankaloittaa hieman ääntämistä:

esim.

küsimus (kysimus) – kysymys

ü –äänne

Viron ü –äänne lausutaan kuten suomen ”y”.

üks (yks) – yksi

sügav (sykav) – syvä

küsimus (kysimus) – kysymys

süda (syta) – sydän

Jos sanassa on kaksi ”ü” –tä peräkkäin ääntämys muuttuu. ”üü” lausutaan ”yi”.

esim.

süüa (syia) – syödä

müüa (myia) – myydä

õ –äänne

Viron õ –äänne puuttuu suomen kielestä. Kun haluat ääntää tämän kirjaimen laita huulet siten, kun lausuisit e-äänteen ja kieli u-asentoon. Sitten sanot hymyillen ”u”. Hyvää harjoittelua! Jos ei onnistu, voit lausua õ –äänteen öö-ksi. Silloin saatetaan luulla, että olet tullut Saarenmaalta, jonka murtessa õ –äänne lausutaan ”ö”.

Tässä muutama harjoitussana

sõna (sõna) – sana

Põltsamaa (Põltsamaa) – kaupunki Virossa (kokeilepas sanoa tämän kaupungin nimi siten, että sanot ”Pltsamaa”, ja hupsis, virolainen ”õ” saattaa tulla automaattisesti P:n ja L:n väliin, kun pidät sanapainon ensimmäisellä tavulla! Pltsamaa!

Põlva (Põlva) – kaupunki Virossa. Kokeile samaa kuin edellä. Huom. paino ensimmäiselle tavulle.(Plva)

õpetaja (õppettaja) – opettaja

Hyvää kielen verryttelyä.

Vinkki:

Tallinnan matkalla kannattaa lukea erilaisia katukylttejä ja mainoksia pitäen näitä ohjeita mielessä.

Enemmän viron kielen opiskeluaineistoa löydät sivuiltani.

Viron kielen persoonapronominit ovat suomalaiselle helppoja:

mina/ ma

sina / sa

tema / ta

meie /me

teie / te

nemad / nad

Vain yksikön ja monikon kolmannet muodot eroavat olennaisesti suomen kielestä (hän = tema, ta; he = nemad, nad).

Ääntämisessä on muistettava, että d-kirjain sanan lopussa ääntyy kuin suomen t-kirjain. Eli nemad äännetään “nemat” ja nad äännetään “nat”.

Enemmän viron kielen opiskeluaineistoa löytyy sivuiltani täältä.

This is the first of three posts celebrating the work of journalists/academics/photographers bringing to popular conscience the abuse of women in the American prison system.

I have called this triplet mini-series Women Behind Bars and it was spurred by a couple of news stories this week. In New York state, protesters outside the Governors house drew a promise from David Paterson that he’d sign legislation banning the chaining of incarcerated women who are giving birth.

Also, a class action lawsuit is gearing up in Michigan, which seeks a $100million settlement for over 900 female inmates and former-inmates who suffered harassment, groping and rape between the years of 1993 and 2009.

Women Behind Bars as a name for this mini-series was co opted from the Silja J. Talvi’s most recent book of the same title.

I had the pleasure of hearing Silja talk at the Seattle Public Library. Silja speaks as she writes – without jargon or polygonal argument. She keeps it simple; she is usually retelling the testimony of female prisoners she has visited and interviewed. No flourish required.

Beyond the physical and sexual harassment of female prisoners, Talvi asks us to reevaluate our understanding of psychological welfare as it is handled by the prison system. The 775% increase in the US female prison population since 1977 is – for want of a better word – criminal. It is double the rate of growth for the male prison population. Talvi is in no doubt that this increase is due for the most part to the war on drugs. Talvi also describes the constituencies entering US womens prisons.

Nearly every woman I interviewed (around 100) had a serious history of trauma or abuse in her life, emotional abuse or sexual abuse or domestic violence. Many had been raped. More than a third of the women entering the prison system were homeless, while 70 percent had moderate or severe mental illness.

Talvi’s work crystallises the fact that the massive incarceration of American women has not been a result of crime on the streets, but a result of criminalisation by writ of political assemblies. In the war on drugs, women are involved but surely we must analyse that involvement. Occupying residence, associating with family drug dealers are indirect misdemeanours that stand to be punished. When a society is blighted by drugs and the dealers are involved in the “war” on the street, usually it is women who hold the threads of family and community – and home – together … despite its faults and its drug use.

Talvi points to another remarkable trend,

There’s also the fact that women are less likely than men to snitch on loved ones. Prosecutors will come to them and say they will go to prison unless they give up the names of three higher-ups, but women usually either say they don’t know those people or will simply decline. Men will snitch and, unfortunately, they often get less time in prison than women who don’t.

The shocking statistics are simply an application of US culture that is too morally bankrupt & class divided to think of more imaginative forms of criminal justice than incarceration.

Prison is a violent, inhumane environment – the modern designations of built with violent offenders in mind. But what proportion of women prisoners are violent? Not nearly as many as our fear-gripped culture would presume.

The prison is a disciplinary tool that has needlessly subjugated women. It has been imposed and it has demolished poor communities.

When Talvi supports prison for violent murderers and rapists and then argues for its non-implementation for female ‘criminals’ she is entirely consistent. The prison has a place, but it is not in the persecution of non-violent females, it’s counter to the notion of justice and it flies in the face of social justice.

As This Is Not A Book Sale put it,

Even readers who believe that the main goal of incarceration is to punish and not to rehabilitate prisoners for successful reentry into society, will be horrified by the treatment that many women have faced behind bars in this country

The book Women Behind Bars was produced as part of the Women Behind Bars Project which:

Works to break away from black-and-white rhetoric on issues of crime and punishment in general – and females in the criminal justice system in particular. The prison crisis has been compounded by the multi-decade, multi-billion-dollar strategy of fighting the American War on Drugs

As a part of the drug war, girls and women have been swept along in ever-greater numbers, owing in great part to the mandatory minimum sentencing, federal “conspiracy” charges, and weighty allocation of public funds for drug-related undercover operations, sweeps, arrests, and prosecutions in both rural and urban areas.

[Source]

Women Behind Bars. The Book: More and more women—mothers, grandmothers, wives, daughters, and sisters—are doing hard prison time all across the United States. Many of them are facing the prospect of years, decades, even lifetimes behind bars. Oddly, there’s been little public discussion about the dramatic increase of women in the prison system. What exactly is happening here, and why?

Bio: Silja J. A. Talvi is an award-winning journalist with credits in more than seventy-five publications nationwide, including The Nation, In These Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. She was honored as a recipient of the 2005 and 2006 PASS awards for criminal justice reporting by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a 2006 New American Media Award, and twelve regional SPJ awards for excellence in journalism. Talvi’s work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor, Body Outlaws, The W Effect, It’s So You, and Prison Profiteers. She lives in Seattle.

I thought I had caught up with my sleep pretty well.  The first night here, I slept a solid 13.5 hours.  It was definitely necessary.  I thought that going to be tired would be enough, but last night I slept less than 4 hours before waking up.  I was up at about 4:30 AM here, and ended up sitting on the computer for a while until the events started.  Tonight, I am very tired, so I’m hoping for a nice rest.

The only events planned for yesterday where an informational meeting with all international students followed by a walking tour of Bø and free pizza.  After that, I sat around with a Frenchman in the Norwegian language program named Pierick and a California guy named Brian.  We watched music videos and listened to music until it started getting late.  I like these guys.  I haven’t met anyone here that I haven’t liked yet.  The problem I’m having now is that I feel there are just too many people I’m expected to know – but that’s no different than summer camp, so I’m all set.

Today I took a scenic walk to the school, which features a bubbling stream, woods, bridges, and a half-pipe.  Yes, a half-pipe in the most random of places.  I don’t even think you could successfully ride a skateboard to this half-pipe.  Pictures coming soon.

We met with the leader of our study program later in the day.  She’s a very nice woman who has been in Norway for 40 years now – Judy Torvik.  It was nice to know exactly who else is in this program (a total of 6 or 7 of us).  I think we’re all US students in this group.

After losing our group more than once with Anjuli, I eventually went back to Grivi, skipping the hour-long Norwegian speech by the dean.  None of us were really into the idea of sitting through a long, boring speech that we couldn’t understand while sitting on rough stone steps outside the school.

Instead, we met up at Kroa for some information on various student clubs, some free food and gear (including lots of coffee stuff from the folks at Nestlé’s Nescafé.no).  The only problem was that I showed up about 45 minutes earlier than the rest of the students.  I awkwardly took a seat inside Kroa while the volunteer students finished setting up the student club fair.

Luckily, relatively early into the sitting, I met a Norwegian student starting her first semester of studies in Bø.  She’s a freshman just starting here, named Silja (pronounced like the end of our Cecelia).  She was pretty outgoing for a Norwegian, and seemed to have a lot of interests in different areas.  So we were able to talk about Japanese and Norwegian and lost of other fun stuff while we waited for everyone else to show up.

Part of the even included a rather poorly-attended 5 PM show by the melodic hip-hop group Ess I Ermet. I cannot at all say that it’s my kind of music, or that I even like it.  But I did think they had some good energy on stage (well, the woman just stood there, but the rappers were having fun despite the small crowd).  This band is moderately well known, meaning somebody knows, but you probably don’t.  Here’s their “breakout hit single”.

I think it’s also important to add that today I got in contact with people working the student radio station.  Stay tuned for the possibility of Bridges and Balloons coming all the way from Bø, Norway!.

At the moment, there are a number of parties going on, including the opening disco at Kroa (which in Norway means a dance party that probably has zero disco music).  My friends are going, but since my debit card might have a lock on it now and I still haven’t gotten groceries, I’ve decided to stay away from buying any alcohol for the night.  There’s also the fact that I desperately want to catch up on sleep.

Tomorrow, we start getting lectures about Norwegian culture, free lunch and a trip to the police station to tell them we’re in Bø (and that my residence visa is coming).  I’ll also spend some time with Hope, maybe playing cards.  With no active cell phone, our contact has been limited.  Maybe a free concert at Kroa.  Sorry this entry’s been a bit long.

Ha det! <3 John

Urgh I am having a bit of a blog-disruption right now…
Dunno why, just havnt really been able to get anything out of my mind for a while.

As I mentioned a few days ago, Leon and I went on a cruise boat; Silja Galaxy.
And, as said; I heard it wasnt that good, and tbh it really waasnt ‘that’ good…
Kind of a dissapointment really.

The buffet was much smaller than even the cheap 89 kr boat my mom, sister and I went on just a few weeks ago.
-Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner were very bleak…but overall ‘OKAY’…I guess.
Only thing I liked was the pork fillét and the redwine sauce, nam nam magnifique!
And also , for dinner they served 2 bottles of wine for free, which was very tasty indeed !

From other boats I have been on; this boat…as I said ‘okay’, but far from great, sure it was nicely decorred, the hutt was very nice and such…but only one Disco on the entire boat???? and no Jacuzzi in the pool place???
-WTF!!??

Though i did however see some cute girls, one in particular; who had a very nice body, very big breast and a cute face…however I suspect she was far too young for me, seeing as she was behaving like such an imature whore with all of her whore friends, whoring themselves with a bunch of disgusting older swedish guys…
‘I love hard, old, wrinkly cock, overused; makes me feel like a woman!’

The taxfree was just ridiculous, so small, almost no cool stuff only a lot of alcohol…

Silja galaxy sucks…maybe fun if you go with several friends and dance the night away at the disco…but other than that…not for me…

Yesterday ( Saturday) I went home to leons place, with a bag of beer and snacks, we sat on his balcony drinking the entire day…we just recently got home from a night of wandering around, pondering about life, love, girls…the usual shit.
We went to a place called “leffys” or something, a cool Irish Pub in Old Town.
The agelimit was 21; but the guard just said ” nah, it is alright, just go in“, which was awfully nice, i thought he was gonna totally reject us because he looked hard…too bad I couldnt thank him when we left, he was busy chatting with some arab or something…
Still, nice pub though, cool music, good drinks, and I saw a veryy hot lassie!
A british girl in the blood indeed, too bad she left with some old, fat guiser…bitch.

Though it was fun being there, i get a bad tingle in me whenever I go to a bar or something…reminds me of my stupid ex.
How she started going to these clubs and shit, whoring herself and stuff…
Yeah, Im sure that is what she is doing right now, she told me how she gets free drinks from everyone,getting horny eyes on her, probably making out with a drity guy or two, letting em touch her and coming home drunk over her head and hungover every weekend…stupid cow, really. Yeah that is how you get tramp stamped and raped…if you havnt calculated it yet, that is how a whore is born, no respect, no selfrespect…that is how you become dirt, nothing.
I hate her so much!
-yet I feel so sorry for her.

Now I am at home…tipsy…I wanto write about deep stuff, write poems and such, but I cant get it ut of my system into words right now…

I went to the hair studio the other day, just before the cruise…the girl I am in love with was wroking there, and leon and I were looking at hairstuff; but in reality I was there because I wanted to say something to her…
But damn, the gay pussy I am, I couldnt get a single word of interest out.
She asked me “ Have you found what you are looking for“, and I just said..no not yet..
-I ended up buying a tub of BedHead For Men for 199 kr…awesoems tuff, but for no reward, I couldnt even make a slight move on her…OH WHY???
The perfect opportunity
She is so beautiful…so…perfect.
Her smile, laugh, eyes, everything…

Im a loser.

<3<3<3<3

Ok, I just really wanted to make random references, even if they have been misused.

So today, we went on a cruise, on a REAL LIVE CRUISE SHIP. Like the one that sunk in Poseidon. It was called the Silja Europe and basically takes you to Finland in about a day, because it runs really slowly. Since we didn’t want to waste a day, we stopped halfway at an island called Mariehamn, which is in between Sweden and Finland and belongs to sorta neither, but instead is part of an independent state called Åland. And then we took the Silja Galaxy, another equally awesome boat, back to Stockholm. The cruise was pretty typical (I draw here on my preconceptions) of cruises. Lots of tax free shopping, restaurants, kids’ activities, etc. We young’uns spent the whole time running around both ships. They actually have awesome stuff, like rooms with foosball tables, little playgrounds, videogame stations, etc. as well as scheduled activities. Everything was Ice Age 3 themed since that was a whole promotion thing going on with the cruise line.

I basically spent most of the time playing video games and foosball on the Europe. Unfortunately most of the games on it were racing games, which I absolutely FAIL at. While I was failing, some guy watching behind me got so nervous that he asked me if I had a license. XD When I nodded, he replied, “Only in India, not in Finland”. I LOLed for many reasons.

There was a restaurant on the Galaxy called the Galaxy Buffet where we ate lunch, and we got really nice seats. Only thing is that the boat was faster and maybe because it was near the front, I’d stand there and feel dizzy because of the motion. No ugly effects though. Also played the slots. Being 18 and all you know. >: )  No wins though. Actually, I could also have consumed alcohol with abandon, as they have wine spigots there along with juice and coffee and all, but I’m such a goodytwoshoes : <. Also found a DDR machine! And played XD.

Oh! And there was even a makeup lecture presented by Maybelline which was really very informative XD. I finally know how to do things properly now. I was the oldest person in there though, and that was slightly odd XD. They didn’t let older people in anyways. There were also plenty of instrumental performances, alot in English. And there is a really cute Finnish mascot that was around called Moomin.

We returned around 7:30 pm, and now I am a little tired from all of today’s excitement. A very fun (birth)day indeed :3. Except when the people around me kept trying to sing Happy Birthday- the first time on the deck of the boat (in English) and then in the restaurant in Swedish (this earned a few weird stares >_>).

It’s still my birthday in Toronto for about 9ish more hours. Heh. My day is so long this year. >:) How awesome is that.

Ok, I’ll stop blabbing now, blog to you all later XD.

Summer is approaching and the days get longer here in Stockholm. You can really feel the difference in the day length from one week to another.

Now at the end of May, by the time I get off work at around 6PM, there are still 3-4 hours of daylight to enjoy any outdoor activity that requires light. Enough time for a short cycle trip to try out my new D300.

Yesterday it was a sunny day and I was looking on Google maps for a place with something interesting to photograph toward the east, where the warm light of the setting sun was falling. I settled on a spot in Gärdet’s easternmost tip.

After some research today I found out that the place is called Hundudden (dog peninsula).The Swedish Wikipedia states that the name has a connection with “one hundred men”, which was the meaning of the word hund (dog) in medieval Swedish and had something to do with the defense force in the event of a war.

The same page states that there was a kruthus (gunpowder house) in that place around 1700. Now there is a cafe called Kafe Kruthuset. Gunpowder house coffee … it has to taste good. Here are some other funky product names.

Getting back to the Hundudden area, it is great place for an evening picnic. You get a nice view toward Lidingö, bathed in the sunset light and you can watch the boats, including the big Silja line cruise ferries going to Riga, Tallinn and Helsinki. The place is a bit remote from the populated areas, being a cozy retreat for birds.

After playing with the too-smart-for-me AF system in the D300 and taking the photos shown below, I cycled north, following a path through the Kaknäs forest along the beach.

I also found out that the place hosts Kaknäs Djurkyrkogård, which is an animal cemetery, which I plan to look for the next time.

Gender: Feminine
Origin: Latin
Meaning “blind”
Eng (seh-SEE-lee-yuh); Lat (kay-KEE-lyah); Italian (chay-CHEEL-yah).

Male forms include

• Cecil (English)
• Cecilio (Italian/Spanish)
• Caecilius (Latin)
• Cecilijus (Lithuanian)
• Cecilián (Slovakian)

Vi var iväg på kryssning i helgen, jag och min gode vän Fredrik. Detta efter ett initiativ av mig för nån månad sen då jag tyckte att både han och jag var i behov av att lämna vardagen för lite hålligång. Eftersom jag tidigare åkt Cinderella försökte jag få tag i biljetter där men med så kort varsel fanns det inga och jag fick bredda mitt seende. Efter lite undersökning så blev det Silja Galaxy, en ny båt som profileras som ett nöjespalats.

Så med stor portion av förväntningar i bagaget möts vi i Stockholm, tar en uppvärmningsöl på Radisson och beger oss därefter via taxi till Siljaterminalen. Ett enormt hav av människor möter oss i vänthallen men det går trots allt smidigt att checka in och få våra boardingcard. Men det är när vi står i kön (folkhavet) för att kliva på båten som jag lägger märke till alla människor. 50 % ungdomar i träningsoveraller och ytterligare 10 % vuxna i samma mundering. Ytterligare 20 % personer modell äldre (pensionärer) och kvar finns 20 % som fördelas på övriga män och kvinnor (varav bråkdelen är festklädda). Jag som tidigare åkt Cinderella och var van vid utsikten i deras terminal innan avresa anade oråd. Det här kändes inte bra för eventuell feststämning. Fredrik var enligt egen utsago inte lika van vid resor av detta slag men kände även han att det “osade katt”.

Vi kom ombord fick våran hytt som var enkel och traditionell. Konstaterade att toaletten var sönder och vi hittade nån som kunde fixa detta.

NEJ, jag orkar inte ge en fullständig rapport! Trots att jag så gärna vill. Silja Galaxy var en skitbåt och ett helt fel val för två “pojkar” som var festsugna och i behov av att träffa folk. Den stora skillnaden mellan Silja och Viking är att det förstnämnda används som ett transportmedel mellan två länder, det andra en renodlad festplats. Viking Cinderella må vara sönderfestad, tråkig och välanvänd men den fyller sin funktion när det gäller att ge sina gäster valuta för pengarna.

Silja Galaxy är för barnfamiljer och par som kanske behöver reparera/ge krydda i sitt förhållande. Den är “lyxigare” med sina olika restauranter, pianobar, cigarr room och barnavdelning. Men när det gäller dansgolvet i nattklubben var det bara en tredjedel av Cinderellas. Discot låg visserligen bra till på översta deck och såg väl ut som de flesta disco. Tyvärr var åldersgränsen här runt 20 år.
Söndagen hem brukar inte kännas långa på Cinderella. Det gjorde den på Silja Galaxy. Avsaknaden av Karaoke tävlingen var stor ( i alla fall för mig som upplevt den). Då skall det poängteras att vi kanske får skylla oss själv lite eftersom vi valde att inte delta i den bingo som arrangerades. När vi hade 1 ½ timme kvar av resan fann vi ingen annan lösning än att låta oss roas av Eddie Murphy som medverkade i den film som visades på flatscreen tv som fanns i hytten.

Det här var ett riktigt bottennapp och för mig beror det på båten. Frågar ni båten och dess personal beror det kanske på mig. För mig spelar det ingen roll. Jag återkommer i alla fall inte! Blir det aktuellt igen så väljer jag Cinderella. Då vet jag vad jag får. Cinderella och dess kryssningar må vara omdiskuterat och föranleda skiljda åsikter men vill Du ha party så får Du party. Något som jag borde ha insett redan vid bokningen. Det var då fullt på Cinderella i ett par månader framåt men det gick att boka på Silja Galaxy redan veckan efter.

Läs även andra intressanta åsikter om kryssning, silja, galaxy, viking, cinderella, båtar, åland, finland, åbo

Dere som har bladd litt i bloggen min har sikkert sett at jeg ikke tar helt av når det kommer til fargebruk. Det betyr ikke at jeg ikke liker farger, jeg er bare litt pysete. I grunnen er jeg veldig glad i farger. For tenk!

For et par dager siden begynte jeg å leke med bilder av en Setesdalgenser i ribb i allsalgs rare farger. I hodet mitt vel å merke. Hvorfor har ikke Sandes Garn en fargevelger ala Jotun, der du kan velge genser (Setesdal, Marius, Fana osv…) og prøve ut mønsteret i forskjellige farger på skjermen?

Jaja, heldigvis hadde jeg fantasi nok til å danne meg fine bilder av Setesdal i blått og grønt, lilla og rødt, grønt og turkis, rødt og oransje, lilla og rosa, grønt og grønt osv, osv. Men, som tidligere nevnt, jeg er litt pysete. På vei til garnbutikken for å kjøpe deilig mini-alpakka i ikke-farger (brunt og beige) svingte jeg heller innom Sparkjøp hvor jeg fikk med meg Silja-(sokke)garn i rød-lilla og rød, som alltid latterlig billig. Så nå – NÅ! -skal jeg strikke en knæsjen rød og rød Setesdalgenser til meg selv

Jeg tviler på om jeg rekker å få genseren med på April-konkurransen, men man vet aldri. I neste uke drar jeg i hvert fall “him” til Mamma og monterer Marius-koften til mannen, den må vel veie litt.