84: Yet more on Finnish & Japanese (unrelated to upcoming Silly Linguistics article)

This article was written and published in the UK, written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost on the 11th of December 2025, and only on this website, www.bookofdunbarra.co.uk. No AI was used in the writing of this article nor in any of the writing in my publications. This article is completely separate and distinct from all of my other publications, including those others where I also discuss similar topics, like Japanese and Finnish links, and other aspects of these languages, their history, etymologies and spirituality, etc. Note that this article is also completely unrelated to my upcoming Silly Linguistics article about the Utsuro-Fune and its mysterious, associated languages, in the upcoming Utsuro-Fune article I also mention connections with Finnish, but different connections. I do not normally put in the title of an article (i.e. the article in front of you) that it is unrelated to my other publications, as they are all unrelated to each other), but in this case I have deemed it necessary. Note that I have also very recently published many things, across other websites, on this website, and in PDF only books, including one concerning Tenerife and other topics, most recently, and with an unrelated PDF-only book which I plan to publish tomorrow. Also, despite that I mention that this article is unrelated to the upcoming Silly Linguistics article - this is only mentioned here because the different Silly Linguistics article will likely be published later this month, and not because I ever publish an article in Silly Linguistics, or anywhere, to then re-publish it in another format or somewhere else. All of my publications are unique. This article in front of you contains a total of 1407 words. 

 

As a disclaimer - I have never been to Japan, nor am I a speaker of Japanese, other than the like 25 or so words I  currently know off the top of my head, and a basic understanding of the script, grammar, language family and its history. Nevertheless, the things I discuss in this article are things I can discuss from my knowledge of other subjects. 

 

In my head, with its strange logic, I connect “Japan” and “Japanese” to the time when I was 18, when one of my friends played the “Resident Evil” and “Jackass” movies nigh on constantly, and when we were hanging out with two women our age who were also obsessed with Japan, the Japanese language, and zombies. To give some context - when I was a teenager, it was pretty normal for girls (and guys) my age or thereabouts to be interested in Japanese culture and manga for example. And at the same time, we were constantly exposed to new films about zombies. “Zombieland” came out only a couple of years earlier, and two of the Resident Evil movies have scenes set in Japan; and one of the Jackass films does.
In addition, this was the first year that I travelled to Finland, and my interest in Native Americans and their languages was also increasing at this point. So on one hand, I associate Japan and Japanese with Resident Evil, Zombies, and people with tentacles coming out of their heads. And on the other hand, I associated Japanese with Finland, and the Americas. 

 

Japanese is a Japonic language, but beyond this, its exact relationships to other languages are unknown. Japonic languages are sometimes placed into the hypothetical Altaic language family, alongside the Koreanic languages - although generally “Altaic” includes Turkic, Mongolic and Tungustic languages primarily. As I have discussed elsewhere in terms of Altaic, similarities within these languages (and with Japanic and Koreanic to some degree) definitely exist, but this does not equate to them having a common genetic origin.
When we go beyond the concept of Altaic, it can also be argued that Japanese, and more generally language in Japan as a whole, shares some lexical and other similarities to various languages families outside of Altaic. One of these possible connections that has been discussed by others before, is a possible connection between Japanese and Finnish (and Finnic).
The similarities between Japanese and Finnish are not that profound, lexically. But I will talk about some possible examples. The things which are more profound in terms of Japanese and Finnish similarities, are their underlying phonetic structures, and to an extent their grammar. Both Japanese and Finnish contain many of the same frequent consonants, such as [k], [t] and [s], and they also use vowel and consonant length to a large degree, and in general syllabic length, to differentiate between words, a concept that to a Danish or English speaker must seem pretty foreign.

There are also a limited number of similarities between Japanese and Uralic, for example Japanese もり, mori - “forest”, compare Northern Sámi muorra - “tree”, Japanese むね, mune - “breast”, perhaps compare Finnish nänni - “teet, nipple”, and Japanese まつ, matsu - “pine tree”, compare Finnish metsä - “forest”. The word サクラ, sakura - “cherry blossom tree”, compare Finnish kaski - “a plot of forest for thrash-and burn farming”, and also Cusco Quechua sach’a - low shrub-like tree(s). Note that I have discussed other different similarities elsewhere and some of the aforementioned similarities before, including in an article on my Clwàideac-na-Cuinne website (not the website you are currently on), in an article titled: e1. New interesting etymologies, noticed July 2025. In the aforementioned article, I also mention the word kaski but in terms of a connection to Quechua and not in terms of Japanese. The aforementioned article does of course contain content and word links only in that article, even if a small number of them are also discussed in the article in front of you in a different way.

The similarities above are not limited to Finnish and Japanese, I have observed other similar words in other North-Eurasian languages. The point here is not to show a special relationship between Japanese and Finnish per-se. But I find it interesting how it seems to be the subject of trees, in particular, where similarities exist. My dad has always told me that the Japanese peoples’ relationship with trees and nature is something quite unlike our societal relationships to nature in most of Europe; and this is indeed something connected to the very heart of Japanese language, culture - and to the indigenous religion of Shintoism. 

It is hard for me not to wonder whether or not words like mori, matsu and sakura in Japanese connect to a sacred time and space of Eurasian history, also shared with Finland perhaps. We can think of this in a purely boring, logical sense of how ancient Eurasians would have naturally had important words for trees, and how these words could well have survived across many language families. But we can also think of it in terms of nature, the forest, and language that pertains to this - being the primordial origin of life in North Eurasia, on a cultural, artistic, and spiritual level too. 

And this is another thing that draws me to Japan - its spirituality, and how certain registers of Japanese are very specific to Shintoism and to our relationship with nature. Japan is perhaps one of the few countries on earth where animistic beliefs, like Shintoism, remain a part of the national identity and lifestyle, and have not been at least somewhat forgotten, or replaced by a major foreign religion. This is perhaps why Japanese language and Shinto religious literature seem to reach out to me as a way of understanding animism. I believe that this ancient spiritual past of Japan also ties into the connections with Finland and South America, and for example the presence of polygonal masonry in all three areas. This is perhaps why I am drawn to all of these areas, because of an ancient, truly sacred spirituality. 

I also find it interesting how sometimes Japanese women in particular can have a very similar look to Finnish women and to Andean women in terms of their general facial and eye-shape. I do not believe this is a coincidence. Although as I imply greatly elsewhere, I think that the connections between Finland & South America are far stronger than those between Finland and Japan, particularly in terms of languages. 

I hope this article was a curious and interesting read. Much love everybody!