Written by Linden Alexander Pentecost. Written and published in the UK, like all of my other publications. No AI is used in this nor in any of my publications. This article is only published on www.clwaideac-na-cuinne.co.uk (this website). This article was finally completed on the 6th of March 2025. The two photos were also taken by Linden Alexander Pentecost. The article, including the photos, have never been published until in this article, despite that I have included other photos of the same places elsewhere, showing different things. In this article, I discuss some Finnish words for trees, flowers, moths, and butterflies, with some examples of sentences, and spiritually-related comments. The article also includes two photos, the first photo shows vanamo flowers and evening light in a forest near Muonio, the second shows a blue Finnish butterfly, but not the national butterfly. This article or chapter contains 2229 words as measured by Libreoffice (I copied the text from this article into Libreoffice to check). This article or page contains three sub-sections, each given numbers from one to three in Roman numerals, titled:

I. Introduction, Finnish tree names, and samples sentences and explanations, pertaining to Finnish trees, hawk moths, and other things  (longest section)
II. Flowers, Kukat (shortest section) (includes the first photo, of the forest, flowers and light, and its description)
III. Moths and butterflies - Koit ja perhoset (includes the second photo, of the butterfly, and photo description), with footnote at end

If referencing this first introductory part of the article, please reference this as 1-f.0 followed by the name of the article, when referencing other parts of the article, please include the name of the article, the sub section, and the Roman numeral, e.g. 1-f. On the Finnish language with trees, flowers, moths and butterflies: I. Introduction, Finnish tree names, and sample sentences and explanations, pertaining to Finnish trees, hawk moths, and other things. Please also provide the web address. Note that this article makes use of footnotes and smaller titles (see above) as well as the main title further above.

I. Introduction, Finnish tree names, and sample sentences and explanations, pertaining to Finnish trees, hawk moths, and other things

Finnish forests are incredibly beautiful and magical places, in my opinion. They can also be very wild, occupied by bears and wolves for instance, and they are often vast, stretching off into the distance in secret eternity. When I was 18, as part of a seemingly spontaneous decision in learning about myself, languages and spirituality, I found myself travelling from the UK to Finland, and spending time in these places. And in them I found something truly spiritual, peaceful, vast and ancient. I have discussed it elsewhere before, but never in the same way twice. The Finnish language is also intrinsically connected to and expressive of the spirit of this nature, and for me personally, my decision to learn Finnish has also been about an appreciation for this language, its nature, and spirit. 

Some examples of trees found in Finland are mänty - "pine", koivu - "birch", pihlaja - "rowan", tammi - "oak", lehtikuusi - "larch", and kuusi - "spruce". These can be compounded with the word metsä - "forest", for example mäntymetsä - "pine forest", koivumetsä - "birch forest", and kuusimetsä - "spruce forest". Below are some 5 example sentences, numbered 1 to 5, showing some of these Finnish tree names. Below the sentences there is a discussion of each sentence and its words (unless already mentioned above) and grammatical meanings, each discussion is also numbered 1 to 5.

1. mänty kasvaa mäellä - "the/a pine grows on the hill"
2. mäntymetsässä on paljon lintuja - "in the pine forest there are many birds"
3. Lehmon Jätti on Suomen pisin mänty - "Lehmon Jätti is Finland's tallest pine tree"
4. nautin Suomen luonnosta kävelemällä metsissä - "I enjoy(ed) Finnish nature by walking in forests"
5. mäntykiitäjät asuvat vanhassa metsässä - "hawk moths live in (the) old forest"

1.The word kasvaa means "grows", and is the third person singular present form of the verb kasvaa - "to grow" The word mäellä in sentence 1 is the adessive form of mäki which means "hill" or "mountain" even in some cases. This is one of the Finnish words where the medial k tends to disappear in certain conjugations of the noun, another example being mäet - "hills".

2. mäntymetsässä means approximately "in the pine forest", mäntymetsässä being the inessive form of mäntymetsä. The word on means "is", but in this context following a noun in the inessive case, can also translate to "are". The words paljon lintuja mean "a lot of birds". The word paljon means "a lot (of)", and generally causes the following noun to be in the partitive plural case; in this case lintuja being the partitive plural form of lintu - "bird".

3. Lehmon Jätti means "Lehmon's Giant". Lehmo is a Finnish personal name, whilst jätti means "giant", in reference to the large size of the tree. The word pisin means "tallest", and is the superlative form of the word pitkä meaning "high or tall". 

4. The word nautin is the first person singular present and past form of nauttia - "to enjoy". This causes the following noun to be in the elative case, Suomen luonto means "Finnish nature" or "nature of Finland", the first noun, Suomen, which is the genitive form of Suomi - "Finland", remains unchanged, but the noun luonto - "nature" takes the elative form, luonnosta. The word kävelemällä means essentially "by walking", and is the verb kävellä - "to walk", plus the -malla/-mällä suffix which translates to "by" in this context. The word metsissä is the inessive plural form of metsä, we see the inessive singular form in the compound word mäntymetsä given as mäntymetsässä in sentence 2. 

5. The word mäntykiitäjät is the plural of mäntykiitäjä which refers to a "pine hawk moth", or in Latin: Sphynx Pinastri. The Finnish compound word is formed from the word mänty - "pine tree", and kiitäjä - "something moving at high speed", which generally can refer specifically to hawk moths. The word kiitäjä is itself formed from the verb kiitää - "to move at high speed", whilst the -ja/-jä forms a noun from this verb. The word asuvat means "(they) live", and is the third person plural present tense form of asua - "to live". The words vanhassa metsässä mean "in (the) old forest", showing the inessive singular form of metsä and also the word vanha which is in its inessive singular form as vanhassa.

Many of the trees that are native to England, where I am, are also found in Finland, but their names are vastly different, as can be seen, even if sometimes a few similarities to words in Indo-European languages can be observed. One example of a possible similarity is that tammi bares a similarity to the English word "tan", as in "oak tan", "tan" itself is thought to have come to English via Breton, although it is equally possible that a pre-Indo-European language loaned the word into Breton and English separately. Another example which I have commented on before is the similarity between Finnish kuusi - "spruce", and Scottish Gaelic giuthas - "a Scots Pine tree". This type of tree is generally referred to as mänty in Finnish however, or more specifically referred to as metsämänty - "forest pine" (not the same thing as mäntymetsä - "pine forest").

II. Flowers, Kukat

The main section continues beneath the photo description, below the photo below.

Photo above: a view of a beautiful, lush forest near to Äkäsjärvi and Muonio in Northern Finland, taken in July 2011. The flowers in this photo were a favourite of Carl Linneus, their Latin name is "Linneus Borealis", but their Finnish name is vanamo, the plural of which is vanamot. I think they are majestic and beautiful flowers. Despite their bell-like shape, they are not referred to as kello in Finnish, as many flowers are.

Flowers in Finnish are generally referred to as kukka, or kukat in the plural form.

In Finnish, several names for flowers include the word kello, which means "bell" (or "clock"), similarly to how in English we name some flowers owing to their bell-shape, such as snowbells, bluebells, etc. For example, the flower: lumikello - in English: "snowdrop", the Finnish word is formed from the words lumi - "snow" and kello - "bell, clock"; and kissankello - in English: "harebell", the Finnish word literally means "cat's bell", from kissan which is the genitive of kissa - "cat", and kello. 

The photo in this article, as stated below the photo, shows the flower known as vanamo in Finnish. This word appears to be only a relatively recent Finnish word, and the element vana- meaning "track" may be in reference to the shape or appearance of the plant's stem. I would not be surprised if perhaps there were local words for this flower in some Finnish dialects however, words which may be older in origin, although I do not know how specific they might be to this flower.

III. Moths and butterflies - Koit ja perhoset

Many people perhaps overlook moths, or do not notice them much. But I find them majestic, and although do not know much about their symbolism in Finnish mythology, but I personally feel that moths make me aware of the mysteries of the forest. They are animals that can go unnoticed, and do their own thing, minding their own business. There is I think a great magic and wisdom which they exude, and whenever a moth lands upon me, I feel blessed. They are gentle beings. In Finnish, the general word for a moth is koi, and in the plural: koit.This single-syllabled word has cognates in other Finnic languages, but it is more or less impossible to trace its etymology, or to find its original meaning. But I suspect that it is one of these onomatopoeic words, which are seemingly from the sounds and music of the universe, as our ancestors perceived it. I have of course already discussed in this article the word mäntykiitäjä, also in one of the sample sentences I wrote, which means a "pine hawk moth", and that kiitäjä can refer to something which moves fast, or generally, to a a hawk moth. 

The Finnish word for "butterfly" is perhonen, or in the plural: perhoset. The noun perhonen is a -nen sana or "-n suffix word", formed from an earlier word perho, which nowadays often refers to a fishing lure, but which in poetic language can still refer to a "butterfly". 

Photo above: a butterfly in Finland. I think this could be what is known in Finnish as juolukkasinisiipi, its Latin name being "Agriades Optilete". I find it very beautiful and majestic. This species is not found in Britain and seems to be a butterfly species that definately prefers cooler climates. I took this photo near the coast of southern Finland in July 2024. This butterfly is not the national butterfly of Finland, Suomen kansallisperhonen, which is called "Calestrina Argiolus" in Latin, and known as paatsamasinisiipi in Finnish. In the paragraph below, I discuss the etymology of juolukkasinisiipi, including the name of another Finnish plant within the name.