Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

83%
+8 −0
Q&A What causes people to write compound words as distinct words?

In many Germanic and Finno-ugric languages there are many compound words. One does not write "yhdys sana", but rather "yhdyssana". Learning to write these correctly is notoriously hard for people, ...

4 answers  ·  posted 3y ago by tommi‭  ·  last activity 2mo ago by Jirka Hanika‭

#7: Nominated for promotion by user avatar Moshi‭ · 2023-01-24T02:03:34Z (almost 2 years ago)
#6: Nominated for promotion by user avatar Moshi‭ · 2021-11-26T07:49:56Z (almost 3 years ago)
#5: Nominated for promotion by user avatar Moshi‭ · 2021-10-27T01:25:11Z (about 3 years ago)
#4: Nominated for promotion by user avatar Moshi‭ · 2021-09-26T08:45:33Z (about 3 years ago)
#3: Post edited by user avatar Moshi‭ · 2021-08-16T02:50:37Z (over 3 years ago)
#2: Post edited by user avatar Canina‭ · 2021-08-12T10:39:13Z (over 3 years ago)
  • Where come problems with compound words from?
  • What causes people to write compound words as distinct words?
In many Germanic and Finno-ugric languages there are many compound words. One does not write "yhdys sana", but rather "yhdyssana". Learning to write these correctly is notoriously hard for people, at least in Finland and Norway; there are mistakes everywhere, even in the simple and systematic cases, like compound words created from two nouns with nothing fancy happening.

Often it is the influence of English that gets the blame. However, I vaguely recall reading arguments to the contrary, probably based on chronology; the problems were present before English was as dominating as it is today.

What causes people to write compound words as distinct words? Is it the influence of English or is there some other significant cause, too?
#1: Initial revision by user avatar tommi‭ · 2021-08-12T08:29:28Z (over 3 years ago)
Where come problems with compound words from?
In many Germanic and Finno-ugric languages there are many compound words. One does not write "yhdys sana", but rather "yhdyssana". Learning to write these correctly is notoriously hard for people, at least in Finland and Norway; there are mistakes everywhere, even in the simple and systematic cases, like compound words created from two nouns with nothing fancy happening.

Often it is the influence of English that gets the blame. However, I vaguely recall reading arguments to the contrary, probably based on chronology; the problems were present before English was as dominating as it is today.

What causes people to write compound words as distinct words? Is it the influence of English or is there some other significant cause, too?