Round two: Haikea vs Sinaasapplesap
(poll at the end)
Haikea (Finnish)
[ˈhɑi̯keɑ]
Translation: A feeling of quiet, melancholic, sometimes even mournful longing. "Wistful" comes fairly close as a translation, though it's not exactly the same.
Finnish is an Uralic language belonging to the Finnic branch spoken by 5 300 000 people in Finland, where it is one of two national languages (the other is Swedish though it is less used, Finnish is the main language).
Motivation: It's one of the most beautiful words to say in Finnish, IMO; it has a beautiful flow to the vowels, and it almost sounds like a sigh. It's also an emotion often associated with a lot of Finnish art, literature, music and culture in general, and thus it's a strong part of Finnish identity.
Sinaasappelsap (Dutch)
[ˈsi.nɑ.zɑ.pəlˌsɑp]
Translation: Orange juice
Dutch is an Indo-European language belonging to the Germanic branch spoken by 16 million people in the Netherlands and 24 million total. Most speakers outside the Netherlands are from Belgium, which has a Dutch-speaking area with 7 600 000 speakers. It makes up one end of the West Germanic Dialect continuum. Dutch is also the basis for Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa.
Motivation: It's absolutely unhinged. There is no reason for it to have that many syllables for what it is. It also gets bonus points for being a very fun word to say. Go on and try it for yourself. You'll be repeating it to yourself all day.
Note: Sinaasappel is the word for orange and was originally Chinas-appel, literally China’s apple.
Which is the best word?
Haikea
Sinaasappelsap
