Toista and Toinen
Yesterday while walking my dog i was practicing my Finnish, as one does. Specifically i was counting, something i had not practiced in a while. While counting in the -teens, i realized -toista reminded me of Toinen. I looked it up today, and sure enough they are the same root.
So 15, viisitoista appears to literally mean, 5 again, or 5 the second.
-toista
Etymology
From the partitive singular toista of toinen (“second”), by ellipsis of the phrase toista kymmentä (literally “of the second decade”), referring to the second ten of numbers (11–19). yksitoista, for example, originally was yksi toista kymmentä (literally “one of/into the second decade”), as the first "decade" (first ten numbers) were already counted. This system used to be used more widely, but is now only used for 11 to 19, possibly by influence from the Germanic languages where those numerals too get special names, while numbers beyond 19 are more formulaic.
Yup.
There's "toissapäivänä" - the other day.
"Toistuvasti", something occurring more than once.
But my favorite meaning that even native speakers are often unaware of:
Toistaa - to repeat or play back.
Toisto - repetition, playback or recording.
When talking abour media playback, you use it for the word "play".
"Nauhoitus" also means recording, but it comes from tape based media. (Nauha meaning tape)
"Toista tuo video" is not only correct if asking someone to play a video again, but it's correct the first time, since as a recording, it's already a repetition.
For example, "this button plays the video" would be "tämä nappi laittaa videon toistamaan" or "tästä voi toistaa videon".
It's really rare to actually see it used, even by native speakers. Most people use "päälle" for play. "Laita elokuva/musiikki päälle"
Thank you for all this great info! I love learning these things about Finnish.
When Jarkko Ahola released his cover of Paranoid with OASBB someone shouts Soittaa (soittakaa?) Paranoid at the start, I could never remember the phrase and looking it up all I could find was toista Paranoid.
To make things more confusing, Google Translate defaults to the second definition of soittaa, to call. Then again Google translate says toista also means work, job, labor.
You would not say "toistakaa paranoid" unless the music was played from a recording.
If any kind of performing is involved, the right word is "soittakkaa".
"Soittakaa paranoid" is also a finnish meme.
It's become something you shout at ALL concerts regardless of genre or band 🤣
https://urbaanisanakirja.com/word/soittakaa-paranoid/
I knew about it being a meme, but could not remember the verb used in it.