# He is blind in one eye.



## Encolpius

Hello, we have had an interesting discussion here in All languages and I found it very surprising the phrase "half-eye" exists in Finnish as well. It is the standard Hungarian translation of the "one-eyes" in many IE languages. When do you use "silmäpuoli"? Would you use it in the sentence "he is blind in one eye"? Thanks. Enc.


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## fennofiili

“Silmäpuoli” could be used in a sentence corresponding to “He is blind in one eye”: “Hän on silmäpuoli.”

“Silmäpuoli” is an adjective formed from “silmä” (eye) and “puoli” (half). This type of words is very old, and similar expressions in Hungarian may well reflect the common origin of the languages – a way of thinking were words for paired organs denote the pair when used in singular as attributes or in compounds. 

However, I think “silmäpuoli” is a somewhat old-fashioned word and is generally avoided in modern language; we rather say “yksisilmäinen” (yksi = one, silmä = eye, -inen an adjective suffix). In the dictionary “Kielitoimiston sanakirja”, there is the example “Hän on rampa ja silmäpuoli”, which is not something we would use in normal prose. I would say that “silmäpuoli” is by its tone comparable to “rampa” (crippled), which is nowadays almost always avoided. Yet, “silmäpuoli” was preserved in the new Bible translation in 1992: “Onhan parempi, että silmäpuolena pääset sisälle Jumalan valtakuntaan” (Mark 9:47).


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## Encolpius

Unbelievable... 
And why is -puoli at the end of the word? I think silmä*puoli *would be "*fél*szemű" in Hungarian [fél puoli szem silmä]
And what is the origin of the puoli? It reminds me of Slavic origin.


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## DrWatson

_Puoli _is cognate to Hungarian _fél _(along with e.g. North Sámi _bealli_, Mordvin _peĺ_/_päĺ _and Udmurt _pal_) The origin is thought to be Uralic (reconstructed as *_pälä_), not Slavic.

Similar compound words are for example _jalkapuoli _("foot/leg" + "half") 'one-legged' and _käsipuoli _("hand/arm" + "half") 'one-armed', maybe also _mielipuoli _("mind" + "half) 'lunatic, crazy person'.


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## Encolpius

Oh, I should have known...now I do remember the p-f thing...
and my dictionary says *pälä might mean also *one of a pair* that's why you might put puoli at the end...


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## 盲人瞎馬

Finns, would it be ok to just say "Yksi silmistään on sokea"?


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## Armas

In Kaisa Häkkinen's etymological dictionary it is said that puoli is more likely a loan from Slavic and the cognate of fél is pieli.


Encolpius, note that puoli is more often at the beginning: puolikuu = half moon, puolikuollut = half dead, puolisokea = half blind.


Vitalore, I would prefer "toisesta silmästään sokea".


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## fennofiili

DrWatson said:


> _Puoli _is cognate to Hungarian _fél _(along with e.g. North Sámi _bealli_, Mordvin _peĺ_/_päĺ _and Udmurt _pal_) The origin is thought to be Uralic (reconstructed as *_pälä_), not Slavic.



According to_ Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja,_ the origin of the word _puoli _is uncertain, and confirmed cognates exist in close relatives of Finnish only. The word is probably a loanword from some Indo-European language, more exactly a Slavic or Baltic language.




> Similar compound words are for example _jalkapuoli _("foot/leg" + "half") 'one-legged' and _käsipuoli _("hand/arm" + "half") 'one-armed', maybe also _mielipuoli _("mind" + "half) 'lunatic, crazy person'.



Yes. I don’t think there is any logical explanation to the order of the components.


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## fennofiili

Vitalore said:


> Finns, would it be ok to just say "Yksi silmistään on sokea"?



Not quite. The personal pronoun cannot be omitted in such a context, and we would not use _yksi _to refer to one of two (when the total number is known to be two). So I would say “Toinen hänen silmistään on sokea”. Or maybe with a different phrase, e.g. “Hän ei näe toisella silmällään”.


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## Encolpius

fennofiili said:


> ... Yes. I don’t think there is any logical explanation to the order of the components.



Fascinating


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## DrWatson

fennofiili said:


> According to_ Nykysuomen etymologinen sanakirja,_ the origin of the word _puoli _is uncertain, and confirmed cognates exist in close relatives of Finnish only. The word is probably a loanword from some Indo-European language, more exactly a Slavic or Baltic language.


Apparently there's no consensus among Uralicists. This is what Luobbal Sámmol Sámmol Ánte (Ante Aikio) has to say about _puoli _(Aikio 2012: _On Finnic long vowels, Samoyed vowel sequences, and Proto-Uralic *x_)(emphasis mine):





> P[roto]-U[ralic] *_pälä _‘side, half’ > Fi _p__uoli _: _puole-_ (~ SaaN _bealli_, MdM _päl'_ , _päl'ä_, MariW _pel_, Komi _pe̮l_, Udm _pal_, KhE _peḷək_, MsE _pöäl_, Hung _fél_, NenT _p'el'a_, Ngan _heli̮_). — Fi _puoli _has not usually been considered a reflex of PU *_pälä_, and Koivulehto (1987: 202–204) proposes that it instead goes back to Pre-Finnic *_pola _and is a loan from Balto-Slavic *_palu_- > Russian _пол _‘gender; half’. This etymology is formally flawless, but *it would be quite surpising if Finnic *pooli ‘side, half’ had no connection to PU *pälä ‘side, half’, reflexes  of which are attested in every other Uralic language.*


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