Appendix:Finnish pronunciation
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This page details the pronunciation of Standard Finnish (Standard Spoken Finnish), which is, unless otherwise specified, the spoken variety used to document Finnish pronunciations on the English Wiktionary.
See the Wikipedia article on Finnish phonology for a more complete description.
Key[edit]
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Notes[edit]
- ^ 'Native' /d/ is only found root-medially as a weak grade of /t/ under consonant gradation. The realization of this phoneme varies by dialect and speaker.
- ^ Only ungeminated, except for one word: hihhuli. Exact realization varies slightly depending on the environment.
- ^ Only ungeminated.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Finnish plosives are always unaspirated.
- ^ Clear /l/, similar to Spanish, French and German, but unlike the dark /l/ of American English.
- ^ In native words always word-medial, and only in ⟨nk⟩ /ŋk/ (before ⟨k⟩ as a short consonant) or ⟨ng⟩ /ŋː/ (long, weak grade of ⟨nk⟩). In foreign borrowings the phoneme may also occur before another consonant (in which environment it is always ungeminated) or word-finally.
- ^ Realized as a trill [r] ("rolled R"), like in Spanish ⟨rr⟩, Italian and many Slavic languages. When ungeminated and intervocalic, it may also be a tap [ɾ], especially in faster speech.
- ^ Usually somewhat retracted: [s̠] (voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant).
- ^ Only ungeminated. Realized as an approximant, not a fricative; roughly something between an English ⟨v⟩ and ⟨w⟩.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 The foreign voiced plosives are pronounced as such in standard Finnish, at least by educated speakers. Pronouncing them as unvoiced, while considered rustic or folksy, is common among monolingual Finnish speakers (e.g. outside major cities).
- ^ Realized as [f] in Standard Finnish. In idiolects without [f], it is usually realized as /ʋ/ when ungeminated and /hʋ/ when geminated.
- ^ Not reliably distinguished from /s/ by all speakers for most words (when ambiguity is not a risk).
- ^ Follows the vowel or consonant it modifies.
- ^ Usually marked between vowels with an apostrophe, especially when representing the weak grade of ⟨k⟩.
- ^ Falls on the first syllable.
- ^ Falls on the first syllable of later words as part of a compound.
- ^ A back vowel. The Finnish /ɑ/ is not necessarily quite a cardinal [ɑ]. Depending on the description, it might be near-open [ɑ̝] or central or near-back [ɑ̈]. It is also possible that the exact realization varies somewhat.
- ^ Mid vowel (mid front unrounded vowel), between [e] and [ɛ].
- ^ Mid vowel (mid back rounded vowel), between [o] and [ɔ].
- ^ Mid vowel (mid front rounded vowel), between [ø] and [œ].
- ^ Diphthongs ending in ⟨i⟩ can be present in any syllable. Diphthongs ending in ⟨u⟩ or ⟨y⟩ are in standard Finnish only present in root-initial or open syllables, while later closed syllables have a hiatus.
- ^ Rare in initial syllables.
- ^ Very rare in initial syllables and fairly uncommon in general.
- ^ Opening diphthongs are only present in root-initial syllables.
Table[edit]
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Features[edit]
Final gemination[edit]
- See also: Finnish phonology § Sandhi on Wikipedia
Some Finnish words or word roots feature final gemination (also called boundary lengthening, Finnish: rajakahdennus), which is usually marked with /ˣ/ (Finnish: jäännöslopuke; see also the entry for this symbol). This feature (argued to be morphophonetic) originates from the loss of some final consonants (primarily ⟨-k⟩ or ⟨-h⟩) always follows a vowel, and its realization depends on what follows it:
- If /ˣ/ is followed by a consonant, the consonant becomes geminated if it isn't already.
- If /ˣ/ is followed by a vowel or the end of the utterance, it usually manifests as a glottal stop [ʔ], which may or may not be geminated, and may even be completely omitted in rapid speech.
This feature is not indicated in the Finnish orthography, but results in minimal pairs (albeit marginal). It can at times even surface within words due to clitics (jonnekin) /ˈjonːeˣkin/ → /ˈjonːekːin/ (respelled ⟨jonnekkin⟩), even though final gemination does not affect possessive suffixes. However, there are cases in which final gemination has in effect become grammaticalized, such as the partitive singular of hame → hametta, in which the geminated consonant is spelled with gemination.
In standard Finnish, final gemination occurs primarily in the following cases:
- nominals:
- verbs:
- first infinitive forms (dictionary forms)
- note that the third-person singular present indicative does not have final gemination even if it is a homograph
- connegative forms of verbs (except for conditional, in all persons, and imperative, in all other persons than the second-person singular)
- second-person singular imperative forms of verbs (identical with the indicative connegative)
- first infinitive forms (dictionary forms)
- adverbs:
- the third-person possessive suffix -nsa
The following features may or may not have final gemination depending on the idiolect:
- nominals:
- comitative forms of adjectives (i.e. when not followed by a possessive suffix)
- verbs:
- past passive participles (-ttu)
- conditional connegative
- numerals:
- the numeral kolme (“three”)
- pronouns:
- the pronoun itse (“self”)
Furthermore, in some dialects, final gemination is completely absent.