Finnish (apart from words of foreign origin) has eight vowel and 13
consonant phonemes: i e ä y ö u o a and p t k d s h v j l r m n ?. All vowels
and almost all consonants can occur as either short or long sounds. The
phonetic definitions of the Finnish vowels and consonants are as follows
(with examples of near-equivalent British English sounds):
i close front unrounded sleep
e half-close front unrounded bed
ä open front unrounded bank
y close front rounded
ö half-close front rounded
u close back rounded book
o half-close back rounded dock
a open back unrounded but
p unvoiced unaspirated bilabial stop drop
t unvoiced unaspirated alveolar stop bit
k unvoiced unaspirated velar stop rock
d voiced lax alveolar stop down
s unvoiced alveolar sibilant sound
h glottal fricative or glide honey
v voiced labiodental fricative or glide voice
j voiced palatal glide young
l voiced alveolar lateral London
r voiced alveolar trill round
m voiced bilabial nasal music
n voiced alveolar nasal noise
n voiced velar nasal ring
Pronunciation and sound structure 11
Special attention should be paid to the following details.
• There is no difference in quality between the corresponding long and
short vowels ii—i, ee—e, ää—ä, yy—y, öö—ö, uu—u, oo—o, aa—a.
• All long vowels are pronounced as pure long vowels, not as if they were
diphthongs or as if they ended in -j or -w.
• The vowel y [y] is articulated with strongly protruded lips and a small
opening between them.
• The quality of the long vowel öö is [ø:] and that of the short ö is [ø], cf.
sinäkö ‘you?’, pöllö ‘owl’, mörkö ‘goblin’, Närpiöön ‘to Närpiö’. The
lips are protruded and half-closed.
• The vowels ee and e, and also ää and ä, are differentiated in all positions
in a word, including before r and in unstressed syllables. Cf. te ‘you’—
tee ‘tea’, meille ‘to us’—meillä ‘“at” us’ (= at our house), teellä ‘with
tea’—täällä ‘here’, piste ‘point’—pistä ‘sting!’, veneen ‘of the boat’—
nenään ‘into the nose’, lehti ‘leaf’—lähti ‘(he) left’, veri ‘blood’—väri
‘colour’, perkele ‘devil’, merkki ‘mark’, Eero (masculine name), väärä
‘wrong’.
• The consonants p t k are pronounced without aspiration, i.e. without a
breathy ‘h’ sound after them.
• The consonant s is often pronounced as a rather dark, thick sound that can
be close to š, especially in the environment of u. Cf. pussi ‘bag’, luussa
‘in the bone’, sumu ‘fog’, myös ‘also’.
• The consonant h may occur between vowels and is then pronounced
weakly. It can also co-occur with consonants, and is then a stronger
sound, particularly if the following consonant is t or k. Cf. huono ‘bad’,
miehen ‘of the man’, paha ‘evil’, ihminen ‘person’, varhain ‘early’,
vanha ‘old’, vihko ‘notebook’, vihta ‘bunch of birch twigs’, sähkö
‘electricity’, tuhka ‘ash’.
• The consonant l is pronounced as a rather thick sound when it occurs
between the vowels u and o. Cf. pullo ‘bottle’, hullu ‘mad’, kulta ‘gold’,
pala ‘bit’, villi ‘wild’.
• The consonant r is always trilled with the tip of the tongue, e.g. pyörä
‘wheel’, Pori (town), Turku (town), virrassa ‘in the stream’, kierrän ‘I
turn’.
• After certain grammatical forms the initial consonant of the following
word or particle lengthens. These forms are mainly nominals ending in
-e like perhe ‘family’ (§19), the present indicative negative e.g. en
tule ‘I am not coming’ (§29), the second person singular imperative
e.g. tule! ‘come!’ (§66), and the first infinitive e.g. tulla ‘(to) come’
(§74).
12 Finnish: An Essential Grammar
Examples:
Imperative second p. sing. mene pois [meneppois] go away
ole hiljaa [olehhiljaa] be quiet
tule tänne [tulettänne] come here
Nominative in -e vene tuli [venettuli] the boat came
venekin [venekkin] the boat, too
liikemies [liikemmies] businessman
Pres. indic. negative en tule Turkuun [entuletturkuun]
I’m not coming to Turku
emme tulekaan [emmetulekkaan]
We’re not coming after all
en ole sairas [enolessairas]
I am not ill
First infinitive haluan olla täällä [haluanollattäällä]
I want to be here
haluan lähteä pois [haluanlähteäppois]
I want to go away
