LC-7311_1135621984: Text: Characteristics of the Finnish Language

Finno-Ugric Language

Finnish is a branch of the Finno-Ugric language family and even though it is surrounded by Indo-European languages
like Swedish, Norwegian and Russian, it is very different from them. If you want to know more, you might find
This is Finland link interesting.

Articles

Finnish does not use articles (cf. English a, the) nor has gender masculine or feminine (cf. French un, une).
Both males and females are referred to with the same third person singular pronoun hän he/she.

Pronunciation and Spelling

There is a clear relationship between the way a word is written and the way it is pronounced.
A written letter is almost always represented by the same sound
(cf. the pronunciation of letter ‘a’ in English words cat, all, aim, where 'a' is pronunced differently in all three words).

Word Stress

All Finnish words have their main stress on the first syllable.
Listen carefully and repeat, and pay attention to the stress. Please feel free to practice as many times as needed.

auto car

konsertti concert

Sentence Intonation

Sentence intonation always falls off. It does not rise even in questions.
Listen carefully and repeat, and pay attention to the intonation.
Please feel free to practice as many times as needed.
Kuka sinä olet? Who are you?

Minä olen Alex. I’m Alex.

Vocabulary

Most of the Finnish words are original Finno-Ugric words like saunoa to take sauna. Finnish also
has a lot of loanwords from Indo-European languages. Many borrowed words have changed so
much that it might be difficult to recognize the word because it cannot be associated with the original word.

Vowels may be added to the end of loanwords – most often “i” as in ‘pubi’ (cf. English pub)
Consonants are often doubled, as in ‘hattu’ (cf. English hat).
Because the letters b, c, d, f and g are not originally Finnish many loanwords use the nearest
Finnish equivalents p, k or s, t, v, and k, for example the word bank becomes ‘pankki’.
In consonant clusters like “st-” the first letters may be left out, for example ‘Tukholma’ (cf. Swedish Stockholm).

By applying such logic backwards, you may be able to work out what some of the following loanwords mean,
even if you do not speak Finnish (answers are below the audiofiles):
hotelli, museo, pubi

musiikki, teatteri, konsertti

salaatti, banaani, tomaatti

kahvi, viini, drinkki

piano, kitara, viulu

televisio, radio, stereot

kompromissi, systeemi, tekniikka

matematiikka, fysiikka, kemia

idea, projekti, raportti

materiaali, energia, bensiini

presidentti, professori, kokki

politiikka, demokratia, kriisi

hotel, museum, pub, music, theatre, concert
salad, banana, tomato, coffee, wine, drink
piano, guitar, violin, television set, radio, stereo
compromise, system, technique, mathematics, physics, chemistry
idea, project, report, material, energy, gasoline
president, professor, cook, politics, democracy, crisis

Finnish favors compound words, where two or more words stick together.

Minuuttibaari piparkakkutalo
minuutti + baari = minuuttibaari (minute bar) pipar + kakku + talo = piparkakkutalo (gingerbread house)
haju + vesi = hajuvesi
perfume (literally odourwater)