LC-7311 - Finnish 1A - H05, 08.01.2019-14.02.2019
This course space end date is set to 14.02.2019 Search Courses: LC-7311
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)
ruoka + kauppa = ruokakauppa
grocery store (literally foodmarket)
Finnish uses many suffixes for forming new words from the existing ones. Some examples:
raha rahaton
money penniless, broke
työ työtön
work unemployed
kahvi kahvila
coffee coffee shop
ravinto ravintola
nutrition restaurant
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