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Unless otherwise noted, statements in this article refer to StandardFinnish, which is based on thedialect spoken in the formerHäme Province in central southFinland.[1] Standard Finnish is used by professional speakers, such as reporters and news presenters on television.
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | ||
| Close | i | y | u |
| Mid | e | ø | o |
| Open | æ | ɑ | |
Finnish has a phonological contrast between single (/æeiøyɑou/) and double (/ææeeiiøøyyɑɑoouu/) vowels.[6] Phonetically long vowels are single continuous sounds ([æːeːiːøːyːɑːoːuː]) where the extra duration of the hold phase of the vowel signals that they count as two successive vowel phonemes rather than one. Long mid vowels are more common in unstressed syllables.[7]
The table below lists the conventionally postulateddiphthongs in Finnish. In speech (i.e. phonetically speaking) a diphthong does not sound like a sequence of two different vowels; instead, the sound of the first vowel gradually glides into the sound of the second one with full vocalization lasting through the whole sound. That is to say, the two portions of the diphthong are not broken by a pause or stress pattern. In Finnish, diphthongs contrast with both long vowels and short vowels. Phonologically, however, Finnish diphthongs are usually analyzed as sequences of two vowels (this in contrast to languages likeEnglish, where the diphthongs are best analyzed as independent phonemes).
Diphthongs ending ini can occur in any syllable, but those ending in rounded vowels usually occur only in initial syllables, and rising diphthongs are confined to that syllable. It is usually taught that diphthongization occurs only with the combinations listed. However, there are recognized situations in which other vowel pairs diphthongize. For example, in rapid speech the wordyläosa ('upper part', fromylä-, 'upper' +osa, 'part') can be pronounced[ˈylæo̯sɑ] (with the diphthong/æo̯/). The usual pronunciation is[ˈylæ.ˌosɑ] (with those vowels belonging to separate syllables).
| Diphthongs | Ending with/i/ | Ending with/u/ | Ending with/y/ | Opening diphthongs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting with/ɑ/ | ⟨ai⟩[ɑi̯] | ⟨au⟩[ɑu̯] | ||
| Starting with/æ/ | ⟨äi⟩[æi̯] | ⟨äy⟩[æy̯] | ||
| Starting with/o/ | ⟨oi⟩[oi̯] | ⟨ou⟩[ou̯] | ||
| Starting with/e/ | ⟨ei⟩[ei̯] | ⟨eu⟩[eu̯] | ⟨ey⟩[ey̯] | |
| Starting with/ø/ | ⟨öi⟩[øi̯] | ⟨öy⟩[øy̯] | ||
| Starting with/u/ | ⟨ui⟩[ui̯] | ⟨uo⟩[uo̯] | ||
| Starting with/i/ | ⟨iu⟩[iu̯] | ⟨iy⟩[iy̯] | ⟨ie⟩[ie̯] | |
| Starting with/y/ | ⟨yi⟩[yi̯] | ⟨yö⟩[yø̯] |
The diphthongs[ey̯] and[iy̯] are quite rare and mostly found inderivative words, where a derivational affix starting with/y/ (or properly the vowel harmonicarchiphoneme/U/) fuses with the preceding vowel, e.g.pimeys 'darkness' frompimeä 'dark' +/-(U)US/ '-ness' andsiistiytyä 'to tidy up oneself' fromsiisti 'tidy' +/-UTU/ (a kind ofmiddle voice) +/-(d)A/ (infinitive suffix). Older/*ey̯/ and/*iy̯/ in initial syllables have been shifted to[øy̯] and[yː].
Opening diphthongs are in standard Finnish only found in root-initial syllables like in wordstietää 'to know',takapyörä 'rear wheel' (fromtaka- 'back, rear' +pyörä 'wheel'; the latter part is secondarily stressed) orluo 'towards'. This might make them easier to pronounce as true opening diphthongs[uo̯,ie̯,yø̯] (in some accents even wider opening[uɑ̯,iɑ̯~iæ̯,yæ̯][a]) and not as centering diphthongs[uə̯,iə̯,yə̯], which are more common in the world's languages. The opening diphthongs come from earlier doubled mid vowels:/*oo/>[uo̯],/*ee/>[ie̯],/*øø/>[yø̯]. Since that time new doubled mid vowels have come to the language from various sources.
Among the phonological processes operating in Finnish dialects are diphthongization and diphthong reduction. For example,Savo Finnish has the phonemic contrast of/ɑ/ vs./uɑ̯/ vs./ɑɑ/ instead of standard language contrast of/ɑ/ vs./ɑɑ/ vs./ɑu̯/.
Finnish, like many otherUralic languages, has the phenomenon calledvowel harmony, which restricts the cooccurrence in a word of vowels belonging to different articulatory subgroups. Vowels within a word "harmonize" to be either all front or all back.[8] In particular, no native noncompound word can contain vowels from the group {a,o,u} together with vowels from the group {ä,ö,y}. Vowel harmony affects inflectionalsuffixes and derivational suffixes, which have two forms, one for use with back vowels, and the other with front vowels. Compare, for example, the following pair of abstract nouns:hallitus 'government' (fromhallita, 'to reign') versusterveys 'health' (fromterve, healthy).
There are exceptions to the constraint of vowel harmony. For one, there are two front vowels that lack back counterparts:/i/ and/e/. Therefore, words likekello 'clock' (with a front vowel in a non-final syllable) andtuuli 'wind' (with a front vowel in the final syllable), which contain/i/ or/e/ together with a back vowel, count as back vowel words;/i/ and/e/ are effectively neutral in regard to vowel harmony in such words.[9]Kello andtuuli yield the inflectional formskellossa 'in a clock' andtuulessa 'in a wind'. In words containing only neutral vowels, front vowel harmony is used, e.g.tie –tiellä ('road' – 'on the road'). For another, compound words do not have vowel harmony across the compound boundary;[10] e.g.seinäkello 'wall clock' (fromseinä, 'wall' andkello, 'clock') has back/o/ cooccurring with front/æ/. In the case of compound words, the choice between back and front suffix alternants is determined by the immediately-preceding element of the compound; e.g. 'in a wall clock' isseinäkellossa, not*seinäkellossä.
A particular exception appears in a standard Finnish word,tällainen ('this kind of'). Although by definition a singular word, it was originally a compound word that transitioned over time to a more compact and easier form:tämänlajinen (fromtämän, 'of this' andlajinen, 'kind') →tänlainen →tällainen, and in colloquial speech sometimes further totällä(i)nen.
New loan words may exhibit vowel disharmony; for example,olympialaiset ('Olympic games') andsekundäärinen ('secondary') have both front and back vowels. In standard Finnish, these words are pronounced as they are spelled, but many speakers apply vowel harmony –olumpialaiset, andsekundaarinen orsekyndäärinen.
| Labial | Dental, Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | p | t̪d | k | ||
| Fricative | s | h | |||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | ||
| Trill | r |
[f] does not appear in native phonology; however, it exists in the variation between foreign-origin geminate/ff/ and native consonant cluster/hʋ/ in many loanwords, retrogradely occurring also in the native wordahven 'perch' in some southwestern dialects (dialectal asahvena[ˈɑxʋenɑ] ~affena[ˈɑfːenɑ]).[16] Generally,f is reliably distinguished by Finnish speakers, but other foreign fricatives are not.š orsh[ʃ] appears only in non-native words, sometimes pronounced[s], although most speakers make a distinction between e.g.šakki 'chess' andsakki 'a gang (of people)'.[citation needed] The orthography also includes the lettersz andž, although their use is marginal, and they have no phonemic status. For example,azeri anddžonkki may be pronounced[ɑseri] and[tsoŋkki] without fear of confusion. The letterz, found mostly in foreign words and names such asZulu, may also be pronounced as[t͡s] following the influence ofGerman, thusZulu/t͡sulu/.
Traditionally,/b/ and/ɡ/ were not counted as Finnish phonemes, since they appear only in loanwords. However, these borrowings being relatively common, they are nowadays considered part of the educated norm. The failure to use them correctly is often ridiculed in the media,[citation needed] e.g. if a news reporter or a high official consistently and publicly realisesBelgia ('Belgium') asPelkia. Even many educated speakers, however, still make no distinction between voiced and voiceless plosives in regular speech if there is no fear of confusion.[citation needed] Minimal pairs do exist:/bussi/ 'a bus' vs./pussi/ 'a bag',/ɡorillɑ/ 'a gorilla' vs./korillɑ/ 'on a basket'.
The status of/d/ is somewhat different from/b/ and/ɡ/, since it also appears in native Finnish words, as a regular 'weak' correspondence of the voiceless/t/ (see Consonant gradation below). Historically, this sound was a fricative,[ð], varyingly spelled asd ordh in Old Literary Finnish (which is based on southwestern dialects), and realised in native dialects with significantly large allophony of frontal consonants or even completely degraded depending on the dialectal gradation features.[16] Its realization as a plosive originated as aspelling pronunciation, in part because when mass elementary education was instituted in Finland, the spellingd in Finnish texts was mispronounced as a plosive, under the influence of how Swedish speakers would pronounce this letter.[18][b] Initially, few native speakers of Finnish acquired the foreign plosive realisation of the native phoneme. As for loanwords,/d/ was often assimilated to/t/ as a strong grade consonant. Even well into the 20th century it was not entirely exceptional to hear loanwords likedeodorantti ('a deodorant') pronounced asteotorantti, while native Finnish words with a/d/ were pronounced in the usual dialectal way. Due to diffusion of the standard language through mass media and basic education, and due to the dialectal prestige of the capital area, the plosive[d] can now be heard in all parts of the country, at least in loanwords and in formal speech.
Consonant gradation in Finnish involves alternations between a "strong grade" and a "weak grade" of consonants, influenced by both phonological and grammatical factors. Historically, a consonant would shift to its weak grade if it was part of aclosed syllable. However, due to language evolution, there are now instances where the weak grade may or may not appear regardless of the syllable being open or closed, such as in "Turkuun" where the strong grade appears in a closed syllable. Grammatically, the weak grade typically shows up in nouns, pronouns, and adjectives before case suffixes, and in verbs before person agreement suffixes.
The following is a general list of strong–weak correspondences.
| Strong | Weak |
|---|---|
| /pːtːkː/ | /ptk/ |
| /pt/ | /ʋd/ |
| /k/ | /∅~j~ʋ/ |
| /mpntŋk/ | /mːnːŋː/ |
| /ltrt/ | /lːrː/ |
Many of the remaining "irregular" patterns of Finnish noun and verb inflection are explained by a change of a historical*ti to/si/. The change from*ti to/si/, a type ofassibilation, is unconnected to consonant gradation, and dates back as early asProto-Finnic. In modern Finnish the alternation is not productive, due to new cases of the sequence/ti/ having been introduced by later sound changes and loanwords, and assibilation therefore occurs only in certain morphologically defined positions.[citation needed]
Words having this particularalternation are still subject to consonant gradation in forms that lack assibilation. Thus Finnish nouns of this type could be seen as having up to five distinct stems:[19] a word such asvesi 'water (sg. nom.)' has the formsveden (sg. gen.),vettä (sg. part.),veteen (sg. ill.)vesiä (pl. part.); as can be seen from the examples the change fromt tos has only occurred in front ofi. When a vowel other thani occurs, words likevesi inflect just like other nouns with a singlet alternating with the consonant gradatedd. Alternatively, Kiparsky proposes that all Finnish stems must end in a vowel, which in the case of polysyllabic stems may then be deleted when adding certain affixes and certain other conditions are fulfilled. Forvesi he proposes the stem /vete/ (with stem final -e), which when combined with the partitive singular affix -tä/-ta drops the -e to becomevet-tä (sg. part.).[20]
This pattern has, however, been reverted in some cases. Variation appears in particular in past tense verb forms, e.g.kieltää,kielsi ('to deny', 'denied') butsäätää,sääti ('to adjust', 'adjusted'). Both alternate forms (kielti andsääsi) can also be found in dialects. Apparently this was caused by word pairs such asnoutaa,nouti ('bring') andnousta,nousi ('rise'), which were felt important enough to keep them contrastive.
Assibilation occurred prior to the change of the original consonants cluster*kt to/ht/, which can be seen in the inflection of the numeralsyksi,kaksi andyhden,kahden.
In many recent loanwords, there is vacillation between representing an original voiceless consonant as single or geminate: this is the case for examplekalsium (~kalssium) andkantarelli (~kanttarelli). The orthography generally favors the single form, if it exists. (More completely assimilated loans such asfarssi,minuutti,ooppera generally have settled on geminates.)
All phonemes except/ʋ/ and/j/ can occur doubled phonemically as a phonetic increase in length. Consonant doubling always occurs at the boundary of a syllable in accordance with the rules of Finnish syllable structure.
Some example sets of words:
A double/h/ is rare in standard Finnish, but possible, e.g.hihhuli, a derogatory term for a religious fanatic. In some dialects, e.g. Savo, it is common:rahhoo, or standard Finnishrahaa 'money' (in the partitive case). The distinction between/d/ and/dd/ is found only in foreign words; natively 'd' occurs only in the short form. While/ʋ/ and/j/ may appear as geminates when spoken (e.g.vauva[ʋɑuʋːɑ],raijata[rɑijːɑtɑ]), this distinction is not phonemic, and is not indicated in spelling.
The phonemic template of a syllable in Finnish is (C)V(C)(C), in which C can be anobstruent or aliquid consonant. V can be realized as a doubled vowel or adiphthong. A final consonant of a Finnish word, though not a syllable, must be acoronal one; Standard Finnish does not allow final clusters of two consonants.
Originally Finnish syllables could not start with two consonants but many loans containing these have added this to the inventory. This is observable in older loans such asranska < Swedishfranska ('French') contrasting newer loanspresidentti < Swedishpresident ('president'). In past decades, it was common to hear these clusters simplified in speech (resitentti), particularly, though not exclusively, by either rural Finns or Finns who knew little or no Swedish or English. Even then, the Southwestern dialects formed an exception: consonant clusters, especially those with plosives, trills or nasals, are common: examples include place namesFriitala andPreiviiki near the townPori, or townKristiinankaupunki ('Kristinestad'). Nowadays the overwhelming majority of Finns have adopted initial consonant clusters in their speech.
Consonant phonotactics are as follows.[21]
Word-final consonants
Word-initial consonants
Word-initial consonant clusters
Word-final consonant clusters
Word-medial consonant clusters
Vowel phonotactics are as follows.[22]
Word-final and word-initial vowels
Vowel sequences
/ee/,/oo/ and/øø/ are allowed by phonotactics, but they are rare because they underwent a sound change in Proto-Finnic to/ie/,/uo/ and/yø/. They have been reintroduced in loanwords (e.g.peesata,hoonata,amatööri).
Stress in Finnish is non-phonemic. LikeHungarian andIcelandic, Finnish primary stress always occurs on the firstsyllable of a word.[23] Secondary stress normally falls on odd-numbered syllables. Contrary to primary stress, Finnish secondary stress is quantity sensitive.[citation needed] Thus, if secondary stress would normally fall on a light (CV.) syllable but this is followed by a heavy syllable (CVV. or CVC.), the secondary stress moves one syllable further ("to the right") and the preceding foot (syllable group) therefore contains three syllables. Thus,omenanani ("as my apple") contains light syllables only and has primary stress on the first syllable and secondary on the third, as expected:ómenànani. On the other hand,omenanamme ('as our apple') has a light third syllable (na) and a heavy fourth syllable (nam), so secondary stress falls on the fourth syllable:ómenanàmme.
Certain Finnish dialects also have quantity-sensitive main stress pattern, but instead of moving the initial stress, they geminate the consonant, so that e.g. light-heavy CV.CVV becomes heavy-heavy CVCCVV, e.g. the partitive form of "fish" is pronouncedkalaa in the quantity-insensitive dialects butkallaa in the quantity-sensitive ones (cf. also the examples under the "Length" section).
Secondary stress falls on the first syllable of non-initial parts of compounds, for example the compoundpuunaama, meaning "wooden face" (frompuu, 'tree' andnaama, 'face'), is pronounced[ˈpuːˌnɑː.mɑ] butpuunaama, meaning "which was cleaned" (preceded by an agent in the genitive, "by someone"), is pronounced[ˈpuː.nɑː.mɑ].
Finnish is not reallyisochronic at any level. For example,huutelu ('shouting') andhuuhtelu ('flushing') are distinct words, where the initial syllableshuu- andhuuh- are of different length. Additionally, acoustic measurements show that the first syllable of a word is longer in duration than other syllables, in addition to its phonological doubling, unless it is an open syllable containing a short vowel in which case the second syllable has a longer duration.
Finnishsandhi is extremely frequent, appearing between many words and morphemes, in formal standard language and in everyday spoken language. In most registers, it is never written down; only dialectal transcriptions preserve it, the rest settling for amorphemic notation. There are two processes. The first is simpleassimilation with respect to place of articulation (e.g.np >mp). The second is predictivegemination of initial consonants on morpheme boundaries.
Simple phonetic incomplete assimilations include:
Gemination of a morpheme-initial consonant occurs when the morpheme preceding it ends in a vowel and belongs to one of certain morphological classes. Gemination or a tendency of a morpheme to cause gemination is sometimes indicated with an apostrophe or a superscripted "x", e.g.vene/ʋeneˣ/. Examples of gemination:
The gemination can occur between morphemes of a single word as in/minulle/ +/kin/ →[minulːekːin] ('to me too'; orthographicallyminullekin), between parts of a compound word as in/perhe/ +/pɑlɑʋeri/ →[perhepːɑlɑʋeri] ('family meeting'; orthographicallyperhepalaveri), or between separate words as in/tule/ +/tænne/ →[tuletːænːe] ('come here!'). In elaborate standard language, the gemination affects even morphemes with a vowel beginning:/otɑ/ +/omenɑ/ →[otɑʔːomenɑ] or[otɑʔomenɑ] ('take an apple!'). In casual speech, this is however often rendered as[otɑomenɑ] without a glottal stop.
These rules are generally valid for the standard language, although many Southwestern dialects, for instance, do not recognise the phenomenon at all. Even in the standard language there is idiolectal variation (disagreement between different speakers); e.g. whetherkolme ('three') should cause a gemination of the following initial consonant or not:[kolmeʋɑristɑ] or[kolmeʋːɑristɑ] ('three crows'). Both forms occur and neither one of them is standardised, since in any case it does not affect writing. In some dictionaries compiled for foreigners or linguists, however, the tendency of geminating the following consonant is marked by a superscriptx as inperhex.
Historically, morpheme-boundary gemination is the result of regressive assimilation. The preceding word originally ended in/h/ or/k/. For instance, the modern Finnish word for 'boat'vene used to beveneh (a form still existing in the closely relatedKarelian language). At some point in time, these/h/ and/k/s were assimilated by the initial consonant of a following word, e.g.veneh kulkevi' ('the boat is moving'). Here we get the modern Finnish form[ʋenekːulkeː] (orthographicallyvene kulkee), even though the independent form[ʋene] has no sign of the old final consonant/h/.
In many Finnish dialects, including that of Helsinki, the gemination at morpheme boundaries has become more widespread due to the loss of additional final consonants, which appear only as gemination of the following consonant, cf.French liaison. For example, the standard word for 'now'nyt has lost itst and becomeny in Helsinki speech. However,/ny/ +/se/ ('now it [does something]') is pronounced[nysːe] and not*[nyse] (although the latter would be permissible in the dialect of Turku).
Similar remnants of a lost word-final/n/ can be seen in dialects, where e.g. the genitive form of the first singular pronoun is regularly/mu/ (standard languageminun):/se/ +/on/ +/mu/ →[seomːu] ('it is mine'). Preceding an approximant, the/n/ is completely assimilated:[muʋːɑi̯mo] ('my wife'). Preceding a vowel, however, the/n/ however appears in a different form:/mu/ +/omɑ/ →[munomɑ] or even[munːomɑ] ('my own').
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