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Finnish: Distinguishing a from ä | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| sans-serif Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4504 days ago 298 posts - 470 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, English, German, Swedish Studies: Danish | Message 9 of 14 17 August 2013 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm slightly embarrassed that I've never noticed this. The assimilation appears to happen whenever an /a/ is followed by an /n/ or /m/ in a syllable. Very interesting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4198 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 10 of 14 21 August 2013 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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The vowels are very different to native ears and you really have to pay attention to get them right, because they can change the meaning. An example:
Olet väärässä - You are wrong (lit. you are in wrong) Olet vaarassa - You are in danger Do pay attention to the vowel length too; it can also influence meaning (vara = wealth; vaara = danger). Here is an exercise concerning both things; I'm pronouncing sääli, saalis, sali and säle so that you can compare the long and short a/ä sounds and learn to distinguish them easier. I'm exaggerating these sounds very lightly. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tahl Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4233 days ago 26 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English*, Welsh Studies: Spanish, Finnish | Message 11 of 14 21 August 2013 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Kiitos, Henkkles. I hear the difference when you pronounce things! Now if I can only get
better at hearing the difference when Pimsleur introduces new words... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maucca Diglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4596 days ago 33 posts - 64 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: French | Message 12 of 14 21 August 2013 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Personally, I've always found vowel charts an indispensable aid when trying to learn the correct pronunciation of some elusive vowels in English and French. The most accurate Finnish vowel charts are probably found on this page of the Helsinki University web site. And they show that indeed, especially the unstressed variants of "a" and "ä" are not as far apart as one might imagine.
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| Verikukko Diglot Newbie Finland Joined 3918 days ago 8 posts - 12 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: Korean | Message 13 of 14 30 January 2014 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Huh do they really sound similar? I think Ä sounds closer to E than A, and A & Ä don't
sound similar to me at all. Really interesting to hear. Also about the dialects regarding D and T: I've never heard a Finn who doesn't distinguish between them. Finnish dialects overall are dying I think, I haven't been to many cities though but the one's where I have been nobody has used any dialect. You should definitely learn yleiskieli. Misusing D:s and T:s isn't a big deal though, people will understand most things you say, but mixing A:s and Ä:s will make you misunderstood a lot. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4198 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 14 of 14 31 January 2014 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know where you have been but I know people in their twenties who speak very distinct dialects. The stress patterns and the overall pitch and speech style of someone from Kuopio is entirely different to that of someone who is from Rauma. There even exists a different preterite marker in the southeastern dialects, a funny example I found was something like this; "Mää kääntysin kattoma niit poikki siäl sauna lautteil" and yes, I've heard people in their twenties speak like this. That "kääntysin" is not conditional but actually the same as "käännyin" here in the south or in the standard language. I also know people from Tampere who don't pronounce "d". To them it's always "r" as in "me lähretäännym meneen."
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