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Changes in Spoken Finnish

  Tags: Finnish | Speaking
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17 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
Ellsworth
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 Message 1 of 17
10 May 2012 at 3:20am | IP Logged 
I am struggling dealing with the differences between spoken and written Finnish. On becomes oo, tule becomes tuu, minä becomes mä. It also seems like the -n is frequently unpronounced at the end of words. Are there explanations of these changes anywhere?
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jdmoncada
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 Message 2 of 17
10 May 2012 at 3:46am | IP Logged 
When I lived in Rovaniemi 10 years ago, the local dialect tended to lengthen some words. "Kolme" became "kolome" and a few others like that. "Helvetti" to "helevetti". I guess the pattern was to insert a vowel after the letter L which would normally be followed by a consonant.
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Ellsworth
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 Message 3 of 17
10 May 2012 at 3:50am | IP Logged 
I have heard that that way of speaking, with the vowel inserted, sounds *rural* to Finnish people. Do you know whether that is true?
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Chung
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 Message 4 of 17
10 May 2012 at 5:06am | IP Logged 
This is a reasonably informative introduction to the topic.
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jdmoncada
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 Message 5 of 17
10 May 2012 at 5:46am | IP Logged 
Ellsworth wrote:
I have heard that that way of speaking, with the vowel inserted, sounds *rural* to Finnish people. Do you know whether that is true?


I can not answer this question with authority. Rovaniemi is one of the larger cities as well as being a major tourist/university town. I wouldn't consider it rural at all, and that "accent" was common wherever I went in the city. I can not say, however, whether or not people who live in Helsinki, for example, would consider it quaint and rural.
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mustaviiksi
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 Message 6 of 17
10 May 2012 at 8:37am | IP Logged 
Ellsworth wrote:
I have heard that that way of speaking, with the vowel inserted, sounds *rural* to Finnish
people. Do you know whether that is true?


In my experience people all over Finland speak like that at times. I myself mix many dialects when I speak,
although I must admit that it sometimes confuses people. :)
The wikipedia article that Chung recommended seems to explain the changes pretty well. Good luck with
your studies!
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Pisces
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 Message 7 of 17
10 May 2012 at 11:15am | IP Logged 
The wikipedia article is all right, but confusing. I don't have a better source, though. I don't know that there are rules (unless you know a lot about linguistics).

I don't get the thing about final n's not being pronounced. I've never been conscious of such a phenomenon.

One thing I didn't see in the article was the use of the the present passive with the first person plural, e.g. "me mennään nyt". (Wait, it is there, but not very conspicuously - it's fairly important, though.)

I would never omit the negative verb from a sentence and it would sound very odd (and brusque) to me. (I'm referring to the article.)

In my opinion saying 'mettä' instead of 'metsä' is not really "accent free".

Some people (and children) simplify initial double consonants in common loan words, e.g. 'lunssa' instead of 'flunssa', but this can give an unsophisticated impression. (It's probably more common in the country.)

Keep in mind that people mix up the colloquial language and the written language, so where the article says 'X is not used in the spoken language' it has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Some people use more of the written forms in their speech. Also some of the colloquial forms are more colloquial than others. You don't need to learn the whole 'system' to use the colloquial forms. One challenge is keeping regional forms separate from the standard colloquial language.

It's an interesting subject. Good luck with it!
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Ellsworth
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 Message 8 of 17
10 May 2012 at 12:35pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for all the help!
Would I sound *odd* if I don't use the consonant sandhi when speaking? I find it rather confusing.


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