Spoken Finnish

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This article deals with features of the spoken Finnish language, specifically how it is spoken in Greater Helsinki capital region and the cities in the Central Finnish dialectal area, such as Jyväskylä, Lahti, Hyvinkää, and Hämeenlinna. The standard language is based on these dialects, as most "dialectal" features are reductions with respect to Central Finnish. In addition, this applies also to the coastal cities, such as Vaasa and Porvoo1, which have been traditionally Swedish-speaking, and have experienced an influx of Finnish speakers from a variety of dialectal areas.

The basics of Finnish needed to fully understand this article can be found in pages about Finnish phonology and Finnish grammar.

Contents

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Introduction

As in any language, the spoken version(s) of Finnish vary, sometimes markedly, from the written form. Some of these variations are due to speakers' inexactitude, but some aspects of spoken Finnish have different grammatical properties from written Finnish. The formal language is a constructed language, a fusion of dialects that is no one's mother tongue. Some of its constructs are either too "made up" (e.g. "soft D", cf. Finnish phonology), or too dialectal, e.g. hän (see below), for use in the spoken language. Furthermore, some very common and "accentless" sound changes are not reflected in the standard language.

There is also the problem that purists want to avoid irregularity regardless of actual usage. This has left some sound changes common in spoken language out from the standard language. There is a tendency to favor "more logical" constructs over easily pronounceable ones. This ideal does reflect spoken Finnish usage to a degree, as Finnish is demostrably a conservative language with few reduction processes, but it is not entirely accurate. For example, ruoka produces ruoan when consonant gradation removes the 'k', but in spoken language, a further assimilation produces ruuan. Both spellings are used even in standard language. The problem of avoiding "irregularity" is most pronounced in spelling, where internal sandhi is not transcribed, because there is the idea that morphemes should be immutable. For example, the "correct" spelling is syönpä ("I'll eat"), even though the pronunciation is always syömpä. The explanation is that -n- and -pä are in different morphemes.

There are also a number of grammatical forms which are used in written Finnish, but only very rarely in spoken. For example, there are a number of constructions using participles which are usually rendered analytically in speech. Some cases and moods are rarely constructive in spoken Finnish, e.g. the instructive and comitative cases and the potential mood. Some survive only in expressions.

On the other hand, spoken language has its own features rare or not found in formal language. Most importantly, there is very common external sandhi, and some assimilatory sound changes. (On the contrary, there is no vowel reduction.) There are also grammatical innovations, such as question formation by simple word order, e.g. menet sä? vs. sä menet., "Do you go?" vs. "You go", respectively. In some variants (e.g. Vaasa, Kymenlaakso) of spoken Finnish -n kanssa is abbreviated into a clitic that is effectively a comitative case, e.g. -nkans or -nkaa.


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Pronunciation

The most common reflexes for old Finnish dental fricatives are /d/ for /ð/, and /ts/ or /tt/ for /θθ/. For example, metsä or mettä < *meθθä and veden < veðen. Loss of 'd' also occurs, e.g. meiän. These are seen as "accent-free" pronunciations. Dialects generally have different reflexes; see Finnish phonology.

One important sound change, which has gone to completion in Estonian but occurs complicated in Finnish is the glottalization of word-final 'n'. In some dialects, such as Savo, word-final 'n' is systematically replaced by a glottal stop, e.g. isä'iän ← isän ääni "father's voice". (Orthographically it is an apostrophe.) In the Helsinki area, both pronunciations are seen. This means that the genitive/accusative form -n, which is very common in any form of Finnish, is simply noted by a glottal stop. However, this glottal stop undergoes sandhi whenever followed by consonant, or more often than not (see below).

Since the stress in Finnish always falls on the first syllable of the word, the ends of words greater than one syllable tend to erode. This is frequently by the loss of a final vowel, or assimilation of a final vowel with a preceding vowel. This is actually a feature of Western Finnish dialects, found also in Savonian dialects and Estonian. The paragoge using -i (as prescribed in standar language) is not found, only epenthesis using -i- occurs whenever inflectional endings are added.

'anteeksi!' = 'sorry!' → 'anteeks!' (no paragoge)
'yksi' = 'one' → 'yks'

Final vowel often assimilates, especially in Helsinki, where only the resulting chroneme marks the partitive in many words.

'puhun suomea' = 'I speak Finnish' → 'puhun suomee'

A related phenomenon is the final consonant sandhi, similar to the initial consonant mutation in Welsh. It allows the speech to not to "get stuck" to word boundaries, and because of this, may be heard even in formal language. When a word ends in a stressed mora, which ends in a vowel or an omittable consonant, the consonant beginning the next word is doubled and it connects the words. For example, nyt vaan becomes nyvvaan. The two words end up being pronounced as if they were a compound word, i.e. the auxiliary stress is on the syllables beginning the words. This is virtually never written down, except in dialectal transcriptions. For example, "Now it arrives! You go first":

Nyt se tulee! Mene sinä ensin. (standard)
Ny se tulee! Mee sä ensin. (spoken, usually spelled like this)
Nysse tulee! Meessä ensin. (actual pronunciation)

If the consonant cannot be omitted, this does not happen. For example:

Menetkö sinä ensin?
Meeksä ensin? = "Will you go first?"

The meaning would change, if the consonant was omitted:

Mene sinä ensin.
Meessä ensin. = "You go first."

Generally, you should notice that spoken Finnish is not neatly divided up into words as the spelling would suggest, due to other phonotactical sandhi effects. For example, regardless of word boundaries, np is always mp, nk is always ŋk (where ŋ is a velar nasal). Observe the result, if we denote only an actual break in pronunciation with a space:

[Viitsisitsäottaattompois japistääʔʔoveŋkii?] (pronunciation; ʔ glottal stop, ŋ velar nasal)
Viitsisit sä ottaa ton pois ja pistää oven kii? (standard spelling)
Viitsisitkö sinä ottaa tuon pois ja pistää oven kiinni? (formal language)
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Personal pronouns

Some dialects have the full-length personal pronouns 'minä' and 'sinä', but most people use shorter equivalents, like these found in Greater Helsinki region.

minä → mä
sinä → sä

The root words are also shorter:

minu- → mu-
sinu- → su-

The third person pronouns 'hän', 'he' are commonly used in spoken language only in Southwestern Finland, and increasingly rarely also there. Elsewhere they are usually replaced by their non-personal equivalents - note that there is no pejorative sense in talking about people as 'it', unlike in English.

hän → se
he → ne

For example, the sentence "Did he mistake me for you?" has these forms:

Luuliko hän minua sinuksi?
Luuliks se mua suks?
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Numerals

Numerals 1-10 in colloquial spoken Finnish:

yks (yksi)
kaks (kaksi)
kolme / kol
neljä / nel
viis (viisi)
kuus (kuusi)
seittemä(n) (seitsemän)
kaheksa(n) (kahdeksan)
yheksä(n) (yhdeksän)
kymmene(n)


If one is forced to count fast then even shorter forms are used:

yy
kaa
koo
nee
vii
kuu
sei / see
kasi
ysi
kymppi


The numerals 1–9 have their own names, different from the cardinal numbers used in counting. Numbers that have longer names are often shortened in speech. This may be problematic for a foreigner to understand, if she/he has learned words by book:

ykkönen (number one)
kakkonen (number two)
kolmonen (number three)
nelonen: (number four)
viitonen (number five) (→ vitonen)
kuutonen (number six) (→ kutonen)
seitsemäinen (number seven) → seiska
kahdeksainen / kahdeksikko (number eight) → kasi / kaheksikko
yhdeksäinen / yhdeksikkö (number nine) → ysi / yheksikkö

The -kko suffix normally denotes a group of x people, but on 8 and 9, it doubles as a synonyme for the numeral's name. Kahdeksikko is also used to describe a lemniscate-like shape.

The regular -Onen / -inen forms can additionally be used of objects with an ID number. For example, bus 107 is called sataseiska, and a competition winner is an ykkönen (not *sataseittemän or *yks.)

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Verbs

As noted in the Finnish grammar page, the passive form is normally used in speech for first-person plural. This happens in all tenses, and also for the conditional:

'me olemme olleet lomalla' = 'we have been on holiday' → 'me on oltu lomalla', 'me ollaan oltu lomalla'

In the latter case the 'me' is obligatory, whereas it is not in the 'proper' case since the verb's inflection indicates the person and number. However, 'ollaan oltu lomalla' may be used for example when being asked 'Where have you been?'='Missä te olette olleet?', yet this is very spoken language, and should not be used in written text.

The third-person singular form of the present tense is often used after 'ne' in place of the plural form. The full present-tense paradigm of 'puhua' = 'to speak' in everyday speech is:

mä puhun (minä puhun)
sä puhut (sinä puhut)
se puhuu (hän puhuu)
me puhutaan (me puhumme)
te puhutte (te puhutte)
ne puhuu (he puhuvat)

Some frequently used short verbs have abbreviated (irregular) roots. There is a peculiarity here: in Finnish, the third person imperative is the root (uninflected form) for personal forms. For example, mene! (go!) gives the personal forms menen, menet, menee (I go, you go, he goes, respectively). The first infinitive is mennä "to go", where consonant gradation changes -nn- into -n-, the final -ä is removed and -e- is added: mennä → mene-. However, the root might change in spoken language, even though the infinitive stays the same.

engl. I inf. imp. irreg. imp.
be olla ole oo
go mennä mene mee
come tulla tule tuu
put panna pane paa

For example, Mene tai tule, mutta pane se ovi kiinni ja ole hiljaa → Mee tai tuu, mut paa se ovi kii ja oo hiljaa. (word-by-word) "Go or come, but put the door closed and be quiet." The reply might be Meen tai tuun, paan oven kii ja oon hiljaa ("I will go or come, put the door closed and be quiet"). The infinitives are unchanged: Mennä tai tulla, panna ovi kii ja olla hiljaa ("To go or to come, to put the door closed and to be quiet").

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Questions

In everyday speech, the -ko/kö suffix has the -s clitic added, becoming -kos/kös, which in turn reduces to -ks:

olenko minä hengissä? = 'am I alive?' → oonksmä hengissä?
puhutko sinä englantia? = 'do you (sg.) speak English?' → puhutsä englantii? or puhuksä englantii?
tuliko hän jo? = 'did he/she come yet?' → tulikse jo? (via tuliko se jo?)
tekeekö Pekka jotain järkevääkin? = 'does Pekka do something that makes sense, too?' → :tekeeks Pekka jotain järkevääki?
haluammeko me nyt lähteä? = 'do we want to go now?' → halutaanksme ny lähtee? (via :halutaanko me nyt lähteä?)
odotatteko te tässä hetken? = 'would you (pl.) wait here for a moment?' → ootattekste täs hetken?
sanoivatko he jotain? = 'did they say something?' → sanoksne jotain? (via sanoiko ne jotain?)

The clitic -s is also found in imperatives, e.g. menes "(I expect you to) go!"

In e.g. the Helsinki area, the -tkö elides not to -ks, but -t before a 's', e.g. menetkö sä ? menet sä. Because this is identical to sä menet except for the word order, question formation by word order is grammaticalized.

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Possessive suffix

Spoken language has a different grammar for the possessive suffix. For direct addresses, save for one form it is not used, so that the pronoun cannot be omitted. Even in the second-person singular, the pronoun is virtually never omitted.

Formal Spoken English
(minun) taloni mun talo my house
(sinun) talosi sun talo(s)/talos your (sg) house
(hänen) talonsa sen talo his/her house
(meidän) talomme meiän talo our house
(teidän) talonne teiän talo your (pl) house
(heidän) talonsa niitten/niien talo their house

Notice one fact: Finnish has no possessive adjectives; these adjectives are formed like "I's house", "you's house", "we's house".

However, the suffices -s, -nsa and -nne are used to avoid repeating a pronoun, e.g. "He took his hat and left" is Se otti lakkinsa ja lähti. (The incorrect word-by-word translation from English *Se otti sen lakin ja lähti would mean "He took the hat and left".)

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Omission of the negative verb

When a negative sentence is formed, the main verb goes into the imperative mood and gives all of its inflections to the negative verb ei, e.g. tuemme → emme tue. Usually the word mitään ("anything") and an expletive is added to the sentence. This means that even if the negative verb ei is left out, the meaning is indicated by this context. For example:

Ei se mitään osaa. "He doesn't know anything."
se mitään osaa. "He know anything."

Usually this construction indicates mistrust or frustration. (There is a less than serious text calling this aggressiivi.) However, it can be a neutral negative statement: Tästä artikkelista mitään opi (From this article, you don't learn anything).

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Important regional variations

This is a feature of several dialects, such as those of Ostrobothnia and Savonia: breaking up some consonant clusters on syllable boundaries with an epenthetic vowel. The neutral vowel is the same as the preceding vowel. For example, juhla → juhula "celebration", salmi → salami "strait", palvelu → palavelu "service", halpa → halapa, äffä → ähävä (via ähvä) "letter F". Pairs of dissimilar consonants with /l/ or /h/ (in Savo, also /n/) as the first consonant are subject to epenthesis; other clusters or geminates are not.

  • Tavastian dialects are diverse because other, surrounding dialects have influenced on them. The following features are all found in Finnish spoken in Helsinki, and many of them occur also in some other Tavastian dialects.
    • Word sillai "in that way", which is usually something else like silleen elsewhere.
    • Partitive plurals ending -ja/-jä in generic Finnish become -i, and likewise the partitive plural -ia/-iä simplifies to -ii: märkiä takkeja → märkii takkei "wet jackets". (also in Nurmijärvi, Kotka)
    • The first infinitive, e.g. juosta "to run", is replaced by the third-person form juoksee "runs" by some speakers. For example, standard Voisitko sinä juosta hakemaan sen becomes Voisitsä juoksee hakeen sen "Could you run to get it". This form is probably historically speaking not the third-person form, but the colloquial, shortened form juokseen of the third infinitive form juoksemaan, which exhibites a tendency to oust the first infinitive even in the formal language, cf. the old dispute, whether alkaa juoksemaan ("to start running") should be allowed in the formal language or not (the current norm is still alkaa juosta with the first infinitive). (also in Tuusula and Nurmijärvi)
    • Abbreviations are common in Finnish spoken in the Southern coast of Finland. Final syllables in frequently used words may erode, like sitten → sit, mutta → mut. Case endings might be abbreviated, usually by the loss of the final vowel, e.g. siltä → silt. (If a geminate would be "left dangling" at the end of the word, it becomes a single consonant, e.g. talossa → *taloss → talos.)
    • Helsinki also has a local slang, containing foreign loanwords which may be unintelligible to people from other parts of Finland. Some slang words have spread to the spoken language of youngsters elsewhere in Finland.
  • Tampere is also in the area of Tavastian dialects.
    • Occasional flapping or deletion of intervocalic "L"; the resulting sound is orthographically nil: kyllä siellä olisi → kyä siä ois. This is seen even in the accentless form oisko ← standard olisiko.
  • Karelia: minä → mie, sinä → sie
  • Southwestern dialects
    • Abbreviation occurs very often.
    • In Turku: minä → mää, sinä → sää
  • Savonia: some pronoun changes, me → myö, and te → työ. Notice that the Savo dialect has complicated changes in grammar, vowels and consonants compared to the standard language, e.g. eilen → öylen, meni → mänj (palatalization), omaa rataansa → ommoo rattoosa. The Savo dialect is the largest single dialect, and as such, has variants that differ significantly.
  • Ostrobothnia: Consonant clusters with -j- are not allowed, so that a -i- is pronounced instead, e.g. kirja → kiria. Minor vowel changes, for example, taloa → talua. Particularly, the half-long vowels (found in word-final codaless single-vowel syllables) are lengthened into full-blown long vowels, as in iso → isoo. The sound D is completely replaced with R, which produces problems such as that there is almost no contrast between veden (of water) and veren (of blood). There exists a small contrast difference that can be distinguished by people who actually live there, but from other people's view there is no difference. Usually the R replacing D is a bit shorter than actual R is, and you can also distinguish between R and D with other words surrounding the word.
  • Vaasa, Ostrobothnia, to an extent generic Finnish, too: Many frequently used expressions become clitics - this is optional, though. E.g. pronouns become clitics for the negative verb ei and for the verb "to be". In this table, the apostrophe (') is something between a full J and no sound at all.
Written Spoken Written example Spoken example
minä m' minä olen, minä en, minä en ole moon, men, mäen o
sinä s' sinä olet, sinä et, sinä et ole soot, säet, säet o
hän s' hän on, hän ei, hän ei ole son, sei, sei'oo
me m' me olemme, me emme, me emme ole mollaan, mei, mei'olla
te t' te olette, te ette, te ette ole tootte, tette, tette oo
he n' he ovat, he eivät, he eivät ole noon, nei, nei'oo

One small detail, which irritates people from other places to no end, is that the word kuka ("who") is replaced by its partitive form, ketä ("at who"), e.g. Ketä siellä oli? ("Who was there?") Other unusual question pronouns are mihinä (std. missä, "where") and mihkä (std. mihin, "into where"). Here, the word mihinä uses the ancient Finnish locative currently known as the essive case, instead of the standard specialized locative inessive case.


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References

  1. Aila Mielikäinen, Marjatta Palander. Suomalaisten murreasenteista. [1]
  2. Aila Mielikäinen. Puhekielen varieteetteja.
  3. Heikki Paunonen. Suomi Helsingissä.
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See also

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External links

fi:Puhekieli

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