Pronunciation of Finnish Names

[RobertJasiek]

Quotation reference: http://www.lifein19x19.com/forum/viewto ... 60#p199860

I would never expect any foreigner to be able to correctly pronounce any Finnish names correctly (spelling is a different matter)

I cannot know about pronunciation of Finnish names but I am curious: my naive guess is that vowels with double letters would be long vowels pronounced like long German vowels and umlauts like German umlauts. How is the correct pronunciation of either in Finnish names? Is it consistent by spelling at all, at least for Finnish names that are not imported from foreign languages?

[TIM82]

We got double consonants in addition to double wovels and umlauts. Mixing all fluently in speech might take some practice, I guess.

First names a typically relatively simple

Salli = female name
Sali = "a hall"

Tuuli = Female name, also "wind"
Tuli = "fire"

Tuukka = my name (male)
Tukka = "hair"
Tuka = has no meaning, quite typical try from foreigners though
Tuuka = has no meaning

But with surnames, you sometimes get more hard stuff tugether:

Seppälä
Hökkä
Haanpää
Rinnesaari
Järvirinne

edit: and yes, it's consistent with spelling, as far as I understand - not an expert on the field.

[tj86430]

We'll, let me first clarify one thing: I'm by no means suggesting that pronouncing Finnish names is impossible or at times even very difficult to foreigners, I'm only suggesting that I would never _expect_ a foreigner to pronounce any Finnish names, even the easy ones, correctly (and that applies to all Finnish words)

I think that native German and Swedish speakers have perhaps one of the best starting points to pronounce Finnish (not just names) correctly, since there are (almost) the same vowels with umlaut (Swedish has exactly the same character set, although "ä" is often pronounced differently. German has no "å" - but it is both very easy and very rare -, but I think the pronounciation of "ä" is closer to Finnish than Swedish). I have most experience with native English speakers, and there are lots of difficult spots for them (many of them already mentioned)
- most (all?) vowels are pronounced differently from English
- short vs. long (double) vowels
- two (or more) different vowels following each other (extreme example, although not a name: "hääyöaie" - yes, that is one consonant and seven vowels, of which six are different)
- double consonants
- some consonants are also pronounced differently from English (esp. g and j come to mind)
- some special combinations, esp. "ng" (very rare in names, though)

The good news is that the pronunciation is extremely consistent. Once you know how for instance how a short "o" is pronounced, you know how it is pronounced in every single Finnish word (there is no nonsense like changing the pronunciation of a certain letter or combination of letters from one word to another, let alone pronouncing the same word differently depending on its meaning - e.g. "lead" in English). The Finns pronounce even foreign names when they are given to Finnish people like they were Finnish words.

[EdLee]

[Fedya]

We'll, let me first clarify one thing: I'm by no means suggesting that pronouncing Finnish names is impossible or at times even very difficult to foreigners,

I thought Finnish pronunciation is impossible, which is the reason Finns speak so little.

/sarcasm

And if Ed's going to post a Finnish song, then I have to post this classic:

Fredi looks so pervy with that outfit and moustache.

[tj86430]

Nice finds, both of you.

EdLee: those songs are in the eastern (Karelian) dialect, which is quite different from "official" or "book" Finnish (nobody - except perhaps newsreaders - pronounces exactly as "book" Finnish, but if a foreigner would do so, he would certainly be understood by everyone).

Some dialects are impossible to understand, let alone speak, for even native Finnish speakers. I'd say that it more than just different pronunciation, it's more like entirely different words (if something is written in dialect, e.g. in novels or other fiction, it is also written differently). Let's look at e.g. the personal pronoun "I":

official: minä
Helsinki area: mä
Eastern Finland: mie
Western Finland: mää

There are probably other variations, I'm not very good at the Finnish dialects.

But again, when we are talking about names, I would say that they are mostly pronounced the same way throughout the country, and the pronunciation is very "newsreader-like" everywhere.

[EdLee]

Hi TJ,

Thanks for the info.

I (still) know nothing about Finnish,
but I enjoy those two renderings a lot !
( Along with 13,000,000+ other viewers! )