I don't know how many "lectures" on Finnish I will be posting. This depends wholly on if there is interest or not. Please let me know, either on this topic, or personally, what you make of these lectures and if they are at all understandable. I am writing this from the top of my head without the aid of any book - most Finnish for foreigner books are quite annoying anyway as they seem to underestimate the possibility of foreigners to learn grammar no matter how difficult - and there might be questions coming up easily.

Anyway, in this lecture I will present the Finnish alphabet and pronounciation. It is quite hard for a foreigner to learn to pronounce Finnish. The language is quite clear, and there basically are no difficult sounds that do not appear in other languages. Still, producing some of the more subtle differences we will discuss below, as well as recognising them in quick speech, can seem impossible to a foreigner.

In these lectures I concentrate on literate Finnish, which is of course a language one seldom hears outside news broadcasts and university lectures. Probably because of the long distances and not easy reach of other "tribes" in the whole area, Finnish has a plentiful of different dialects, which all are quite distinguished and are used widely in literature. The words are very, very different in all dialects (for example, the word "I" can be minä, mää, mä, mie etc.) and this can be easily expressed in the written language.

Finnish is quite the monotonic language when spoken. The little stress each word has is always on the first syllable. Finns don't usually even raise their voice when proceeding towards the end of a question. There are no nasal or throath sounds. Otherwise Finnish is quite close to German when spoken; when written, it is closest to Latin (which was, not very surprisingly, a forebearer to the Finnish alphabet).

"Indigenous" Finnish uses only 20 alphabets: a, d, e, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, y, ä, ö. Each of these - and this makes learning to write spoken Finnish quite easy - matches one sound and one sound only. In addition to these alphabets matching sounds, there is only one sound which doesn't have an alphabet of its own, and that is the "ng" sound, which appears as "n"before the letter k (like in the word ankka (duck), OR in a double form as "ng" (for example in the word kuningas (king)). I will return to the pronounciation soon.

(This matching of alphabet and sound has also resulted in the fact that different dialects, when written, are clearly visible. An English-speaker can write "Hey you all" instead of the "Heyall" she actually would speak. A Finn uses the brilliant alphabet and writes, instead of "Menetkö tuonne" "Meetsä tonne" (latter in Helsinki dialect), as he can always express quite exactly the words as he is saying them.)

The alphabets and possible sounds b, c, f, g, q, w appear only in word loans and, as you can see above, g appears in the "ng" combination. C, q and w virtually never appear, except for names, and are pronounced like in English or German (as the names are usually English or German ones). B appears in more words, and is pronounced like in the English word "bar," which has been loaned to Finnish as the word "baari." As Finnish as such does not include these sounds, most people in careless everyday speech pronounce b as something inbetween the English b and p, and even d as quite close to our t. Also, our hard vowels are often softer than the English counterparts (especially those of British English).

At this stage it is good to note a couple of things about the formation of a Finnish word. In Finnish, no word except for word combinations of two or more words can include three consonants in a row. For example the word "three" could not be Finnish because of this. In addition, and partially as a result, there are lots of vowels in every word. Most Finnish words end with a vowel. (In word-loans the vowel is most commonly i, like in the example "baari" above.) Finnish words also include plenty of double vowels or -consonants. Double vowels are pronounced as about 1½ times as long as a single vowel. Quite close, in English, is the word "three" again. What in this word is marked by "ee" would be, in Finnish, spelled "ii." Double consonants are a bit harder to recognise in the beginning - they are sort of one full consonant and a bit shorter repetition following - a bit like in the English word "dagger" (except for no "g" in Finnish!) or (especially German) "Hammer."

Let us now proceed to discuss each alphabet and its specific sound. I will give an example of an English word for each, and mention something about the relationship to German to our German-speakers online, where necessary. Especially vowels are easy for German-speakers but hard for English-speakers, as in English the pronounciation of almost any vowel depends on the context, far less so in German, and not at all in Finnish. These will be quite straightforward instructions, and as no Finnish sounds match exactly any sounds in other languages (and this, of course, goes to all languages), to learn to pronounce Finnish you either have to get a tape or visit me.

a - like "u" in "bun"
(b - like in "bun")
d - like in "david"
e - like in "then" (like German)
(f - like in "ferry")
(g - like in "goliath")
h - like in "harry"
i - like in "in"
j - like "y" in "young" (like German, no dzzzz sound, just the "jing jang" thing)
k - like in "katherine"
l - like in "leave"
m - like in "man"
n - like in "no"
o - like in "bonfire" or "omelet" - not like in "owen" or "no", double version quite close to "door" (like German)
p - like in "peep"
r - is harder than in English, a good bit like in nothern Germany or in the Scottish and some Indian accents of English, by no means nothing as soft like English English, or as coughy (*G*) as southern Germany
s - quite soft s, like at least most Americans would have it in "same"
t - like in "teeth"
u - like in German. English doesn't seem to include a singular "u" sound anywhere, but there is a double "u" in "doom" or "bloom," or even "include" - in other words it is pronounced closer to the Finnish "a" or some other alphabet
v - like in "very" but Finnish "v" is a bit from between "v" and "w," as there is no distinct "w" in Finnish. Germans would pronounce "v" too close to "f" or AS "f" (in such words as "vielleicht" for example)
y - like German ü, not really explicable to English-speakers
ä - like "a" in "can:" in many English words "a" is pronounced as the Finnish "ä" sound; it is very open though. Like in German.
ö - like "u" in "burn," like the German version as well.

Then the "ng" sound, as promised. Before the letter k, n is pronounced as "ng" in the English word "king." Just try it - it makes complete sense. In most languages it would not make sense to pronounce first "n" like in "name" and then k or g. The "n" has to change to a softer, deeper sound, just like in the English word "bank." This nobody usually doesn't have to reflect upon if they grasp the idea that it is quite similar in other languages, and none of our languages seems to include a specific mark for the sound. "Nk"in Finnish is always pronounced like "nk" in "bank," although "n" as such would be pronounced differently (like in English).

Then the double "ng" sound. This, in Finnish, is always written as "ng" (and is quite rare). For example the words "kuningas" and "kuningatar" (king and queen). The "ng" part of the words is pronounced as twice the "n" sound before "k" discussed above. It sounds pretty much like the "gn" in the English word "magnolia." This, I repeat, is not difficult, if you have grasped the idea. The point is that in the short "ng" sound (marked "n" before "k") the "n" sound is different and the "k" can be heard, like in "bank." In this latter, double version (marked "ng"), the "g" cannot be heard like in the word "Gabriel," but, like in "magnolia," it is faded into the combination and sounds like twice the same sound as "n" in "bank," and no parcitular "g" sound follows.

Next lecture will be a basic presentation of verbs present tense, indicative modus. Which, I promise, will be hard, but it can still be learned (whatever Finnish authors think! *G*).