Finnish alphabet
From UniLang Wiki
The alphabet used for Finnish consists of 29 letters. It is identical to the Swedish alphabet. In fact, this alphabet can be seen as being a copy from Swedish, as it doesn't fully reflect the sounds used in Finnish. It basically has more letters than what Finnish would need. Some letters are considered foreign (C, B, F, G, Q, W, X, Z, Å), and are used in foreign language names or in loan words. Finnish spelling of foreign language words can also include Š(hattu äs) and Ž(hattu tset), but they are not seen to be a part of the alphabet. The only sound of standard Finnish not really represented by a separate letter of this alphabet is the ŋ-sound. It is represented by NG (Helsingin, ongelma), or when combined with a K as NK (Helsinki, onkia).
| Letter | Name | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | aa | /ɑ/ | open back unrounded |
| B | bee | /b/ | |
| C | see | /seː/ | mostly pronounced like S or K |
| D | dee | /deː/ | voiced lax alveolar stop |
| E | ee | /eː/ | half-close front unrounded |
| F | äf | /æf/ | |
| G | gee | /geː/ | |
| H | hoo | /hoː/ | unaspirated |
| I | ii | /iː/ | close front unrounded |
| J | jii | /jiː/ | voiced palatal glide |
| K | koo | /koː/ | unvoiced unaspirated velar stop |
| L | äl | /æl/ | voiced alveolar lateral |
| M | äm | /æm/ | voiced bilabial nasal |
| N | än | /æn | voiced alveolar nasal |
| O | oo | /oː/ | half-close back rounded |
| P | pee | /peː/ | unvoiced unaspirated bilabial stop |
| Q | kuu | /kuː/ | mostly pronounced like K |
| R | är | /ær/ | voiced alveolar trill (rolled "r") |
| S | äs | /æs/ | unvoiced alveolar sibilant |
| T | tee | /teː/ | unvoiced unaspirated alveolar stop |
| U | uu | /uː/ | close back rounded |
| V | vee | /ʋeː | |
| W | kaksoisvee (/tuplavee) | /ʋeː/ | mostly pronounced like V |
| X | äks | /æks/ | mostly pronounced like KS |
| Y | yy | /yː/ | close front rounded |
| Z | tseta | /tset/ | mostly pronounced like TS |
| Å | ruotsalainen oo | /oː/ | pronounced like OO or O |
| Ä | ää | /æː/ | open front unrounded |
| Ö | öö | /øː/ | half-close front rounded |
Take a look at the Pronunciation Guide for Finnish written by Stacy on the UniLang resource site for examples of how to pronounce each letter, and contains example sound clips for each.
Also look at Finnish pronunciation for a more in-depth details of each letter.
External links
Finnish alphabet - Wikipedia
Pronunciation of Finnish in a nutshell
