Finnish language

Finnish
suomi
Pronunciation	IPA:[ˈsuo̯mi]
Native to	Finland,Sweden,Norway(in small areas inTromsandFinnmark),Russia
Ethnicity	Finns
Native speakers	5.0 million Finland:4.75 million (2023) Sweden:200–250 thousand (2022) Norway:8,000 (Kven) Russia (Karelia): 8,500 US: 26,000 (2020)
Language family	Uralic Finno-Ugric Finno Permic Finno-Samic Finnic Northern Finnic Finnish
Dialects	Southwest Tavastian South Ostrobothnian Central and Northern Ostrobothnian Peräpohjola Savonian South Karelian
Writing system	Latin(Finnish Alpha bet) Finnish Braille
Signed forms	Signed Finnish
Official status
Official language in	Finland European Union Nordic Council
Recognised minority language in	Sweden (official minority language) Russia (Karelia) Norway (Kven language) (Finnmark)
Regulated by	Language Planning Department of theInstitute for the Languages of Finland
Language codes
ISO 639-1	fi
ISO 639-2	fin
ISO 639-3	fin
Glottolog	nucl1717
Linguasphere	41-AAA-a
Primary spoken language Minority spoken language

Finnish(endonym:suomi[ˈsuo̯mi]orsuomen kieli[ˈsuo̯meŋˈkie̯li]) is aFinnic languageof theUraliclanguage family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the twoofficial languagesof Finland, alongsideSwedish.InSweden,both Finnish andMeänkieli(which has significantmutual intelligibilitywith Finnish) are officialminority languages.TheKven language,which like Meänkieli is mutually intelligible with Finnish, is spoken in theNorwegiancountiesTromsandFinnmarkby a minority group of Finnish descent.

Finnish istypologicallyagglutinativeand uses almost exclusivelysuffixal affixation.Nouns,adjectives,pronouns,numeralsandverbsareinflecteddepending on their role in thesentence.Sentences are normally formed withsubject–verb–objectword order, although the extensive use of inflection allows them to be ordered differently. Word order variations are often reserved for differences ininformation structure.Finnish orthographyuses a Latin-script Alpha bet derived from the Swedish Alpha bet, and isphoneticto a great extent.Vowel lengthandconsonant lengthare distinguished, and there are a range ofdiphthongs,althoughvowel harmonylimits which diphthongs are possible.

Classification

Finnish belongs to theFinnicbranch of theUralic language family;as such, it is one of the few European languages that is notIndo-European.The Finnic branch also includesEstonianand a few minority languages spoken around theBaltic Seaand in Russia'sRepublic of Karelia.The closest relative of Finnish is eitherIngrian,or depending on the definition,Karelian.Finnic languages form a dialect continuum, where for instance Finnish and Estonian are not separated by any single isogloss that would separate dialects considered "Finnish" from those considered "Estonian", despite the two standard languages being not mutually intelligible.

Finnish demonstrates an affiliation with otherUralic languages(such asHungarianandSami languages) in several respects including:

• Shared morphology:
  • case suffixes such asgenitive-n,partitive-(t)a/-(t)ä( <Proto-Uralic*-ta,originallyablative),essive-na/-nä( <*-na,originallylocative)
  • plural markers-tand-i-( < Proto-Uralic*-tand*-j,respectively)
  • possessive suffixes such as 1st person singular-ni( < Proto-Uralic*-n-mi), 2nd person singular-si( < Proto-Uralic*-ti).
  • various derivational suffixes (e.g.causative-tta/-ttä< Proto-Uralic*-k-ta)
• Shared basic vocabulary displaying regular sound correspondences with the other Uralic languages (e.g.kala'fish' ~North Saamiguolli~Hungarianhal;andkadota'disappear' ~ North Saamiguođđit~ Hungarianhagy'leave (behind)'.

Several theories exist as to the geographic origin of Finnish and the other Uralic languages. The most widely held view is that they originated as aProto-Uralic languagesomewhere in theboreal forestbelt around theUral Mountainsregion and/or the bend of the middleVolga.The strong case for Proto-Uralic is supported by common vocabulary with regularities in sound correspondences, as well as by the fact that the Uralic languages have many similarities in structure and grammar.Despite having overlapping geographical distributions, Finnic languages andSami languagesare not closely related, and the hypothesis of a separate taxonomic "Finno-Samic"node is controversial.

TheDefense Language InstituteinMonterey, California,United States, classifies Finnish as a level III language (of four levels) in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers.

Geographic distribution

Share of Finnish speakers in the population ofmunicipalities of Finlandin 2020.

Areas in Central and Southern Sweden with a Finnish-speaking population (2005)

Finnish is spoken by about five million people, most of whom reside in Finland. There are also notable Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. The majority of the population of Finland (90.37% as of 2010) speak Finnish as theirfirst language.The remainder speakSwedish(5.42%),one of theSámilanguages (for exampleNorthern,Inari,orSkolt), or another language as their first language. Finnish is spoken as a second language in Estonia by about 167,000 people.The varieties of Finnish found in Norway'sFinnmark(namelyKven) and in northern Sweden (namelyMeänkieli) have the status of official minority languages, and thus can be considered distinct languages from Finnish. However, since these languages aremutually intelligible,one may alternatively view them asdialects of the same language.

No language census exists for Norway, neither for Kven, standard Finnish, or combined. As of 2023, 7,454 first- or second-generation immigrants from Finland were registered as having Norwegian residency,while as of 2021, 235 Finns were registered as foreigners studying at Norwegian higher education.Great Norwegian Encyclopediaestimates Kven speakers at 2,000-8,000.Altogether, this results in a total amount of Finnish-speakers roughly between 7,200 and 15,600.

In thelatest census,around 1000 people in Russia claimed to speak Finnish natively; however, a larger amount of 14,000 claimed to be able to speak Finnish in total.

There are also forms of Finnish spoken by diasporas outside Europe, such asAmerican Finnish,spoken byFinnish Americans,andSiberian Finnish,spoken bySiberian Finns.

Official status

Today, Finnish is one of twoofficial languagesof Finland (the other being Swedish), and has been an official language of theEuropean Unionsince 1995. However, the Finnish language did not have an official status in the country during theperiod of Swedish rule,which ended in 1809. After the establishment of theGrand Duchy of Finland,and against the backdrop of theFennoman movement,the language obtained its official status in theFinnish Dietof 1863.

Finnish also enjoys the status of an officialminority language in Sweden.Under theNordic Language Convention,citizens of theNordic countriesspeaking Finnish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs.However, concerns have been expressed about the future status of Finnish in Sweden, for example, where reports produced for the Swedish government during 2017 show that minority language policies are not being respected, particularly for the 7% of Finns settled in the country.

History

Prehistory

TheUralic familyof languages, of which Finnish is a member, are hypothesized to derive from a single ancestor language termedProto-Uralic,spoken sometime between 8,000 and 2,000 BCE (estimates vary) in the vicinity of theUral Mountains.Over time, Proto-Uralic split into variousdaughter languages,which themselves continued to change and diverge, yielding yet more descendants. One of these descendants is thereconstructedProto-Finnic,from which theFinnic languagesdeveloped.

Current models assume that three or more Proto-Finnic dialects evolved during the first millennium BCE.These dialects were defined geographically, and were distinguished from one another along a north–south split as well as an east–west split. The northern dialects of Proto-Finnic, from which Finnish developed, lacked the mid vowel[ɤ].This vowel was found only in the southern dialects, which developed intoEstonian,Livonian,andVotian.The northern variants used third person singular pronounhäninstead of southerntämä(Est.tema). While the eastern dialects of Proto-Finnic (which developed in the modern-day eastern Finnish dialects, Veps, Karelian, and Ingrian) formed genitive plural nouns via plural stems (e.g., eastern Finnishkalojen<*kaloi-ten), the western dialects of Proto-Finnic (today's Estonian, Livonian and western Finnish varieties) used the non-plural stems (e.g., Est.kalade<*kala-ten). Another defining characteristic of the east–west split was the use of thereflexivesuffix-(t)te,used only in the eastern dialects.

Medieval period

Birch bark letter no. 292is the oldest known document in any Finnic language.

Thebirch bark letter 292from the early 13th century is the first known document in anyFinnic language.The first known written example of Finnish itself is found in a German travel journal dating back toc. 1450:Mÿnna tachton gernast spuho sommen gelen Emÿna daÿda(Modern Finnish: "Minä tahdon kernaasti puhua suomen kielen, [mutta] en minä taida;"English:" I want to speak Finnish, [but] I am not able to ").According to the travel journal, the words are those of a Finnish bishop whose name is unknown. The erroneous use ofgelen(Modern Finnishkielen) in the accusative case, rather thankieltäin the partitive, and the lack of theconjunctionmuttaare typical of foreign speakers of Finnish even today.At the time, most priests in Finlandspoke Swedish.

During the Middle Ages, whenFinland was under Swedish rule,Finnish was onlyspoken.At the time, the language ofinternational commercewasMiddle Low German,the language of administrationSwedish,and religious ceremonies were held inLatin.This meant that Finnish speakers could use their mother tongue only in everyday life. Finnish was considered inferior to Swedish, and Finnish speakers were second-class members of society because they could not use their language in any official situations. There were even efforts to reduce the use of Finnish through parish clerk schools, the use of Swedish in church, and by having Swedish-speaking servants and maids move to Finnish-speaking areas.

Writing system

Mikael Agricola,a 19th-century drawing byAlbert Edelfelt

Elias Lönnrotas depicted in a 19th-century caricature – Lönnrot made several journeys to Karelia and Eastern Finland to collect folklore, from which he compiled theKalevala.

The first comprehensive writing system for Finnish was created byMikael Agricola,a Finnish bishop, in the 16th century. He based his writing system on thewestern dialects.Agricola's ultimate plan was totranslate the Bible,but first he had to develop anorthographyfor the language, which he based on Swedish, German, and Latin. The Finnishstandard languagestill relies on his innovations with regard to spelling, though Agricola used less systematic spelling than is used today.

Though Agricola's intention was that eachphoneme(andallophoneunderqualitative consonant gradation) should correspond to one letter, he failed to achieve this goal in various respects. For example,k,c,andqwere all used for the phoneme/k/.Likewise, he alternated betweendhanddto represent the allophonic[ð](likethin Englishthis), betweendhandzto represent/θː/(likethinthin,but longer in duration), and betweenghandgto represent the allophonic[ɣ].Agricola did not consistently representvowel lengthin his orthography.

Others revised Agricola's work later, striving for a more systematic writing system. Along the way, Finnish lost severalfricative consonantsin a process ofsound change.The sounds[ð]and[θ(ː)]disappeared from the language, surviving only in a small rural region in Western Finland.In the standard language, however, the effect of the lost sounds is thus:

• [ð]became[d].The sound[ð]was written ⟨d⟩ or ⟨dh⟩ by Agricola. This sound was lost from most varieties of Finnish, either losing all phonetic realization or being pronounced as[r],[ɾ],[l],or[h]instead (depending on dialect and the position in the word). However, Agricola's spelling ⟨d⟩ prevailed, and the pronunciation in Standard Finnish became[d]throughspelling pronunciation.
• [θː,θ]became[ts].These interdental fricatives were written as ⟨tz⟩ (for bothgrades:geminate and short) in some of the earliest written records. Though these developed into a variety of other sounds depending on dialect ([tː,t],[ht,h],[ht,t],[sː,s],[tː,tː],or[ht,ht]), the standard language has arrived atspelling pronunciation[ts](which is treated as aconsonant clusterand hence not subject to consonant gradation).
• [ɣ]became:
  • [ʋ]if it appeared originally betweenhighroundvowels[u]and[y](cf.suku'kin, family':suvun[genitive form] from earlier*suku: *suɣun,andkyky:kyvyn'ability, skill' [nominative and genitive, respectively] from*kükü: *küɣün,contrasting withsika:sian'pig, pork' [nominative and genitive] from*sika: *siɣan.A similar process explains the/f/pronunciation for some English words with "gh", such as "tough" ),
  • [j]between a liquid consonant[l]or[r]and a vowel[e](like inkuljen'I go', a form of the verbkulkea'to go' that was originally*kulɣen),
  • and otherwise it was lost entirely.

Modern Finnish punctuation, along with that of Swedish, uses thecolon(:) to separate thestemof a word and its grammatical ending in some cases, for example afteracronyms,as inEU:ssa'in the EU'. (This contrasts with some other Alpha betic writing systems, which would use other symbols, such as e.g. apostrophe, hyphen.) Since suffixes play a prominent role in the language, this use of the colon is quite common.

Modernization

In the 19th centuryJohan Vilhelm Snellmanand others began to stress the need to improve the status of Finnish. Ever since the days of Mikael Agricola, written Finnish had been used almost exclusively in religious contexts, but now Snellman'sHegeliannationalisticideas of Finnish as a fully-fledged national language gained considerable support. Concerted efforts were made to improve the status of the language and to modernize it, and by the end of the century Finnish had become a language of administration, journalism, literature, and science in Finland, along with Swedish.

In 1853Daniel Europaeuspublished the first Swedish-Finnish dictionary,and between 1866 and 1880Elias Lönnrotcompiled the first Finnish-Swedish dictionary.In the same period,Antero Wareliusconducted ethnographic research and, among other topics, he documented the geographic distribution of the Finnish dialects.

The most important contributions to improving the status of Finnish were made byElias Lönnrot.His impact on the development of modern vocabulary in Finnish was particularly significant. In addition to compiling theKalevala,he acted as an arbiter in disputes about the development of standard Finnish between the proponents of western and eastern dialects, ensuring that the western dialects preferred by Agricola retained their preeminent role, while many originally dialect words from Eastern Finland were introduced to the standard language, thus enriching it considerably.The first novel written in Finnish (and by a Finnish speaker) wasSeven Brothers(Seitsemän veljestä), published byAleksis Kiviin 1870.

Dialects

Map of Finnish dialects and forms of speech

The dialects of Finnish are divided into two distinct groups, Western and Eastern.The dialects are largely mutually intelligible and are distinguished from each other by changes in vowels, diphthongs and rhythm, as well as in preferred grammatical constructions. For the most part, the dialects operate on the same phonology and grammar. There are only marginal examples of sounds or grammatical constructions specific to some dialect and not found in standard Finnish. Two examples are thevoiced dental fricativefound in theRauma dialect,and the Easternexessive case.

The classification of closely related dialects spoken outside Finland is a politically sensitive issue that has been controversial since Finland's independence in 1917. This concerns specifically theKarelian languagein Russia and Meänkieli in Sweden, the speakers of which are often considered oppressed minorities. Karelian is different enough from standard Finnish to have its own orthography. Meänkieli is a northern dialect almost entirely intelligible to speakers of any other Finnish dialect, which achieved its status as an official minority language in Sweden for historical and political reasons, although Finnish is an official minority language in Sweden, too. In 1980, many texts, books and theBiblewere translated into Meänkieli and it has been developing more into its own language.

Western dialects

TheTurkudialect is famous for its seemingly inverted questions. For example, "Ei me mittä kaffelle men?"looks like it means" So we don't go for a coffee? "but actually means" Shall we go for a coffee? "

TheSouthwest Finnish dialects(lounaissuomalaismurteet) are spoken inSouthwest FinlandandSatakunta.Their typical feature is abbreviation of word-final vowels, and in many respects they resemble Estonian. The Tavastian dialects (hämäläismurteet) are spoken inTavastia.They are closest to the standard language, but feature some slight vowel changes, such as the opening of diphthong-final vowels (tie→tiä,miekka→miakka,kuolisi→kualis), the change of d to l (mostly obsolete) or trilled r (widespread, nowadays disappearance of d is popular) and the personal pronouns (me: meitin('we: our'),te: teitin('you: your') andhe: heitin('they: their')).The South Ostrobothnian dialects(eteläpohjalaismurteet) are spoken inSouthern Ostrobothnia.Their most notable feature is the pronunciation of "d" as a tapped or even fully trilled/r/.The Central and North Ostrobothnian dialects (keski- ja pohjoispohjalaismurteet) are spoken inCentralandNorthern Ostrobothnia.The Lapland dialects (lappilaismurteet) are spoken inLapland.The dialects spoken in the western parts of Lapland are recognizable by retention of old "h" sounds in positions where they have disappeared from other dialects.

One form of speech related to Northern dialects, Meänkieli, which is spoken on the Swedish side of the border, is taught in some Swedish schools as a distinctstandardized language.The speakers of Meänkieli became politically separated from the other Finns when Finland wasannexedto Russia in 1809. The categorization of Meänkieli as a separate language is controversial among some Finns, who see no linguistic criteria, only political reasons, for treating Meänkieli differently from other dialects of Finnish.

TheKven languageis spoken inFinnmarkandTroms,in Norway. Its speakers are descendants of Finnish emigrants to the region in the 18th and 19th centuries.Kvenis an official minority language in Norway.

Eastern dialects

A sign in Savonian dialect: "You don't get cognac here, but fresh wheat buns and good strongJuhla Mokka-brand coffee you will have. Welcome. "

Main article:Eastern Finnish dialects

The Eastern dialects consist of the widespread Savonian dialects (savolaismurteet) spoken inSavoand nearby areas, and the South-Eastern dialects now spoken only in FinnishSouth Karelia.The South Karelian dialects (eteläkarjalaismurteet) were previously also spoken on theKarelian Isthmusand inIngria.The Karelian Isthmus was evacuated duringWorld War IIand refugees were resettled all over Finland. MostIngrian Finnsweredeportedto various interior areas of the Soviet Union.

Palatalization,a common feature of Uralic languages, had been lost in the Finnic branch, but it has been reacquired by most of these languages, including Eastern Finnish, but not Western Finnish. In Finnish orthography, this is denoted with a "j", e.g.vesj[vesʲ]"water", cf. standardvesi[vesi].

The language spoken in those parts of Karelia that have not historically been under Swedish or Finnish rule is usually called theKarelian language,and it is considered to be more distant from standard Finnish than the Eastern dialects. Whether this language ofRussian Kareliais a dialect of Finnish or a separate language is sometimes disputed.

Helsinki slang (Stadin slangi)

The first known written account inHelsinki slangis from the 1890 short storyHellaassaby young Santeri Ivalo (words that do not exist in, or deviate from, the standard spoken Finnish of its time are in bold):

Kun minä eilen illalla palasinlabbiksesta,tapasinAasiksenkohdallaSupiksen,ja niin me laskeusimme tänneEspikselle,jossa oli mahoton hyväpiikis.Mutta me mentiinStudiksellesuoraanHudistatapaamaan, ja jäimme sinne pariksi tunniksi, kunnes ajoimmeKaisikseen.

Dialect chart of Finnish

Traditional Finnish dialect areas before World War I

• Finnish dialects
  • Western dialects
    • Southwest Finnish dialects
      • Proper Finnish dialects
        • Northern dialect group
        • Southern dialect group
      • Southwest Finnish middle dialects
        • Pori region dialects
        • Ala-Satakunta dialects
        • dialects of Turku highlands
        • Somero region dialects
        • Western Uusimaa dialects
        • Helsinki slang\dialects
    • Tavastian Dialects
      • Ylä-Satakunta dialects
      • Heart Tavastian dialects
      • Southern Tavastian dialects
      • Southern-Eastern Tavastian dialects
        • Hollola dialect group
        • Porvoo dialect group
        • Iitti dialect group
    • South Ostrobothnian dialects
    • Central and North Ostrobothnian dialects
      • Central Ostrobothnian dialects
      • North Ostrobothnian dialects
    • Peräpohjola dialects
      • Torne dialects ("Meänkieli"in Sweden)
      • Kemi dialects
      • Kemijärvi dialects
      • Gällivare dialects("Meänkieli"in Sweden)
      • Finnmark dialects ("Kven language"in Northern Norway)
  • Eastern dialects
    • Savonian dialects
      • North Savonian dialects
      • South Savonian dialects
      • Middle dialects of Savonlinna region
      • East Savonian dialects or North Karelian dialects
      • Kainuu dialects
      • Central Finland dialects
      • Päijänne Tavastia dialects
      • Keuruu-Evijärvi dialects
      • Savonian dialects of Värmland(Värmland,SwedenandInnlandet,Norway;extinct)
    • South Karelian dialects
      • Proper South Karelian dialects
      • Middle dialects of Lemi region
      • Dialects of Ingria(in Russia)

Linguistic registers

Example of a participle construction

There are two mainregistersof Finnish used throughout the country. One is the "standard language" (yleiskieli), and the other is the "spoken language"(puhekieli). The standard language is used in formal situations like political speeches and newscasts. Its written form, the "book language" (kirjakieli), is used in nearly all written texts, not always excluding even the dialogue of common people in popular prose.The spoken language, on the other hand, is the main variety of Finnish used in popular TV and radio shows and at workplaces, and may be preferred to a dialect in personal communication.

Standardization

Standard Finnish is prescribed by the Language Office of theResearch Institute for the Languages of Finlandand is the language used in official communication.The Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish(Nykysuomen sanakirja1951–61), with 201,000 entries, was aprescriptivedictionary that defined official language. An additional volume for words of foreign origin (Nykysuomen sivistyssanakirja,30,000 entries) was published in 1991. An updated dictionary,The New Dictionary of Modern Finnish(Kielitoimiston sanakirja) was published in an electronic form in 2004 and in print in 2006. Adescriptivegrammar (theLarge grammar of Finnish,Iso suomen kielioppi,1,600 pages) was published in 2004. There is also an etymological dictionary,Suomen sanojen alkuperä,published in 1992–2000, and a handbook of contemporary language (Nykysuomen käsikirja). Standard Finnish is used in official texts and is the form of language taught in schools. Its spoken form is used in political speech, newscasts, in courts, and in other formal situations. Nearly all publishing and printed works are in standard Finnish.

Colloquial Finnish

Main article:Colloquial Finnish

The colloquial language has mostly developed naturally from earlier forms of Finnish, and spread from the main cultural and political centres. The standard language, however, has always been a consciously constructed medium for literature. It preserves grammatical patterns that have mostly vanished from the colloquial varieties and, as its main application is writing, it features complex syntactic patterns that are not easy to handle when used in speech. The colloquial language develops significantly faster, and the grammatical and phonological changes also include the most common pronouns and suffixes, which amount to frequent but modest differences. Some sound changes have been left out of the formal language. For example, irregular verbs have developed in the spoken language as a result of theelisionofsonorantsin some verbs of theType IIIclass (with subsequent vowelassimilation), but only when the second syllable of the word is short. The result is that some forms in the spoken language are shortened, e.g.tule-n→tuu-n('I come'), while others remain identical to the standard languagehän tulee"he comes", never *hän tuu). However, the longer forms such astulecan be used in spoken language in other forms as well.

The literary language certainly still exerts a considerable influence upon the spoken word, because illiteracy is nonexistent and many Finns are avid readers. In fact, it is still not entirely uncommon to meet people who "talk book-ish" (puhuvat kirjakieltä); it may have connotations of pedantry, exaggeration, moderation, weaseling or sarcasm (somewhat like heavy use of Latinate words in English, or more old-fashioned or "pedantic" constructions: compare the difference between saying "There's no children I'll leave it to" and "There are no children to whom I shall leave it" ). More common is the intrusion of typically literary constructions into a colloquial discourse, as a kind of quote from written Finnish. It is quite common to hear book-like and polished speech on radio or TV, and the constant exposure to such language tends to lead to the adoption of such constructions even in everyday language.

A prominent example of the effect of the standard language is the development of the consonant gradation form/ts:ts/as inmetsä: metsän,as this pattern was originally (1940) found natively only in the dialects of the southern Karelian isthmus andIngria.It has been reinforced by the spelling "ts" for the dental fricative[θː],used earlier in some western dialects. The spelling and the pronunciation this encourages however approximate the original pronunciation, still reflected in e.g.Karelian/čč:č/(meččä: mečän). In the spoken language, a fusion of Western/tt:tt/(mettä: mettän) and Eastern/ht:t/(mehtä: metän) has resulted in/tt:t/(mettä: metän).Neither of these forms are identifiable as, or originate from, a specific dialect.

The orthography of informal language follows that of the formal. However, in signalling the former in writing,syncopeandsandhi– especially internal – may occasionally amongst other characteristics be transcribed, e.g.menenpä → me(n)empä.This never occurs in the standard variety.

Examples

formal language	colloquial language	meaning	notes
hänmenee hemenevät	semenee nemenee	"he/she goes" "they go"	loss of ananimacycontrast in pronouns (neandseare inanimate in the formal language), and loss of anumbercontrast on verbs in the 3rd person (meneeis 3rd person singular in the formal language)
minä, minun,...	mä(ä)/mie, mun/miun,...	"I, my,..."	various alternative, usually shorter, forms of 1st and 2nd person pronouns
(minä)tulen (minä)olen	mätuun mäoon	"I'm coming" or "I will come" "I am" or "I will be"	elisionofsonorantsbefore short vowels in certainType III verbsalong with vowelassimilation, and nopro-drop(i.e., personal pronouns are usually mandatory in the colloquial language)
onkoteillä eiköteillä ole	o(n)ksteil(lä) e(i)ksteil(lä) oo	"do you (pl.) have?" "don't you (pl.) have (it)?"	vowelapocopeand common use of the clitic-sininterrogatives (compareeiksto standard Estonian confirmatory interrogativeeks)
(me) emme sano	me ei sanota	"we don't say" or "we won't say"	thepassive voiceis used in place of the first person plural
(minun) kirjani	mun kirja	"my book"	lack of possessive clitics on nouns
(minä) en tiedä syödä	mäen ti(i)ä syyä	"I don't know" "to eat"	elisionof[d]between vowels, and subsequent vowelassimilation (comparemä en ti(i)äto standard Estonianma ei teaor dialectal formsma ei tiaorma ei tie)
kuusikymmentäviisi	kuuskyt(ä)viis	"sixty-five"	abbreviated forms of numerals
punainen ajoittaa	punane(n) ajottaa	"red" "to time"	unstressed diphthongs ending in/i/become short vowels, andapocopeof phrase-final-n
korjannee	kaikorjaa	"probably will fix"	absence of thepotential mood,use ofkai'probably' instead

There are noticeable differences between dialects. Here the formal language does not mean a language spoken in formal occasions but the standard language which exists practically only in written form.

Phonology

Main article:Finnish phonology

Segmental phonology

The phoneme inventory of Finnish is moderately small,with a great number of vocalic segments and a restricted set of consonant types, both of which can be long or short.

Vocalic segments

Finnish monophthongs show eight vowel qualities that contrast in duration. Vowelallophonyis quite restricted. All vowels are possible in both initial and non-initial syllables, whether long or short. Long and short vowels are shown below.

	Front		Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	iiː	yyː	uuː
Mid	eeː	øøː	ooː
Open	ææː		ɑɑː

The quality of long vowels mostly overlaps with the quality of short vowels, with the exception ofu,which is centralized with respect touu;long vowels do not morph intodiphthongs.There are eighteen diphthongs; like vowels, diphthongs do not have significant allophony.

Consonants

Finnish has a small consonant inventory, in which voicing is mostly not distinctive and fricatives are scarce. In the table below, consonants in parentheses are either found only in a few recent loans or are allophones of other phonemes.

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Postalv./ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪		k
	voiced	(b)	d		(ɡ)
Fricative		(f)	s	(ʃ)		h
Approximant		ʋ	l	j
Trill			r

Almost all consonants have phonemic short and long (geminated) forms, although length is only contrastive in medial positions.

Consonant clusters are mostly absent from native Finnish words, except for a small set of two-consonant sequences insyllable codas,e.g.⟨rs⟩inkarsta.However, as many recently adopted loanwords contain clusters, e.g.strutsifrom Swedishstruts,('ostrich'), they have been integrated to the modern language in varying degrees.

Finnish is somewhat divergent from other Uralic languages in two respects: it has lost most of its fricatives and lost the distinction betweenpalatalizedand non-palatalized consonants. Finnish has only two fricatives in native words,/s/and/h/.All other fricatives are recognized as foreign, of which Finnish speakers can usually reliably distinguish/f/and/ʃ/.The Alpha bet includes⟨z⟩,usually realized as theaffricate[ts],as in German.

While standard Finnish has lostpalatalization,characteristic of Uralic languages, the eastern dialects and the Karelian language have redeveloped it. For example, theKarelianwordd'uuri[dʲuːri],with a palatalized/dʲ/,is reflected byjuuriin Finnish andSavo dialectvesj[vesʲ]isvesiin standard Finnish.

The phoneme/h/can vary allophonically between[ç~x~h~ɦ]i.e.vihko['ʋiçko̞],kahvi['kɑxʋi],raha['rɑɦɑ].

A feature of Finnic phonology is the development of labial and rounded vowels in non-initial syllables, as in the wordtyttö.Proto-Uralichad only "a", "ä" and "i" in non-initial syllables; modern Finnish allows other vowels in non-initial syllables, although they are less common.

Prosody

Characteristic features of Finnish (common to some other Uralic languages) arevowel harmonyand anagglutinativemorphology; owing to the extensive use of the latter, words can be quite long.

The main stress is always on the first syllable, and is in average speech articulated by adding approximately 100 ms more length to the stressed vowel.Stress does not cause any measurable modifications in vowel quality (very much unlike English). However, stress is not strong and words appear evenly stressed. In some cases, stress is so weak that the highest points of volume, pitch and other indicators of "articulation intensity" are not on the first syllable, although native speakers recognize the first syllable as being stressed.

Morphophonology

Further information:Finnish consonant gradation

Finnish has several morphophonological processes that require modification of the forms of words for daily speech. The most important processes arevowel harmonyandconsonant gradation.

Vowel harmony is a redundancy feature, which means that the feature [±back] is uniform within a word, and so it is necessary to interpret it only once for a given word. It is meaning-distinguishing in the initial syllable, and suffixes follow; so, if the listener hears [±back] in any part of the word, they can derive [±back] for the initial syllable. For example, from the stemtuote('product') one derivestuotteeseensa('into his product'), where the final vowel becomes the back vowel "a" (rather than the front vowel "ä" ) because the initial syllable contains the back vowels "uo". This is especially notable because vowels "a" and "ä" are different, meaning-distinguishingphonemes,not interchangeable orallophonic.Finnish front vowels are notumlauts,though thegraphemes⟨ä⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ featuredieresis.

Consonant gradation is a partly nonproductivelenitionprocess for P, T and K in inherited vocabulary, with the oblique stem "weakened" from the nominative stem, or vice versa. For example,tarkka'precise' has the oblique stemtarka-,as intarkan'of the precise'. There is also another gradation pattern, which is older, and causes simple elision of T and K in suffixes. However, it is very common since it is found in the partitive case marker: if V is a single vowel, V+ta→ Va, e.g. *tarkka+ta→tarkkaa.

Grammar

Main article:Finnish grammar

An example of the versatility of Finnish inflection. The label of this beer bottle readsPalaisiko eksän luo vai helvetissä - en vittu tiiä,meaning "Should I return to my ex or burn in Hell - I don't fucking know". The same wordpalaisikocan mean either "should I return" or "should I burn" depending on whether it is inflected frompalata( "to return" ) or frompalaa( "to burn" ).

Finnish is asynthetic languagethat employs extensiveagglutinationof affixes to verbs, nouns, adjectives and numerals. However, Finnish is not generally consideredpolysynthetic,its morpheme-to-word ratio being somewhat lower than a prototypical polysynthetic language (e.g.,Yup'ik).

Themorphosyntactic alignmentof Finnish is nominative–accusative, but there are two objectcases:accusative and partitive. The contrast between accusative and partitiveobjectcases is one oftelicity,where the accusative case denotes actions completed as intended (Ammuin hirven'I shot the/an elk (dead)'), and the partitive case denotes incomplete actions (Ammuin hirveä'I shot (at) the/an elk').Often telicity is confused withperfectivity,but these are distinct notions. Finnish in fact has aperiphrasticperfective aspect, which in addition to the two inflectional tenses (past and present), yield aGermanic-like system consisting of four tense-aspect combinations: simple present, simple past,perfect(present + perfective aspect) andpluperfect(past + perfective aspect). No morphological future tense is needed; context and the telicity contrast in object grammatical case serve to disambiguate present events from future events. For example,syön kalan'I eat a fish (completely)' must denote a future event, since there is no way to completely eat a fish at the current moment (the moment the eating is complete, the simple past tense or the perfect must be used). By contrast,syön kalaa'I eat a fish (not yet complete)' denotes a present event by indicating ongoing action.

Finnish has three grammaticalpersons;finiteverbsagreewith subject nouns in person and number by way of suffixes. The (dictionary form) infinitive bears the suffix-ta/-tä(oftenlenitedto-(d)a/-(d)ädue toconsonant gradation).There is a so-called "passive voice" (sometimes called impersonal or indefinite) which differs from a true passive in various respects.Transitivity is distinguished in thederivationalmorphology of verbs, e.g.ratkaista'to solve something' vs.ratketa'to solve by itself'. There are also severalfrequentativeandmomentaneaffixes which form new verbs derivationally.

Lexicon

Suomalaisen Sana-Lugun Coetus(1745) byDaniel Jusleniuswas the first comprehensive dictionary of the Finnish language with 16,000 entries.

See also:Wiktionary:Category:Finnish languageandWiktionary:Category:English terms derived from Finnish

Finnish has a smaller core vocabulary than, for example, English, and usesderivationalsuffixes to a greater extent. As an example, take the wordkirja"a book", from which one can form derivativeskirjain'a letter' (of theAlpha bet),kirje'a piece of correspondence, a letter',kirjasto'a library',kirjailija'an author',kirjallisuus'literature',kirjoittaa'to write',kirjoittaja'a writer',kirjuri'a scribe, a clerk',kirjallinen'in written form',kirjata'to write down, register, record',kirjasin'a font', and many others.

Here are some of the more common such suffixes. Which of each pair is used depends on the word being suffixed in accordance with the rules ofvowel harmony.

Examples of Finnish derivational suffixes on nouns

Suffix	Used to create...	Example(s)	Notes
-ja / -jä	agentsfrom verbs	lukea'to read' →lukija'reader'
-sto / -stö	collective nouns	kirja'a book' →kirjasto'a library' laiva'a ship' →laivasto'navy, fleet'
-in	instruments or tools	kirjata'to book, to file' →kirjain'a letter' (of the Alpha bet) vatkata'to whisk' →vatkain'a whisk, mixer'
-uri / -yri	agentsor instruments	kaivaa'to dig' →kaivuri'an excavator' laiva'a ship' →laivuri'shipper, shipmaster'
-os / -ös	resultnouns from verbs	tulla'to come' →tulos'result, outcome' tehdä'to do' →teos'a piece of work'
-ton / -tön	adjectivesindicating the lack of something	onni'happiness' →onneton'unhappy' koti'home' →koditon'homeless'
-kas / -käs	adjectives from nouns	itse'self' →itsekäs'selfish' neuvo'advice' →neuvokas'resourceful'
-va / -vä	adjectives from verbs	taitaa'to be able' →taitava'skillful' johtaa'to lead' →johtava'leading'
-llinen	adjectives from nouns	lapsi'child' →lapsellinen'childish' kauppa'a shop, commerce' →kaupallinen'commercial'
-la / -lä	locations (places related to the stem)	kana'a hen' →kanala'a henhouse' pappi'a priest' →pappila'a parsonage'
-lainen / -läinen	inhabitants (of places), among others	Englanti'England' →englantilainen'English person/thing' Venäjä'Russia' →venäläinen'Russian person or thing'.	formed from-la / -läplus-inen

Verbal derivational suffixes are extremely diverse; severalfrequentativesandmomentanesdifferentiatingcausative,volitional-unpredictable andanticausativeare found, often combined with each other, often denoting indirection. For example,hypätä'to jump',hyppiä'to be jumping',hypeksiä'to be jumping wantonly',hypäyttää'to make someone jump once',hyppyyttää'to make someone jump repeatedly' (or 'to Boss someone around'),hyppyytyttää'to make someone to cause a third person to jump repeatedly',hyppyytellä'to, without aim, make someone jump repeatedly',hypähtää'to jump suddenly' (inanticausativemeaning),hypellä'to jump around repeatedly',hypiskellä'to be jumping repeatedly and wantonly'.Caritivesare also used in such examples ashyppimättä'without jumping' andhyppelemättä'without jumping around'. The diversity and compactness of both derivation and inflectional agglutination can be illustrated withistahtaisinkohankaan'I wonder if I should sit down for a while after all' (fromistua,'to sit, to be seated'):

• istua'to sit down' (istun'I sit down')
• istahtaa'to sit down for a while'
• istahdan'I'll sit down for a while'
• istahtaisin'I would sit down for a while'
• istahtaisinko'should I sit down for a while?'
• istahtaisinkohan'I wonder if I should sit down for a while'
• istahtaisinkohankaan'I wonder if I should sit down for a while after all'

Borrowing

Over the course of many centuries, the Finnish language has borrowed many words from a wide variety of languages, most from neighbouringIndo-European languages.Owing to the different grammatical, phonological and phonotactic structure of the Finnish language, loanwords from Indo-European have been assimilated.

While early borrowings, possibly even intoProto-Uralic,from very earlyIndo-European languagescan be found, Finnic languages, including Finnish, have borrowed in particular from Baltic and Germanic languages, and to a lesser extent from Slavic and Indo-Iranian languages (all of which are subgroupings of Indo-European). Furthermore,a certain groupof very basic and neutral words exists in Finnish and other Finnic languages that are absent from other Uralic languages, but without a recognizable etymology from any known language. These words are usually regardedas the last remnant of thePaleo-Europeanlanguage spoken in Fennoscandia before the arrival of the proto-Finnic language.Words included in this group are e.g.jänis(hare),musta(black),saari(island),suo(swamp) andniemi(cape (geography)).

Also some place names, likePäijänneandImatra,are probably from before the proto-Finnic era.

Often quoted loan examples arekuningas'king' andruhtinas'sovereign prince,high ranking nobleman' from Germanic*kuningazand*druhtinaz—they display a remarkable tendency towards phonological conservation within the language. Another example isäiti'mother' (from Germanic*aiþį̄), which is interesting because borrowing of close-kinship vocabulary is a rare phenomenon. The original Finnishemoandemäoccurs only in restricted contexts. There are other close-kinship words that are loaned from Baltic and Germanic languages (morsian'bride',armas'dear',huora'whore'). Examples of the ancient Iranian loans arevasara'hammer' fromAvestanvadžra,vajraandorja'slave' fromarya,airya'man' (the latter probably via similar circumstances asslavefromSlavin many European languages).

More recently, Swedish has been a prolific source of borrowings, and also, the Swedish language acted as a proxy for European words, especially those relating to government. Present-day Finland was a part of Sweden from the 12th century and was ceded to Russia in 1809, becoming an autonomous Grand Duchy. Swedish was retained as the official language and language of the upper class even after this. When Finnish was accepted as an official language, it gained legal equal status with Swedish. During the period of autonomy, Russian did not gain much ground as a language of the people or the government. Nevertheless, quite a few words were subsequently acquired fromRussian(especially in olderHelsinki slang) but not to the same extent as with Swedish. In all these cases, borrowing has been partly a result of geographical proximity.

Especially words dealing with administrative or modern culture came to Finnish from Swedish, sometimes reflecting the oldest Swedish form of the word (lag–laki,'law';län–lääni,'province';bisp–piispa,'bishop';jordpäron–peruna,'potato'), and many more survive as informal synonyms in spoken or dialectal Finnish (e.g.likka,from Swedishflicka,'girl', usuallytyttöin Finnish).

Some Slavic loanwords are old or very old, thus hard to recognize as such, and concern everyday concepts, e.g.papu'bean',raja'border' andpappi'priest'. Notably, a few religious words such asRaamattu('Bible') are borrowed fromOld East Slavic,which indicates language contact preceding the Swedish era. This is mainly believed to be result of trade with Novgorod from the 9th century on andRussian Orthodoxmissionsin the east in the 13th century.

Most recently, and with increasing impact, English has been the source of newloanwordsin Finnish. Unlike previous geographical borrowing, the influence of English is largely cultural and reaches Finland by many routes, including international business, music, film and TV (foreign films and programmes, excluding ones intended for a very young audience, are shown subtitled), literature, and theWeb– the latter is now probably the most important source of all non-face-to-face exposure to English.

The importance of English as the language of global commerce has led many non-English companies, including Finland'sNokia,to adopt English as their official operating language. Recently, it has been observed that English borrowings are also ousting previous borrowings, for example the switch fromtreffailla'to date' (from Swedish,träffa) todeittaillafrom English 'to go for a date'.Calquesfrom English are also found, e.g.kovalevy(hard disk), and so are grammatical calques, for example, the replacement of the impersonal (passiivi) with the English-stylegeneric you,e. g.sä et voi'you cannot', instead of the proper impersonalei voida'one cannot' or impersonal third-person singularei voi'one cannot'. This construct, however, is limited to colloquial language, as it is against the standard grammar.

However, this does not mean that Finnish is threatened by English. Borrowing is normal language evolution, and neologisms are coined actively not only by the government, but also by the media. Moreover, Finnish and English have a considerably differentgrammar,phonologyandphonotactics,discouraging direct borrowing. English loan words in Finnish slang include for examplepleikkari'PlayStation',hodari'hot dog', andhedari'headache', 'headshot' or 'headbutt'. Often these loanwords are distinctly identified asslangorjargon,rarely being used in a negative mood or in formal language. Since English and Finnish grammar, pronunciation and phonetics differ considerably, most loan words are inevitably sooner or latercalqued– translated into native Finnish – retaining the semantic meaning.

Neologisms

Some modern terms have been synthesised rather than borrowed, for example:

puhelin'telephone' (from the stempuhel-'talk' + instrument suffix-into make 'an instrument for talking')

tietokone'computer' (literally: 'knowledge machine' or 'data machine')

levyke'diskette' (fromlevy'disc' + a diminutive-ke)

sähköposti'email' (literally: 'electricity mail')

linja-auto'bus, coach' (literally: line-car)

muovi'plastic' (frommuovata'to mould, form or model, e.g. from clay'; compareplasticfrom Ancient Greekπλᾰστῐκός(plastikós) 'mouldable, fit for moulding')

Neologisms are actively generated by the Language Planning Office and the media. They are widely adopted. One would actually give an old-fashioned or rustic impression using forms such askompuutteri(computer) orkalkulaattori(calculator) when the neologism is widely adopted.

Loans to other languages

Main article:List of English words of Finnish origin

The most commonly used Finnish word in English issauna,which has also been loaned to many other languages.

Orthography

Main article:Finnish orthography

The first page ofAbckiria(1543), the first book written in the Finnish language. The spelling of Finnish in the book had many inconsistencies: for example, the/k/sound could be represented by⟨c⟩,⟨k⟩or even⟨g⟩;/uː/and/iː/were represented by⟨w⟩and⟨ij⟩respectively, and/æ/was represented by⟨e⟩.

Parking meterkeyboard with the Finnish Alpha bet

Finnish is written with theLatin Alpha betincluding the distinct characters⟨ä⟩and⟨ö⟩,and also several characters (⟨b, c, f, q, w, x, z, å, š⟩and⟨ž⟩) reserved for words of non-Finnish origin. The Finnish orthography follows the phoneme principle: each phoneme (meaningful sound) of the language corresponds to exactly one grapheme (independent letter), and each grapheme represents almost exactly one phoneme. This enables an easy spelling and facilitates reading and writing acquisition. The rule of thumb for Finnish orthography iswrite as you read, read as you write.However, morphemes retain their spelling despitesandhi.

Some orthographical notes:

• Long vowels and consonants are represented by double occurrences of the relevant graphemes. This causes no confusion, and permits these sounds to be written without having to nearly double the size of the Alpha bet to accommodate separate graphemes for long sounds. If a sequence of two identical vowels in different syllables occurs, it is written with an apostrophe, e.g.rei'itin"hole punch".
• The grapheme⟨h⟩covers all the allophones of/h/.In some positions, it has a fricative quality, which can bevoiced glottalor voicelessvelarorpalatal.This occurs after or between vowels, as in e.g.lahti,which is pronounced[lɑxti]with avoiceless velar fricative.
• Sandhiis not transcribed; the spelling of morphemes is immutable, such astulen+pa/tulempa/.
• Some consonants (⟨v, j, d⟩) and all consonant clusters do not have distinctive length, and consequently their allophonic variation is typically not specified in spelling; e.g.rajaan/rajaan/('I limit') vs.raijaan/raijjaan/('I haul').
• Pre-1900s texts and personal names use⟨w⟩for⟨v⟩.Both correspond to the same phoneme, thelabiodental approximant/ʋ/,a⟨v⟩without the fricative ( "hissing" ) quality of the English⟨v⟩.
• The letters⟨ä⟩[æ]and⟨ö⟩[ø],although written withdiaereses,do not representphonological umlauts(as in German, for example), and they are considered independent graphemes; the letter shapes have been copied from Swedish. An appropriate parallel from the Latin Alpha bet are the characters⟨C⟩and⟨G⟩(uppercase), which historically have a closer kinship than many other characters (⟨G⟩is a derivation of⟨C⟩) but are considered distinct letters, and changing one for the other will change meanings.

Although Finnish is almost completely written as it is spoken, there are a few differences:

• The⟨n⟩in the sequence⟨nk⟩is pronounced as avelar nasal/ŋ/,as in English. When not followed by⟨k⟩,/ŋː/is written⟨ng⟩.The fact that two spellings correspond to this one sound (putting aside the difference inlength) can be seen as an exception to the general one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters.
• Sandhiphenomena at word or clitic boundaries involving gemination (e.g.,tule tänneis pronounced[tu.let.tæn.ne],not[tu.le.tæn.ne]) or theplace assimilationofnasals(sen pupuwould usually be pronounced as[sem.pu.pu],andonpaas[om.pɑ])
• The/j/after the letter⟨i⟩is very weak or there is no/j/at all, but in writing it is used; for example:urheilija.Indeed, the⟨j⟩is not used in writing words with consonant gradation such asaionandläksiäiset.
• In speech there is no difference between the use of/i/in words (likeajoittaa,butehdottaa), but in writing there are quite simple rules: The⟨i⟩is written in forms derived from words that consist of two syllables and end in⟨a⟩or⟨ä⟩(sanoittaa,'to write song-lyrics', fromsana,'word'), and in words that are old-stylish (innoittaa). The⟨i⟩is not written in forms derived from words that consist of two syllables and end in⟨o⟩or⟨ö⟩(erottaa'to discern, to differentiate' fromero'difference'), words which do not clearly derive from a single word (hajottaacan be derived either from the stemhaja-seen in such adverbs ashajalle,or from the related verbhajota), and in words that are descriptive (häämöttää) or workaday by their style (rehottaa).

When the appropriate characters are not available, the graphemes⟨ä⟩and⟨ö⟩are usually converted to⟨a⟩and⟨o⟩,respectively. This is common in e-mail addresses and other electronic media where there may be no support for characters outside the basicASCIIcharacter set. Writing them as⟨ae⟩and⟨oe⟩,following German usage, is rarer and usually considered incorrect, but formally used in passports and equivalent situations. Both conversion rules have minimal pairs which would no longer be distinguished from each other.

The sounds⟨š⟩and⟨ž⟩are not a part of the Finnish language itself and have been introduced by the Finnish national languages body for more phonologically accurate transcription of loanwords (such asTšekki,'Czech Republic') and foreign names. For technical reasons or convenience, the graphemes⟨sh⟩and⟨zh⟩are often used in quickly or less carefully written texts instead of⟨š⟩and⟨ž⟩.This is a deviation from the phonetic principle, and as such is liable to cause confusion, but the damage is minimal as the transcribed words are foreign in any case. Finnish does not use the sounds⟨z⟩,⟨š⟩or⟨ž⟩,but for the sake of exactitude, they can be included in spelling. (The recommendation cites the Russian operaHovanštšinaas an example.) Many speakers pronounce all of them⟨s⟩,or distinguish only between⟨s⟩and⟨š⟩,because Finnish has no voiced sibilants.

The language may be identified by its distinctive lack of the letters⟨b, c, f, q, w, x, z⟩and⟨å⟩.

Language examples

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights:

Kaikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina arvoltaan ja oikeuksiltaan. Heille on annettu järki ja omatunto, ja heidän on toimittava toisiaan kohtaan veljeyden hengessä.

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Excerpt fromVäinö Linna'sTuntematon sotilas(The Unknown Soldier); these words were also inscribed in the 20marknote.

Hyväntahtoinen aurinko katseli heitä. Se ei missään tapauksessa ollut heille vihainen. Kenties tunsi jonkinlaista myötätuntoakin heitä kohtaan. Aika velikultia.

"The sun smiled down on them. It wasn't angry – no, not by any means. Maybe it even felt some sort of sympathy for them. Rather dear, those boys."

(translation from Liesl Yamaguchi's 2015 "Unknown Soldiers" )

Basic greetings and phrases

Sample sound ofHyvää huomenta

Finnish	Translation	Notes
Greetings
(Hyvää) huomenta!	(Good) morning!
(Hyvää) päivää!	(Good) day!	used on greeting and also when taking farewell
(Hyvää) iltaa!	(Good) evening!	used on greeting and also when taking farewell
Hyvää yötä! Öitä!	Good night! Night!
Terve	lit. 'Healthy!'	Used on greeting, modified asTerve vaan!('health continue!')
Moro Hei(ppa) Moi(kka)	Hi! / Bye!	Used on greeting and also when taking farewell
Moi moi! Hei hei!	Bye!	Used when taking farewell
Nähdään	See you later!	Lit. the passive form ofnähdä'to see'
Näkemiin	Goodbye!	Lit. 'Until seeing', illative of the third infinitive
Hyvästi	Goodbye/Farewell
Hauska tutustua! Hauska tavata!	Nice to meet you!	Hauska tutustuais literally 'nice to get acquainted', and hauska tavatais literally 'nice to meet'
Mitä kuuluu? Miten menee?	How are you? How's it going?	Mitä (sinulle/teille) kuuluuis literally 'what (to you) is heard?' or 'what concerns you?'
Kiitos hyvää Kiitos hyvin	Fine, thank you. Well, thank you.	Kiitos hyvääis an appropriate response toMitä kuuluu?,whereas Kiitos hyvinis an appropriate response toMiten menee?
Tervetuloa!	Welcome!	Tervetuloais used in a broader range of contexts in Finnish than in English; for example to mean 'looking forward to seeing you' after arranging a visit
Important words and phrases
Anteeksi	Excuse me
Kiitos Kiitoksia	Thanks/Please	Kiitos/kiitoksiaare literally 'thanks', but are also used when requesting something, like 'please' in English
Kiitos, samoin	Thank you, likewise	Lit. 'thank you, the same way' (used as a response to well-wishing)
Ole hyvä	You're welcome	Lit. 'be good', also used when giving someone something to mean 'here you are'
Kyllä	Certainly/yes
Joo	Yeah	More informal thankyllä
Ei	No/it is not
Voitko auttaa?	Can you help?
Apua!	Help!
Totta kai! Tietysti! Toki!	Certainly!
(Paljon) onnea	Good luck/congratulations
Olen pahoillani	I'm sorry
Odota	Wait
Pieni hetki Pikku hetki Hetkinen	One moment
Otan osaa	My condolences
(Minä) ymmärrän.	I understand.
En ymmärrä.	I don't understand.
Suomi	Finland
Suomi Suomen kieli	Finnish (language)
Suomalainen	(noun) Finn; (adjective) Finnish

Influence on Tolkien

Main article:Finnish influences on Tolkien

ProfessorJ. R. R. Tolkien,althoughbetter known as an author,had a keen interest in languages from a young age, and became a professionalphilologist,becoming Professor ofAnglo-SaxonatOxford University.He described his first encounter with Finnish was:

"like discovering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavour never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me..."

See also

• Finland's language strife
• Finnish cultural and academic institutes
• Finnish name
• Finnish numerals
• Finnish profanity
• Sisu
• Swedish-speaking Finns

Further reading

• Karlsson, Fred (2008).Finnish: An Essential Grammar.Routledge Essential Grammars (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-43914-5.
• Karlsson, Fred (2018).Finnish – A Comprehensive Grammar.London and New York: Routledge.ISBN978-1-138-82104-0.
• Whitney, Arthur H (1973).Finnish.Teach Yourself Books. London: Hodder & Stoughton.ISBN978-0-340-05782-7.

External links

• Collection of Finnish bilingual dictionaries
• FSI Finnish Language Course (Public Domain)
• Finnish phrases for beginners (Public Domain)