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Finnish Language

As Finland was a part of Sweden before attaining complete independence in the year 1917, Swedish is still the native language of a large part of Swedish people residing in the south west part of the country. The other minority languages spoken in Finland are Sami, Estonian and Russian.

Finnish, the native language spoken by approximately 6 million people of Finland owes its origin to the Finno-Ugrian group or the family of Uralic Languages. Finnish is a part of the Baltic- Finnic language group. It is the largest language in the Uralic Language family, the other one being Estonian. The Baltic-Finnic group consists of nearly seven languages out of which the only popular and largely used are Finnish and Estonian. However, all the languages of this group are in some way or the other closely related to each other. In modern times, most of the minority languages of this group like Karelian, Vepsian and Ludian are spoken only in some parts of Russia. There dialects bear a striking resemblance but the languages are separated by the borders and territories.

Finnish Dialects:

Finnish dialects are broadly divided in two major groups, the Eastern dialects and the Western dialects. The difference between these two dialects can be made out only by making a few changes in vowels, phonology and some part of grammar. The south-west dialect of the western dialects group is spoken in proper Finland and Satakunta and many features of which resembles Estonian. The Southern Ostrobothnian dialects are spoken in Southern Ostrobothnia and the far northern dialects are mainly spoken in Lapland. Some of the Northern Dialects like Meänkieli, is spoken in parts of Sweden and has been given the status of minority official language.

The Eastern Dialects mainly consist of the Savonian dialects spoken primarily in Savo and other nearby areas. The other popular south-eastern dialect is spoken in Finnish South Karelia. The language spoken in some parts of Karelia is commonly called Karelian language and the natives living there consider it to be different from the influence of Swedish or Finnish.

Spoken and Written Finnish:

There are two main types of finnish used in Finland. One is the “Standard Language” and the other is the “Spoken Finnish”. The standard finnish is used in political speeches and text and its written form is used for publishing books and articles writing. The spoken finnish is the popular form of language used in media, T.V, radio, at workplaces and is largely preferred as the language for personal communication. The spoken finnish evolved from the ancient and earlier forms of finnish. The spoken language emphasizes more on the grammatical and phonological effects. The modern day spoken finnish is a clear fusion of western and eastern dialects. The written finnish language has a great impact on the the spoken version as most of the finnish people are voracious readers and are fond of reading books, newspapers and published journals. However irregularization and some basic grammatical difference between the standard and colloquial languages cannot be denied. It can be understood by the following presentation:

Formal finnish Colloquial finnish English meaning

Grammar and Phonology of Finnish:

Finnish language is characterized by two main features, the vowel harmony and consonant gradation. There are eight vowels that play a big role in the lexicon and grammar of the language. There are long and short vowels and phonemes. Sequence of identical vowels is called “diphthongs”. Phonemic diphthongs are eighteen in number and they do not have an allophone. Finnish language has got relatively few consonants and their voicing is not very significant and distinctive. Vowels are shown in the table below, mainly different phonemes in the initial syllables:

Consonants can be understood by looking at the following table given below:

Grammatical aspects of Finnish Language:

The pronouns are used in the finnish language just the same way referent nouns are used. The personal pronouns are used only for human beings.

Finnish verbs are used for the person, hence personal pronouns are not required for that meaning. In standard written finnish, first and second person pronouns are usually skipped whereas in spoken finnish all types of pronouns are spoken with much emphasis. The pronouns se and na are largely used as the singular and plural pronouns respectively.

Common words and Phrases in Modern day Finnish:

Over the centuries, Finnish language has been inspired by a wide variety of languages from the neighboring European countries and has added plenty of words to the finnish vocabulary. Sweden too has been a major source of borrowing languages. Finnish and Swedish still have the official upper class status in both the nations. Recently because of the increasing impact of television, media and cinema, English has been the latest source of new words addition in finnish dictionary. Here are a few examples of some commonly used words and phrases in finnish and there English meanings:

§ Kyllä, ei – yes, no

§ (minä) olen – I am

§ (sinä) olet – you are

§ yksi, kaksi, kolme – one, two, three

§ sata, tuhat, miljoona – hundred, thousand, million

§ anteeksi – forgive me, sorry

§ voitko auttaa – can you help

§ otan osaa – My condolences

§ onnea – good luck

§ totta kai/tietysti/toki – of course

§ odota – wait

§ Suomi – Finland

§ ¹Puhut(te)ko englantia? – Do you speak English?

§ Olen englantilainen / amerikkalainen / kanadalainen / australialainen / uusiseelantilainen / irlantilainen / skotlantilainen / walesilainen / ranskalainen / saksalainen / kiinalainen / japanilainen – I am English / American / Canadian / Australian / New Zealander / Irish / Scottish / Welsh / French / German / Chinese / Japanese

Basic greetings

• (Hyvää) huomenta – Good morning
• (Hyvää) päivää – Good afternoon (literally "Good day")
• (Hyvää) iltaa – Good evening
• Hyvää yötä / Öitä – Good night
• Terve! / Moro! – Hello!
• Hei! / Moi! – Hi!
• Heippa! / Moikka! / Hei hei! / Moi moi! – Bye!
• Nähdään – See you later (literally "will be seen")
• Näkemi(si)in / Hyvästi – Goodbye
• Hauska tutustua! – Nice to meet you
• Kiitos – Thank you
• Kiitos, samoin – Likewise
• Mitä kuuluu? – How are you / How you doing? (Not used among strangers.) (literally "What is heard?")
• Kiitos hyvää – I'm fine, thank you
• Tervetuloa! – Welcome!