Finnish

Finnish alphabet

Alphabetical order and value of the Graphèmes

The transcription follows the uses of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

has which is pronounced as in b' a' S
B is a sound of loan: no word of Finnish origin employs the letter B. the words comprising a B are thus foreign origin, for example banaani , the Banane. Many finnophones usually pronounces it still sometimes like a " P" soft.
C is only employed in loanwords, and the pronunciation varies according to the word in which it is employed.
D which decides as in French
E who decides like a closed E, however less isolated than French (in be ).
F is also a borrowed sound. It is sometimes still marked " V" , and its first transcriptions were written " hv" as in " kahvi" (" café")
G which always decides as in G uitare. Usually pronounced like a " k" doux". The group transcribes NG decides like only one sound, as in the Germanic languages
H always aspired
I as in French
J who decides like Y in ma' y' onnaise
K as in French
L as in French but with the language placed behind on the palate
M as in French
NR as in French
O varies between the O open of station and the O closed of dome , in less round
P as in French
R always rolled, very clearly
S always it its S
T as in French
U marked OR as in the ou' che
V as in French
Y marked U as in u' R
Z TS, present in loanwords
Ä has very open (between the E of ch' E vre and C a' T in English has)
Ö as in little , but less round
Å like an O long. It is about a letter Swedish E, used only in the proper names.

A double sign corresponds to a long vowel or a geminated consonant: tuuli, takka, tyytymättömyys, etc the only consonant never not to be doubled with the writing, although it can be long (especially in the familiar language and certain dialects), is the v : saved.

Standard Finnish (there exists like everywhere else regional variations) belonged to the privileged languages of the world " who decide as they are written and are written like them prononcent" , in other words the graphic system of Finnish is almost at 100% the representation of the phonic achievements. It is thus very easy to learn how to read Finnish (that relates to remainder also the children finnophones which learns how to read much more easily than the young French-speaking people). There are only some very rare failures in the system: the inflected forms of sydän are written with a m but decide with two m; consonant lengthening due to the influence of occlusive the glottale is not transcribed: I.E.(internal excitation) ol' E p' ainavaa , pronounced with a p long. There are also some uncertainties on the question of knowing so certain made up words are written in only one word or two. But that remains marginal compared to system multiple and competitor and contradictory subsystems graphematic of French. The dictation is thus an almost useless exercise in the Finnish schools. In the same way, the worship of the Orthography is non-existent (if one excludes the recurring polemics on “the orthography” of the made up words).

Grammar of Finnish

Finnish often employs suffixes where other languages employ more readily of the pronouns and the prepositions; it is what resulted in describing Finnish like a language " agglutinant " , term which could apply however to a very great number of languages of very different families.

Morphology

• One of the manifestations of the agglutinant character of Finnish is the relative abundance of the Cas of the variation, though the 15 officially listed cases all are not also often used: the cases indicating the subject and the object, Personal ( nominatiivi ), Genitive ( genetiivi ), Accusative ( akkusatiivi ) and Partitif ( partitiivi ) represent, as one can expect it, approximately 70% of the forms of the name. Eight other cases express space relations (with, of, towards, in, etc) and are also used to return other functions (like French with , which can express the place, the date, the recipient, etc). Three cases which is systematically mentioned in grammars (comitatif, abessif and instructive) are more hardly used and the values which they express are practically always returned by prepositional constructions. On the other hand, the distributive case (- ttain/-ttäin), often omitted in grammars, is much more productive (all things considered) that the three precedents ( viisi lääkäriä kunnittain “ five doctors by commune ”, sivuittain “page by page”, etc). There are on the whole 12 (or 13) productive cases. Finnish does not use only cases, but also resorts to a great number of prepositions or postpositions.

The “cases” of Finnish are not comparable to the cases of Latin or of the Greek and are connected rather with simple suffixes carrying direction. Indeed, contrary to Latin, there exists only one possible termination per case (whereas the form of the Latin dative, for example, varies according to the number, of the kind, and the variation). In the same way, the verbal terminations are identical in all the 4 conjugations.

• The agglutinant character of Finnish is limited neither to the “cases” nor with the made up words. Other grammatical elements logically take their place following the radical and this in an immutable order. For example the form taloissani “in my houses” can segment in the following way: talo “house” + I mark of plural + its mark of the inessif case (“in”) + neither suffix indicating to an owner of first anybody of the singular (“my, my, my”), the form “uidessani” “while I stroke” am built on uida “to swim” and its and nor like previously.

• Just as the Turkish and the Hungarian, Finnish systematized the vocalic Harmonie. The words contain either of the vowels of before (ä ö there/ø/y), or of the vowels of back (O U has), two series not being able to mix. The vowels E and I are neutral, i.e. they can combine with all the other vowels: kuolematon , säilöminen , tyytymättömyys , etc the endings or the suffixes have a form in thus has or in ä (has very open) according to whether the word contains vowels of back or of before: taloss' has (in the house), metsäss ä (in the forest). The made up words can combine words with vowels of before and of the words with vowels of back: syntymätodistus ( syntymä + todistus ), the stamp of the desinential vowel depending in this case on the last element: syntymätodistuksess has . In certain cases, a certain undulation reigns in the speakers finnophones themselves ( kilometri has or kilometri ä ?) and the dictionaries give sometimes the stamp of the vowel of variation.

• Finnish is also characterized by the phenomenon of the Lénition, in fact the weakening of occlusive in closed syllable (p becomes p, p can become v, tt becomes T, T becomes D, etc). These modifications constitute the consonant Alternance. The rules are relatively simple, but there exists a certain number of exceptions (due to various reasons: loanwords, analogy, etc).

The inflections, variation and conjugation, build starting from radicals called “topic”. A word (noun, adjective or verb) always has a vocalic topic, certain words also a consonant topic. To conjugate the verbs and to decline the nouns or adjectives, it is necessary (and it is enough) to know:

- the topic of the word (which is learned by the lexicon; generally, the names have only one topic, and, among the verbs, only the verbs of the 4th conjugation have a topic which it is sometimes impossible to deduce a priori);

- rules concerning the modifications of the vowels in contact with the I of plural and the preterite;

- consonant rules of alternance.

These rules, relatively very few on the whole, make feel their effect simultaneously, and can lead to “models” of variations which seem different. Some go thus until identifying 75 variations in Finnish, which is perfectly abusive. There is one declension pattern. One can deduce all the forms from those which one finds in the dictionaries - personal singular for the names and infinitive for the verbs - when one knows the whole of the applicable rules: the literary language presents a great regularity . There is not only one irregular verb in Finnish, if one excludes the verb “being” olla , irregular in many languages, but whose only 3rd people of the present indicative are irregular (the same, the radical of the potential mode - to see below - of this verb is different from the normal radical, but it is combined however regularly). It is the simultaneous application several mechanisms (among which one can also mention the effects of a phantom Occlusive glottale in the conjugation of certain verbs), which can give an impression of complexity.

Syntax

On a general plan, and although Finnish is not an Indo-European language, one can say that as a whole the syntactic structure is similar to that of the other languages of Europe. Finnish indo-was clearly Europeanized during the centuries (to be even supposed that there ever was an absolutely radical difference between Indo-European languages and Finno-ugric languages, which does not seem to be the case).

• Finnish knows the concepts of verbal time, anybody, number, the pronouns, the conjugations, the subject, the object, etc, all things of which some are sometimes absent in other languages of the world. The presence of variations is not an originality (Latin, Greek, Russian, Polish, German, Icelandic etc also has some). The word order is usually SVO (subject-verb-object), as in French, and new information is at the end of the syntactic phrase (as in French). To compare:

- Huomenna käyn postissa .

- Tomorrow I go to the post office .

- Käyn postissa huomenna .

- I go to the post office tomorrow .

• The presence of endings makes it possible in theory to freely place for example the object in the sentence, but the word order, as in all the languages of the world, is far from being free, one does not place the words according to time or of mood! Where Finnish uses an inversion, French, for example, uses dislocation (spoken language) or the liability:

- Heel ostivat hänen vanhempansa.

- the house , they are his/her parents who have it achetée.

- the house was bought by his/her parents.

Among the characteristics of Finnish, one can mention the following facts:

the absence of article (what is not an originality, Latin or Russian while being also deprived). In the spoken language, one can consider that conclusive the makes use sometimes of definite article (as certain Finnish or different linguists enjoy to point out it), but it can express only the explicit specific reference:

- Yesterday I had a new bank card. While going to withdraw money, I noted that the chart does not function pas.

- healthy Eilen uuden pankkikortin. Kun nostin rahaa automaatilta, huomasin, että kortti I.E.(internal excitation) toimi.

In the other cases, the article is impossible in Finnish:

- the telephone sonne.

- Puhelin oneself. (implicit specific reference)

- the sun is shining.

- Aurinko paistaa.

- the black chocolate is good for the santé.

- Tumma suklaa one terveellistä. (generic reference)

the prepositions or postpositions “are declined”, i.e. they take suffixes possexifs: takana “behind you” > takana' nor , takana if “behind me, you”, etc But one finds that in Hungarian (language relationship of Finnish) and also into Breton. Probably it was at the origin of the place names and which by solidifying, lost their nature of name little by little, but still preserve it through this common morphological feature with the other names.

the absence of true liability. There exists a mode called “passiivi”, but it is simply an impersonal form of the verb (one cannot express the agent), who knows only one form per time and mode (one can speak with difficulty about anybody, since the form is impersonal): lauletaan “one sings”, sanotaan “one says”, ostettiin “one bought”, olisi sanottu “one would have said” etc to note that this impersonal form is usually used like substitute of the 1e anybody of plural in the spoken language, exactly as one French (there is thus a curious parallel between Finnish and French on this precise point): me soitettiin eilen “one telephoned yesterday”.

the verbal modes of Finnish are the code, the conditional one, the requirement, the participle, infinitive and the potential. This classification is however doubly disparate, the conditional one being regarded more as a mode in modern French grammar (it is one of times of the code as well as the future) and the infinitive participle/not being regarded as a verbal mode in the Finnish grammatical tradition (they are nominal forms of the verb, as well as in French for example appearance or change ). The potential is a mode which expresses the probability: hän ostanee “it will probably buy undoubtedly/”, hän lienee tullut “it undoubtedly came/it had to come”. But the use of this mode is confined with the writing and, in the current language, the values which it expresses are generally returned by adverbs expressing the probability. Many people cannot even build the correct form of the potential, so much it left the everyday usage. Like combined modes, it thus remains in Finnish only the code, the conditional one (according to the traditional terminology) and the requirement, since there is no subjunctive in this language.

time: the code includes/understands the present, the preterite, the perfect one and pluperfect; the conditional one comprises two times, present and perfect. There is no morphological future, the future is returned, when it is absolutely essential, by the periphrasis tulla (“to come”) + infinitive. The future is generally returned by the present (it is the case of the French remainder also).

infinitives are four. In fact it is rather about a manner of classifying the not combined forms of the verb, which are considered in Finnish as nominal forms (what they are morphologiquement in Finnish, since “infinitives” can be declined - with certain cases only). To “infinitives” of Finnish correspond thus of the names or nominal groups in other languages of Europe (for example rakenta- minen' ~ build- ing ).

the negative auxiliary: the negation is diverting for which is initiated with Finnish, because it is expressed using a negative auxiliary which is combined with the various people. It is followed verb to the form set of themes (vocalic) at times of the present, or participle past to times of the last one: in sano/ and sano/hän I.E.(internal excitation) sano/ emme sano/ ette sano/He eivät sano “I do not say ((tu/il/nous/vous/ils… etc)”, in sanoisi “I would not say”, and sanonut “you did not say”, and ole sanonut “you did not say”, and ollut sanonut “you had not said”, emme olisi suostuneet “us would not have accepted”, etc One also use this auxiliary with the requirement, and in this case, to the people other than the 2nd person of the singular, one still adds the particle - koon/köön after the verb, which is incontestably diverting for the foreigner who learns Finnish:

- sano (say) → älä sano (do not say)

- sanokoon (that he says) → älköön sanoko (that he does not say)

- sanokaamme (let us say) → älkäämme sanoko (let us not say)

- sanokaa (known as) → älkää sanoko (known as step)

- sanokoot (that they say) → älkööt sanoko (that they do not say)

the interrogative form in the total interrogation (answer yes/not) is carried out by addition of a particle KB / kö (according to the vocalic harmony), similar to the interrogative particles which one finds for example in Latin or Russian (or even in French, because functionally the continuation behaves like an interrogative particle, phenomenon darkened by the C-W communication). If the subject is expressed (nominal group or pronoun of 3rd person, pronouns of 1e and 2nd person not being obligatorily expressed), there is inversion of the subject, as in many languages. Finnish can use this particle in a very flexible way, because one can associate it with any word on which one wants to make carry the interrogation: the verb, the subject, the object, an adverb, etc For example in the sentence hän osti SEN eilen = it/bought/it/yesterday ( it bought it yesterday ), one can associate the particle with each word, according to the direction of the question:

- Hän osti SEN eilen . It bought it yesterday. →

- Osti' ko' hän SEN eilen? Did it buy it yesterday?

- Hän' kö osti SEN eilen? It is him which bought it yesterday?

- SEN kö hän osti eilen? It is that which it bought yesterday?

- Eilen kö hän osti SEN? It is yesterday that it bought it?

the interrogation partielle' (which? , what? , what? , how? etc) is built simply by adding the interrogative word at the beginning of sentence. Example: Mistä tulet? “From which you come? ” starting from tulet “you build yourself come”.

the greatest originality of Finnish (but that this language divides with the Estonian, his/her close cousin) is the fact that Finnish attaches a great importance to the expression of the verbal aspect (perfective vs. nonperfective), and that, contrary to Russian, where, logically, the verbal aspect is expressed by the verb (it is also the case in French with the opposition imperfect/last simple-past made up), the mark of the aspect is carried by the name , in fact by the ending of the object. One thus opposes an accusative case (or genitive according to the terminology of all the recent great grammar of Finnish Iso Suomen kielioppi , 2004) and a partitive case ( partitiivi ), respectively expressing the “total” object and partial” or “partitive” object the “. This terminology is misleading, the term of partial not expressing part of something, not besides than that of partitive . One can oppose as follows:

- Hän rakentaa talo' a' . It builds/is building une/la house. (case partitiivi , nonperfective aspect)

- Hän rakentaa talo' . It will build une/la house. (accusative case, perfective aspect).

This example gives only one very summary idea of the complexity of the system, since the perfective character or not of the verb depends obviously on semantic criteria (thus lexical, therefore arbitrary, a process seen like perfective in Finnish not being inevitably felt like such in another language) and that many cases of analogy, lexiconizing, etc come to thwart operation of it. Thus only the finnophones control this alternation (with sometimes divergences between the speakers), the suédophones of the Swedish minority of Finland being famous for their “faults of object” when they speak Finnish.

However, the opposition between perfective and nonperfective is completely unobtrusive in the negative sentences, in which the object is quasi systematically with the partitiivi :

- Hän I.E.(internal excitation) rakenna taloa. It does not build pas/n' is not in the train of construire/ne will not build the maison/de house.

To also note that the verbs expressing a feeling have their complements with the partitiivi , even in an affirmative sentence:

- Minä rakastan tätä tyttöä . I love this young girl.

- Nämä sotilaat halveksivat kuolemaa . These soldiers scorn death.

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