Finnish (suomi)

Finnish is a Finnic language spoken by about 5 million people in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Canada and Russia. It is closely related to Estonian.

Finnish starting to appear in writing during the 16th century. The first piece of Finnish literature was a translation of the New Testament by Michael Agricola which was published in 1548.

Until 1809 Finland was a part of Sweden and Swedish was the official language. From 1863 the Finnish language could be used along with Swedish when dealing with authorities. Civil servants were obliged to use the Finnish language and issue documents in Finnish from 1883. In 1892 Finnish became an official language and gained a status comparable to that of Swedish. Today Finland is officially bilingual in Finnish and Swedish.

Finnish alphabet (suomen aakkoset)

Finnish alphabet

Finnish pronunciation

Notes

The letters in blue are only used in names and foreign loanwords
The letter g appears in native Finnish words in combination with N as ng [ŋ]
c = [k] when it appears before a, o and u, and [s] when in front of e, i, y, ä and ö
Stress always falls on the first syllable of words.
Vowels and consonants can be short (written with one letter), or long (written with two letters).
Finnish has a system of vowel harmony. There are three types of vowels: front vowels (ä, ö, y), back vowels (a, o, u) and neutral vowels (e, i). Front and back vowels cannot co-exist in the same word. Neutral vowels can be used with either of the two other types. For more details, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_harmony#Finnish

Information about the pronunciation of Finnish compiled by Wolfram Siegel

Sample text

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

Hear a recording of this text

Translation

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.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Links

Information about Finnish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/finnish-intro.html

Finnish as a world language? (Reasons for learning Finnish)
http://www.suomalaiset.de/forum/showthread.php?t=336

Recordings of the Finnish alphabet
http://www.unilang.org/view.php?res=53

Online Finnish lessons
http://www.oneness.vu.lt/fi/
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/Finnish.html
http://donnerwetter.kielikeskus.helsinki.fi/FinnishForForeigners/
http://www.finlandese.net
http://polymath.org/finnish.php

Online Finnish dictionaries
http://www.fincd.com
http://www.dictionaric.com/dicofinnois/dicofinnois.php

Finnish Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com

Radio Suomi - online Finnish language radio
http://www.yle.fi/radiosuomi/

Online Finnish news
http://www.kauppalehti.fi
http://www.esaimaa.fi
http://www.kaleva.fi

Finnic languages

Estonian, Finnish, Karelian, Kven, Livonian, Veps, Võro, Votic

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

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