4 ms·

German also has almost deterministic pronounciation rules. Italian too, except for the position of the stress.

usr1106 4y ago
German (as well as French) is mostly 1 : n. There is typically only one possible pronunciation for a written word (exceptions exist). But for a spoken word there can be several spellings. You need to learn which one is correct. English is n:m, everything is possible and you just need to learn it. Finnish is >99% 1:1. A native speaker can should be able to write each word correctly. In practice spelling errors do exist. Partly because in colloquial speach / dialects not all words are pronounced fully according to the rules. Partly because some people are just unable to apply the rules. Not being able to pronounce a written word seems mostly impossible. However, foreigners should not think Finnish is easy for that reason. There are many sounds foreigners cannot pronounce correctly. And several pairs of sounds that foreigners' ears cannot distinguish.
- bloak 4y ago
  Which Finnish sounds are difficult, would you say? With previous experience of English, French, German and Spanish, when I look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_phonology I don't feel intimiated like I do by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology or get the sense of dispair that I get from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_phonology
  - usr1106 4y ago
    I learnt Finnish as an adult and have been speaking it for close to 30 years. Most Finns claim that I speak very well, but my daughter reminds me of pronunciation mistakes basically in every sentence. It's not about accent, it's just wrong. In normal fluent speech I cannot hear the difference between short and long consonants. That does not hinder me to understand what people are saying. In 99% it's clear from the context. But I cannot produce the difference reliably either. When I try to make it short it might get long or the other way round. Normally I don't try anything and it often enough just gets wrong. If you cannot hear the difference yourself, it's of course difficult to get it right. I don't think many deaf people learn to speak well either. While the wrong consonant length does not impact my understanding, native speakers are not at all tolerant to it. Many claim one cannot understand what is said. My theory is that bad Finnish is not a widespread concept. There are more speakers of bad English on the planet than native speakers of English. In the USA immigrants have been speaking bad English for centuries, nowadays it's practiced for business and tourism all over the world. Everybody has heard a wide variety of pronunciations. Immigrants have existed in Finland in slightly bigger numbers only for 20 years or less. And in the last ten years an increasing number does not even bother to learn Finnish. One can live with English these days. So native speakers are a rather homogeneous group. (Dialects exists but the differences are not huge and the more extreme one are rarely heard.) Back to difficult phonemes. Probably most foreigners cannot pronounce "ä" correctly (it's different from the German "ä"). "äy" is probably even more difficult. The first word babys learn is "äiti" (mum, mother). It is surprisingly difficult for foreigners.

German (as well as French) is mostly 1 : n. There is typically only one possible pronunciation for a written word (exceptions exist). But for a spoken word there can be several spellings. You need to learn which one is correct. English is n:m, everything is possible and you just need to learn it. Finnish is >99% 1:1. A native speaker can should be able to write each word correctly. In practice spelling errors do exist. Partly because in colloquial speach / dialects not all words are pronounced fully according to the rules. Partly because some people are just unable to apply the rules. Not being able to pronounce a written word seems mostly impossible. However, foreigners should not think Finnish is easy for that reason. There are many sounds foreigners cannot pronounce correctly. And several pairs of sounds that foreigners' ears cannot distinguish.

bloak 4y ago
Which Finnish sounds are difficult, would you say? With previous experience of English, French, German and Spanish, when I look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_phonology I don't feel intimiated like I do by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology or get the sense of dispair that I get from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_phonology
- usr1106 4y ago
  I learnt Finnish as an adult and have been speaking it for close to 30 years. Most Finns claim that I speak very well, but my daughter reminds me of pronunciation mistakes basically in every sentence. It's not about accent, it's just wrong. In normal fluent speech I cannot hear the difference between short and long consonants. That does not hinder me to understand what people are saying. In 99% it's clear from the context. But I cannot produce the difference reliably either. When I try to make it short it might get long or the other way round. Normally I don't try anything and it often enough just gets wrong. If you cannot hear the difference yourself, it's of course difficult to get it right. I don't think many deaf people learn to speak well either. While the wrong consonant length does not impact my understanding, native speakers are not at all tolerant to it. Many claim one cannot understand what is said. My theory is that bad Finnish is not a widespread concept. There are more speakers of bad English on the planet than native speakers of English. In the USA immigrants have been speaking bad English for centuries, nowadays it's practiced for business and tourism all over the world. Everybody has heard a wide variety of pronunciations. Immigrants have existed in Finland in slightly bigger numbers only for 20 years or less. And in the last ten years an increasing number does not even bother to learn Finnish. One can live with English these days. So native speakers are a rather homogeneous group. (Dialects exists but the differences are not huge and the more extreme one are rarely heard.) Back to difficult phonemes. Probably most foreigners cannot pronounce "ä" correctly (it's different from the German "ä"). "äy" is probably even more difficult. The first word babys learn is "äiti" (mum, mother). It is surprisingly difficult for foreigners.