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> For any "real" language it's probably impossible to have a 1-1 mapping in both directions. As far as I know, Finnish is very very close to 100% phonetic: one

> For any "real" language it's probably impossible to have a 1-1 mapping in both directions. As far as I know, Finnish is very very close to 100% phonetic: one letter, one phoneme, with some slight exceptions and some wiggle room when it comes to dialectical variation and loanwords, especially those with nonnative phonemes like /b/ or /g/. The velar nasal ŋ is the biggest exception, featuring in "nk" and "ng" (like in many other languages) and the rules aren't entirely straightforward. Another exception is that in spoken language a glottal stop or gemination can appear at some morpheme boundaries but isn't reflected in written text.

skydhash 3y ago
Haitian Creole is like this. There are a few phonemes that are represented by two letters, but the distinction is there both in writing and in speech.
OfSanguineFire 3y ago
Except that written Finnish represents, well, written Finnish, which is an artificial standard frozen centuries ago that no one actually speaks outside a few formal contexts. The country has diglossia like, for example, Greece up to the 1970s. When Finns speak, they use puhekieli, spoken Finnish, and there are differing ways to represent spoken Finnish in writing, and different readings for that written representation depending on the person's native dialect.
- Sharlin 3y ago
  That's quite correct, of course. Still, you can write puhekieli (as most of us do daily in informal textual communication such as IMs) and it's still very close to phonetic, although there are individual differences in how "spoken" and dialectical their written puhekieli is. Some common puhekieli traits like the widening of the diphtongs "uo" and "yö" to /ua/ and /yä/ are more rarely reflected in informal writing unless one wants to specifically underline or exaggerate the pronunciation (eg. for comedic effect, or in written fiction featuring persons speaking a dialect).

skydhash 3y ago

Haitian Creole is like this. There are a few phonemes that are represented by two letters, but the distinction is there both in writing and in speech.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

Except that written Finnish represents, well, written Finnish, which is an artificial standard frozen centuries ago that no one actually speaks outside a few formal contexts. The country has diglossia like, for example, Greece up to the 1970s. When Finns speak, they use puhekieli, spoken Finnish, and there are differing ways to represent spoken Finnish in writing, and different readings for that written representation depending on the person's native dialect.

Sharlin 3y ago
That's quite correct, of course. Still, you can write puhekieli (as most of us do daily in informal textual communication such as IMs) and it's still very close to phonetic, although there are individual differences in how "spoken" and dialectical their written puhekieli is. Some common puhekieli traits like the widening of the diphtongs "uo" and "yö" to /ua/ and /yä/ are more rarely reflected in informal writing unless one wants to specifically underline or exaggerate the pronunciation (eg. for comedic effect, or in written fiction featuring persons speaking a dialect).