Deviations from the phoneme principle: a summary

Deviations in new loanwords

Mainly due to the complicated history of Finnish language spelling standards, there are many deviations from the phoneme principle in relatively new loanwords. Many of the items of the following list are described in more detail in section New loanwords.

• Letters b and g are usually pronounced as [p] and [k], respectively. Even when they are somewhat voiced, this is mostly unsufficient for making a phoneme distinction. When spoken, words like paarit and baarit are distinguished by context, rather than a difference between [p] and [b].
• Letter š or its replacement sh is usually pronounced as [s] or almost like [s]. When spoken, words like šakki and sakki are distinguished by context, rather than a difference between [š] and [s].
• A double consonant before a consonant is often written as in the original language, even though it is pronounced as single, e.g. attribuutti [atripuutti] ∼ [atribuutti].
• In some contexts, a written double consonant between vowels is commonly pronounced single, e.g. penisilliini [penisiliini], though such pronunciation is not officially accepted.
• A single consonant is often pronounced as double, e.g. kampanja [kamppanja] and Internetiin [internettiin] ∼ [intternettiin].
• A single vowel is pronounced as long in some words either regularly, e.g. moa [mooa], or as a very common pronunciation, e.g. bonus [poonus] ∼ [boonus]. This also applies to many given names; e.g. Pia and Piia are both pronounced [piia].
• Many common loanwords have preserved their original spelling, partly for prestige reasons, e.g. pizza [pitsa], rock [rok], wok [vok]. There are also adapted forms spelled phonetically: pitsa, rokki, vokki. The spelling is sometimes debated heavily. On the other hand, the use of the original spelling has not been seriously questioned yet e.g. for lasagne [lasanje], bridge [pridse] ∼ [bridže], show [šou].
• Some loanwords have mostly been adapted to the Finnish writing system, but the letter z, c, or x has been retained, e.g. zootomia [tsootomia], cerium [kerium] ∼ [serium], taxi [taksi], though x can no longer be regarded as accepted in such words.
• Foreign names, words, and phrases are written according to their original spelling, but pronounced in different ways. If they were always read according to Finnish values for letters, the phoneme principle would apply. If they were always read according to original pronunciation, as the official rules say, it would be a rather well-defined exception to the principle. In practice, the pronunciation is one of the alternatives or somewhere between them, e.g. Baker [beikker].
• Finnish suffixes appended to foreign names are often written according to “visual vowel harmony”, deviating from the pronunciation. Example: Dale [deil] : Dalea [deiliä]. It is also common, though substandard, to write the suffixes according to the written form but to use other forms of the suffixes in pronunciation. Example: Bordeaux [bordoo] : Bordeauxiin [bordoohon]; correct spelling: Bordeaux’hon.
• In inflected forms of words ending with a mute -e, the e is written but instead [i] is pronounced in most words, e.g. Greene [griin] : Greenen [griinin], but not consistently, e.g. Applen [äplen].

Other deviations

Deviations in originally Finnish words and in old loanwords also reflect the history of Finnish language standards, in particular attempts at maintaining regularity in writing. For example, according to general principles of Finnish inflection, the genitive of the word ruoka is ruoan, because consonant gradation just makes the k vanish, when the genitive suffix n is appended. However, in practice the pronunciation has been simplified to ruuan. This means that to preserve regularity in written form of the language, irregularity in the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation has been introduced. Although it is now accepted to write ruuan, this has just created additional complexity, since the “regular” spelling is still allowed and often presented or regarded as more correct.

The main deviations are:

• Boundary gemination, which means that in many words, there is a consonant at the end but this is not reflected in spelling in any way. E.g., Anna se! is pronounced [annas se].
• The eng sound has no letter of its own. Instead, it is written as n before k and as ng when doubled, and as n, ng, or g in new loanwords.
• Assimilation of n to [m] before p (and b) is not indicated in writing, i.e. np may also denote [mp], e.g. kunpa [kumpa].
• Transitory sounds [j] ∼ [jj] and [v] ∼ [vv] ∼ [w] between vowels are written inconsistently, e.g. aion [aijon] but leija, kauan [kauvan] but hauva. In particular, different words like lukijoilla (adessive plural of lukija “reader”) and lukioilla (adessive plural of lukio, a school form resembling US high school) are usually pronounced identically.
• The j in sija is normally not pronounced, except perhaps as a short transitory sound. Several grammars say this rather directly in their rules for using the sija spelling to distinguish the word from inflected forms of sika : sian.
• The weak-grade forms of ruoka and vuoka have uu instead of uo in pronunciation, e.g. ruuan, but the old and still accepted (and effectively recommended) spelling e.g. ruoan does not indicate this.
• The second h is often not pronounced in the word hiha, at least in some inflected forms like hihan [hian].
• Most inflected forms of sydän have [mm], but the only accepted spelling is with a single m, e.g. sydämessä [sydämmessä]. This also affects derivations, e.g. sydämellinen [sydämmellinen].
• The word mitali is commonly pronounced [mitalli], though this pronunciation is not even mentioned in dictionaries.
• The word maailma is normally pronounced with a short a and just two syllables, [mail.ma]. In poetry and in emphatic pronunciation, it may have three syllables [maa.il.ma], but hardly secondary stress on the il syllable, even though the word is historically a compound word.

Marking stress

The stress is not a phoneme, but it can be comparable to a phoneme due to making a distinction in meaning. As described in section Stress, the stress cannot always be inferred from the written form of a word. The main reason to this is that compound words are not written systematically so that their structure is indicated.

For example, the spelling tangoilta is used both for a compound word consisting of tango and ilta, with a syllable break between o and i and with secondary stress on the syllable il tán.go.ìl.ta), and for a form (ablative plural) of tango, pronounced as three syllables and without a secondary stress (tán.goil.ta). The same spelling is also used for the ablative plural of tanko and tanga, but these do not differ in pronunciation from the form of tango.

The spelling piilevä may be a form of the verb piillä or (rarely) a compound word consisting of the words pii and levä. The syllable division is the same, but in the latter case, there is a secondary stress, [píilèvä], making the pronunciations different.

Syllable boundaries

Similarly to stress, syllable boundaries are not phonemes but may act like phonemes in the sense of making a difference in both pronunciation and meaning. This happens in non-compound words, too. The spelling hauista can be elative plural of hauki, the partitive singular of hauis, or the elative plural of haku. In the first two cases, the syllable structure is hau.is.ta, but in the third case it is ha.uis.ta, since a syllable break appears in the place of a lost k.

In some loanwords, a combination of a vowel and i does not constitute a diphthong, but this is not indicated in spelling, e.g. ateisti [á.te.ìs.ti], but on the other hand polyteisti [pó.ly.tèis.ti].

According to language rules, a syllable boundary is indicated when it appears between identical vowels. It is indicated with a hyphen if the vowels belong to different parts of a compound, as in linja-auto, and with an apostrophe otherwise, e.g. ruo’on. Moreover, in new loanwords, this principle is not always followed; e.g. kooperaatio, admittedly a rare word, is pronounced [ko.o.pe.raa.ti.o], whereas koordinaatio is pronounced [koor.di.naa.ti.o].

It is allowed to use an apostrophe to indicate syllable boundary otherwise, too, e.g. hau’ista and ha’uista, but this is very rare in modern language.