Dialects of Finnish

The scope of this presentation

This presentation describes some important features of Finnish dialects, in a coarse classification. The main purpose is to help people who read—as translators or otherwise—dialogs in Finnish literature. Such dialogs do not usually present genuine dialectal talk but rather a language with some dialectal features. Local dialects as such would often be too difficult to understand well even to native speakers of Finnish from other areas.

Regarding vocabulary, see notes about the dictionary of dialects.

Suomen nykymurteet.

The dialect areas

The following map describes the Finnish dialect areas. This presentation deals with the major areas only and even combining areas 1 and 2 into one.

Map copyright: Institute for the Languages of Finland. CC BY 4.0.

The major dialect areas as described in this presentation are:

• 1 and 2: Southwestern dialects, lounaismurteet in the broad sense. This includes the Turku area, where Finnish was created as a written language.
• 3: Tavastian dialects, hämäläismurteet. The language originally spoken in the Helsinki area was mainly based on a variant of these dialects.
• 4: Dialects of Southern Ostrobothnia, Etelä-Pohjanmaan murteet.
• 5: Dialects of Central and Northern Ostrobothnia, Keski- ja Pohjois-Pohjanmaan murteet.
• 6: Dialects of Northernmost Ostrobothnia, Peräpohjolan murteet. Linguistically, these include meänkieli spoken in Sweden.
• 7: Savonian dialects, savolaismurteet.
• 8: Southeastern dialects, kaakkoismurteet. Also called Karelian dialects, karjalaismurteet, but this term is nowadays seldom used, to avoid confusion with the Karelian language(s). Most of the population speaking these dialects had to leave their homes in 1940 and in 1944 and were scattered around the rest of Finland.

The areas are abstractions. In reality, the occurrence of dialect features varies greatly and often crosses the borders of the areas. For example, we can say that the first person singular pronoun is mie in Eastern dialects and mnää, mää, minä, or mä in Western dialects, but the areas where each of the form appears do not match exactly any of the areas in the map.

Suomen murteet.

Eastern vs. Western dialects

Conventionally, the main division of Finnish dialects has been to Eastern dialects, itämurteet, and Western dialects, länsimurteet. Eastern dialects in the narrow sense consist of groups 7 and 8, i.e. Savonian and Southeastern dialects, but groups 5 and 6 have many features in common with them.

The consonant gradation of intervocalic t (as in katu : kadun in standard Finnish) has often been presented as typical of the division: Eastern dialects have a loss of consonant or semivowel j or v (e.g. kaun or kavun) whereas Western dialects have r or l (e.g. karun or kalun). Groups 5 and 6 are Eastern in this respect. Yet, they are mostly Western e.g. as regards to long vowels aa and ää in the first syllable: groups 7 and 8 usually have moa or mua instead of standard Finnish (and Western) maa.

Eastern and Western dialects have some vocabulary differences, too. The best-known difference is that most Eastern dialects use the noun vasta, Western dialects vihta for a sauna bath whisk made of birch twigs. Standard Finnish accepts both words and has no dialect-neutral alternative. Other Eastern – Western pairs are ilta – ehtoo (evening), nisu – vehnä (wheat), paatti – vene (boat), suvi – kesä (summer), and virittää valkea – sytyttää tuli (set up a fire). For these pairs, old written Finnish used Western words, but later Eastern words became standard. This explains why such Western words are now often understood as biblical or poetic and why they appear in derivations like ehtoollinen (Holy Communion, Lord’s Supper). On the other hand, for many word pairs, the Western word has remained standard and the Eastern word is recognized as dialectal or is in special use only.

Notes on the descriptions

The following subsections describe some typical features of each dialect area, with emphasis on differences from standard Finnish. Expressions of the form “A → B” are here to be read as “standard Finnish A corresponds to B in the dialects”, i.e. the arrow points from standard form to dialect form.

Some important phenomena have been omitted, since their occurrence varies greatly even within the areas. For example, words ending with -eA in standard Finnish have some different form in almost all dialects. Thus, korkea can be korkee (as in common spoken Finnish) or korkia or, in smaller areas, korkii, korkki, korkja, or korkie.

Yet another phenomenon not described is that Western dialects often have a short vowel in the first syllables in words that Eastern dialects and standard Finnish have a long vowel, e.g. hiihtää → hihtää, pyyhkiä → pyhkiä. This varies by word and by dialect. Besides, people may pronounce a half-long vowel in such words.

In the descriptions, general gemination refers to a phenomenon where a consonant is doubled between a stressed vowel and a long unstressed vowel or diphthong, e.g. kesää → kessää, avaimet → avvaimet. Here “stressed” refers to primary or secondary stress, so the phenomenon also occurs e.g. in yritetään → yritettään (the third syllable, with e, has secondary stress).

1, 2 Southwestern dialects

• The first syllable, in addition to being stressed as general in Finnish, tends to have stronger relative strength than in other dialects. This explains several phonetic changes like loss and shortening of sounds in unstressed syllables.
• d → r, e.g. kadulla → karulla.
• ts → tt : t (or tt : tt in some dialects), e.g. metsä → mettä, metsässä → metässä or mettässä.
• uo → ua, e.g. nuori → nuari.
• yö → yä, e.g. työ → tyä.
• ie → ia or ie, e.g. tieto → tiato, tie → tiä.
• i → e when as second vowel of diphthong, e.g. koira → koera.
• u → o when as second vowel of diphthong, e.g. nauraa → naora.
• y → ö when as second vowel of diphthong, e.g. köyhä → kööhä.
• Shortening of long vowels in syllables other than the first one, often causing the doubling of the preceding stop (k, p, or t), e.g. kelpaamaan → kelppaman.
• Partitive suffix often replaced by doubling the consonant k, p, t, or s before the last vowel, e.g. leipää → leippä.
• Double l, m, n, or r often shortened after a long vowel, a diphtong, or an unstressed syllable, e.g. käännettiin → käänetti, kuollut → kualu, ymmärrys → ymmärys.
• -ssA → -s in inessive suffix, e.g. maassa → maas.
• Half-long pronunciation of a short vowel (denoted here with underlining) in the second syllable, if the first syllable is short, e.g. Turussa → Turus. When writing the dialects, such a vowel is often written with two letters, e.g. Kyl määki Turuus.
• Omission of final vowel or unstressed vowel inside a word is common, e.g. palkka → palk, kukkarossa → kukros.
• Frequent loss of a final consonant, e.g. paljon → paljo.
• Loss of i as the second component of a diphthong in the second syllable, e.g. pohjoinen → pohjonen.
• Weak grade in consonant gradation before a diphthong ending with i, e.g. keltainen → kellanen.
• Consonant gradation rk : rj and lk : lj before a front vowel, e.g. (härkä :) härät → härjä.
• Original h often preserved after an unstressed syllable, e.g. taloon → talohon.
• Past tense suffix i → si or s, e.g. istuin → istusi, sanoi → sanos.
• Affected by Swedish more than other dialects are. Some dialects have b, d, f, and g sounds, and consonant clusters at the start of an old loanword may have been preserved.

3 Tavastian dialects

• d → r or l, e.g. kadulla → karulla or kalulla. Here l used to be typical of Tavastian dialects, but it has largely lost to r, for prestige reasons.
• ts → tt (without consonant gradation), e.g. metsä → mettä, metsässä → mettässä.
• uo → ua, e.g. nuori → nuari.
• yö → yä, e.g. työ → tyä.
• ie → ia or ie, e.g. tieto → tiato, tie → tiä.
• In some dialects, general gemination, e.g. sanoo → sannoo.
• Original h often preserved after an unstressed syllable, e.g. taloon → talohon.
• The nk combination is usually not in consonant gradation, e.g. (henki :) hengen → henken.
• Some strongly shortened verb forms like tule^x → tu^x (common spoken language tuu^x), pane^x → pa^x.
• III infinitive illative without the infinitive suffix -mA-, e.g. tulemaan → tuleen.
• Pronoun forms like tuo → toi as in common spoken language.
• Inflection of second person plural pronoun me: meidän → meitin, meitä → meittiä etc.
• Special imperative-like construct like pas nyt tehren, which would be panes nyt tehden using standard Finnish form for words and means about the same as teepäs (a softened form of the imperative tee).

4 Dialects of Southern Ostrobothnia

• d → r, e.g. kadulla → karulla.
• ts → tt (without consonant gradation), e.g. metsä → mettä, metsässä → mettässä.
• uo → ua, e.g. nuori → nuari.
• yö → yä, e.g. työ → tyä.
• ie → ia or ie, e.g. tieto → tiato, tie → tiä.
• -e^x : -een → -es : -ehen in many nouns (those that originally ended with -eh), e.g. hame^x : hameen → hames : hamehen.
• Vowel inserted between consonants in many contexts, e.g. kylmä → kylymä, kihlat → kihilat.
• -ssA → -s in inessive suffix, e.g. maassa → maas, or → nA in some contexts, e.g. kädessäni → kärehnäni.
• Original h often preserved after an unstressed syllable, e.g. taloon → talohon.
• Vowel sometimes omitted before a preserved h, e.g. otetaan (bases on older form otetahan)→ otethan.
• In syllables other than the first one, a diphthong ending with i has lost the i and the remaining vowel has become long, e.g. keltainen → keltaanen (cf. common spoken language keltanen).
• An e at the end of a verb stem has become O when it is long, e.g. tulee → tuloo.
• Special personal suffixes for 1st and 2nd person plural, with different suffixes in present and past tense, e.g. tulemme → tulemma, tulimme → tulima, tulette → tuletta, tulitte → tulija.

5 Dialects of Central and Northern Ostrobothnia

• d → – or j or v or r, e.g. padan → kaulla or kavulla or karulla.
• ts → tt : t or tt : t or ht : ht or ht : t or ss, e.g. metsä : metsän → mettä : mettän or mettä : metän or mehtä : mehtän or mehtä : metän or messä : messän.
• -ssA → -sA in inessive suffix, e.g. koulussa → koulusa.
• Vowel inserted between consonants in many contexts, e.g. kylmä → kylymä, öljy → ölijy.
• In most dialects, general gemination, e.g. sanoo → sannoo, makaa → makkaa.
• The possessive suffix is -nna in both 1st and 2nd person plural, instead of standard -mme and -nne, e.g. talomme → talonna, talonne → talonna.
• Assimilation of tk to kk in some questions, e.g. oletko sinä → ookkona, tuletko sinä → tuukkona.

6 Dialects of Northernmost Ostrobothnia

• Original intervocalic h that has been lost in standard Finnish is preserved, and depending on dialect, the preceding vowel may have been lost and, in addition, the following vowel may have been prolonged, e.g. taloon → talohon or talhon or talhoon.
• d → – or j or v or r, e.g. kadulla → kaulla or kavulla.
• ts → tt : tt , e.g. metsä → mettä, metsässä → mettässä.
• General gemination, e.g. sanoo → sannoo.
• Double consonants ll, mm, nn, and rr often shortened, especially when there is a long vowel or a diphthong earlier in the word, e.g. suuremmat → suuremat, päälle → pääle, kiinni → kiini, tavallisesti → tavalisesti.
• Loss of v between vowels when the latter is u or y, e.g. savu → sau, hyvä → hyä.
• The suffix -t appended to nominatives of some pronouns: me → met, te → tet, he → het, ne → net.
• 3rd person plural suffix -t instead of -vAt in past tense and conditional, e.g. antoivat → annoit, antaisivat → antaisit.
• 2nd person singular possessive suffix -sti instead of -si, e.g. veljesi → veljesti.

7 Savonian dialects

• d → – or j or v or h, e.g. padan → paan, hidas → hijas, sydän → syvän, saada → saaha.
• ts → ht : t (most widespead) or ss : s or ht : h or ht : ht, e.g. metsä : metsän → mehtä : metän or messä : mesän or mehtä : mehän or mehtä : mehtän.
• Long vowels aa and ää have become diphthongs oa and eä in the first syllable, e.g. maa → moa, pää → peä, in most dialects. In several dialects, they have further changed to ua and iä.
• Many diphthongs ending with i, u, or y have changed their second component to a more open vowel, possibly turning the diphthong to a long vowel: ai → ae, oi → oe, äi → äe, au → ao, eu → eo, äy → äö, e.g. laiva → laeva, poika → poeka. In Central Savonia, the process has gone farther: the diphthongs ei, au, ou, öy, äy have turned to long vowels ee, aa, oo, öö, ää, e.g. leipä → leepä. These changes are very typical of Savonian dialects, though some of them appear in Southwestern dialects, too.
• Vowel inserted between consonants in many contexts, e.g. jalka → jalaka, silmä → silimä.
• General gemination, e.g. sanoo → sannoo.
• Special gemination: a consonant becomes longer before a long vowel or diphthong, unless the preceding syllable is short and unstressed. Examples: aikuinen → aekkuune, metsää → mehttää, ollakseen → ollaksseen. Here the consonant has been written with two letters, but it is usually only half-long.
• Palatalization of consonants, often so that a final -i has disappeared but in compensation the consonant before it has been palatalized, e.g. susi → sus´, koti → kot´, meni → män´, kuori → kuor´, but also paljas → pal´jas. Palatalization means that in pronunciation, the position of the tongue is roughly the same as pronouncing Finnish j (English consonantal “y” as in ”yes”). Palatalization is sometimes denoted by an acute accent (´) after a consonant, as here, or after it, or with an apostrophe (’) after the consonant. In writing Savonian dialects in newspapers, novels, etc., the most common notation is probably the letter j, e.g. susj.
• The verb mennä has the vowel ä instead of e in most dialects, e.g. mennä → männä.
• Personal pronouns have special forms in nominative plural: me → myö, te → työ, he → hyö.
• The past participle suffix -nUt appears as -nnA (originally an essive form), e.g. antanut → antanna, saanut → soanna or suanna.
• In some dialects, an original word-final -k has been preserved, e.g. in imperative forms like ota^x → otak.
• In most dialects, the plural suffix -i- in most case forms appears as extended to -lOi-, e.g. taloissa → taloloissa, tytöille → tyttölöille. This often helps to keep singular and plural separate, as they might otherwise be similar due to phonetic changes. Note the effect on consonant gradation: standard Finnish tytöille has weak grade (since a closed syllable follows), but the Savonian tyttölöille has strong grade (before an open syllable).
• Extensive use of descriptive words, often affective and to be intuitively understood on the basis of what they sound like, e.g. rötjäke (vague word with negative associations; cf. standard Finnish descriptive word rutjake, used about people).

8 Southeastern dialects

These dialects have much in common with Savonian dialects but also some features of their own, and they lack some Savonian phenomena.

• d → – or j or v, e.g. padan → paan, vedän → vejän or veän, sydän → syvän.
• ts → ss : ss or tt : t or ht : ht, e.g. metsä : metsän → messä : mesän or mettä : metän or mehtä : mehtän. Some of these dialects have actually ts as in standard Finnish, unlike any other dialect!
• Long vowels aa and ää have become diphthongs oa and eä in the first syllable in some dialects.
• General gemination, e.g. sanoo → sannoo.
• Suffix -*t instead of -vAt in present tense 3rd person plural, e.g. tulevat → tulloot, jättävät → jättäät.
• Suffix -it instead of -vAt in past tense 3rd person plural, e.g. tulivat → tulliit, jättivät → jättiit.
• Palatalization of consonants as in Savonian dialects, e.g. susi → sus´, but not in all dialects.
• The verb mennä has the vowel ä instead of e in most dialects, e.g. mennä → männä.
• -ssA → -s in inessive suffix, e.g. maassa → maas or moas.
• Personal pronouns minä and sinä are special, e.g. minä : minun : minua → mie : miun : minnuu. These appear also in many Savonian dialects.
• Personal pronouns have special forms in nominative plural: me → myö, te → työ, he → hyö.
• Possessive suffixes -ni and -si appear as -in (or -i) and -is, e.g. isäni → issäin or issäi and isäsi → issäis.
• The past participle suffix -nUt has lost the vowel, e.g. antanut → antant, saanut → saant or soant.
• In most dialects, the plural suffix -i- in most case forms appears as extended to -lOi-, e.g. taloissa → taloloissa, tytöille → tyttölöille, as in Savonian dialects.
• Consonant gradation of k in the sk combination, e.g. (koski :) kosken → kosen.
• Infinitive suffix -tA and 4th person suffixes like -tAAn have their t assimilated after s, e.g. pestä → pessä, juostaan → juossaan ∼ juossaa.
• Frequent loss of final vowel, especially A, e.g. yhtenä päivänä → yhten päivän and suurempi → suuremp.
• Special forms like siintä and kotonta instead of siitä and kotoa, and even using the suffix -ntA in a case-like manner as a suffix for “exessive”. These forms often appear without the final -A.
• Lack of boundary gemination in some dialects, e.g. tule tänne pronounced as written, as opposite to standard pronunciation tulet tänne.