International words in Finnish

General

International words are words that occur in many languages, typically in most European languages, just adjusted in form to each language. International words such as “panel”, “radio”, and “banana” are usually recognizable even from texts in a language that you do not know at all. They may at least give some idea of what the text might be about.

Finnish has a large number of international words, adapted to the phonetic and writing system, for example paneeli, radio, and banaani. However, Finnish often uses a different word even when most European language have an international word, e.g. puhelin (telephone); the word telefoni is outdated and would be used nowadays only in a jocular meaning.

The preceding sections have described vowel length and consonant doubling in international words in Finnish. This section discusses other aspects, such as substitution of letters and adaptation of pronunciation.

Classical forms

Words of Latin or Greek origin typically have a rather “classical” form in Finnish: their spelling, and largely pronunciation as well, is similar to the form in the classical languages. For example, inflaatio reflects the Latin nominative form “inflatio” (lacking the final “n” that we have e.g. in English), and geologia has the same -ia ending as Greek (as opposite to English “geology”). The appendix-like section Endings of international words describes such correspondences between English and Finnish in detail.

Adaptation of letters

Some letter combinations in international words are adapted to Finnish as shown in the following table. It mainly applies to words of Latin or Greek origin.

There are some exceptions like using k as a counterpart to “c”even before e, i, or y, e.g. keraaminen (ceramic) and kyyninen (cynical).

“Own” words instead of international words

Finnish often has its own words, based on old Finnish vocabulary, instead of international words. For example, in Finnish “electricity” is sähkö (a made-up word, related to descriptive words describing hissing sound) and “plastic” is muovi (as a noun) or muovinen (as an adjective), derived from the verb muovata (to shape, to model). Such words are often much easier to pronounce and to write to a Finn than the corresponding international words would be. There has also been intentional linguistic purism, motivated in part by making the language “more democratic”. International words are easy to learn and use to people who know foreign languages, but they are more difficult to people with less education.

Often there is an international word in Finnish but it is used as a learned word only, or as sivistyssana, “cultivated word” or “culture word”, as we say in Finnish. For example, you can use the word struktuuri for structure, and at least educated Finns will see what you mean, but the normal word for structure is rakenne, derived from the verb rakentaa (to build).

Many international words are not used in Finnish as such, only as derivations. For example, the word for national is kansallinen, but nationalism is usually nationalismi. So if you used a made-up Finnish form of the word national, nationaali or nationaalinen, you might still be understood.

The situation has changed due to the accelerated adoption of new concepts and words. In modern times, a new term coined for a technological innovation or new political or scientific concept tends spread very fast, typically as an English word. There is seldom time for developing, say, Finnish words for such use before people widely know it by its English name, or by a loanword taken from English. For example, a tablet, as a device, is tabletti in Finnish, despite some efforts at finding a “more Finnish” name for it and coining words like the somewhat clumsy taulutietokone (literally “table computer”). However, the second part of that word, tietokone, is in actual use, for a computer; the loanword kompuutteri is just jocular. The components are tieto (knowledge, information, data) and kone (machine).

Words formed from Finnish ingredients are often in common use in general texts and public communication but not that much in professional jargon. In information technology, professionals speak and write about serveri or systeemi, but they are expected to switch to palvelin and järjestelmä when addressing a general audience. Similarly, in medicine, suturing a wound might be referred to with the verb suturoida, but the common language word is ommella (the same as used for sowing).