Length of vowels in loanwords

Reflecting source language vowel length

In pronunciation, loanwords originally had a long vowel when the source language (usually Swedish) had a stressed long or half-long vowel. Thus, from Swedish “banál” we have banaali, but from Swedish “banalitét” we have banaliteetti. (Here we indicate the stress in Swedish words with an acute accent; this does not belong to the Swedish writing system.) Typically, this happens in words of Latin origin, with the Swedish stress reflecting a long stressed vowel in a Latin word, in the second last or third last syllable.

Conflict between written and spoken form

In old loanwords, two vowel letters are systematically used to denote a long vowel. In newer loanwords, often more learned words and often primarily adopted in written form, the spelling is more complicated. There were serious debates a hundred years ago about using the spelling of the source language (and most other languages) versus applying normal Finnish writing rules. People said banaali, but were used to seeing the spelling banal in other languages. A compromise was made, mixing the two systems. Thus, we have banaali, but invalidi, even though the latter has a long vowel in Swedish, “invalíd”.

Originally, the compromise was meant to be about spelling only. Decades later, it was decided that the pronunciation should follow the spelling. This created further complexity. By now, pronunciation like invalidi has become dominant, but you can still hear invaliidi.

The rules of the “great compromise”

The rules on vowel length in new loanwords are described in the following. They somewhat deviate from the original rules of the compromise.

• A long or half-long stressed vowel in the source language corresponds to a long vowel in Finnish, e.g. motiivi, from Swedish “motív”, unless some of the following exceptions applies.
• The word endings -oli, -omi, -oni, -ori, -ovi have short o, e.g. ekonomi, even though Swedish has “ekonóm”. This also applies when that ending is followed by a Finnish suffix, e.g. astronominen, or by -o, e.g. observatorio. Note: old loanwords may deviate from this, e.g. pistooli, from Swedish “pistól”.
• Short vowel is used before the foreign consonants b, d, f, g, if a) the word has at least three syllables, b) the foreign consonant starts the last syllable of the word, when Finnish suffixes and an -o suffix are not counted. Examples: ameba, balladi, typografi, synagoga, topologinen, gonidio. But the vowel is long (as in Swedish) in graafi, since it has only two syllables, and in makaaberi, since the b does not start the last syllable. Note that looginen (logical) has long o, since the part before the Finnish nen suffix is just two syllables, whereas longer words have short o before g, e.g. biologinen.
• A short vowel is used in a syllable preceding the ending -ia, even when it is followed by a Finnish suffix. This was originally formulated as applying to geographic names like Australia, later extended to general names like akasia, araukaria, magia, media. Exception: geographic names ending with -ia and consisting of three syllables have a long vowel, e.g. Aasia, Fryygia.
• The vowel i is short in a syllable preceding the ending -io (mostly in Latin-based words), but other vowels are long, e.g. editio but notaatio. This rule has been set to imitate Latin vowel length rather than Swedish; in Swedish these words end with “-ión”.
• The vowel is short before a consonant cluster, e.g. setri, bulevardi. This is not included in official rules as a principle, but it is applied in the official forms of the few words to which it applies.
• Words ending with -ium have short vowel. This includes names of chemical elements, such as kalium and radium. This is not listed in official rules, but official glossaries follow this principle.
• Some words have short vowel, with no apparent logic, e.g. alkali, bonus, evankelinen, farao, kameli, kaneli, laser, paneli, virus. This group includes many names of nationalities, such as berberi and tamili.

Variation in pronunciation

As mentioned above, pronunciation still varies. For example, agronomi may be pronounced agronoomi, though this is not as common as it used to be. In ameba, the e is mostly still pronounced long, and the spelling ameeba is common.

The vowel length may be somewhat indeterminate, between short and long, e.g. in many country names like Australia (which may sound almost like Austraalia).

In some popular first names, there is variation in vowel length, e.g. Miia ∼ Mia, and even the latter is usually pronounced Miia.