The Finnish alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and especially its Swedish extension. Officially it comprises 28 letters:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö
In addition, W is traditionally listed after V, although officially it is merely a variant of the latter[1].
Contents |
The following table describes how each letter in the Finnish alphabet is spelled and pronounced separately. In practice, the names of the letters are rarely spelled, as people usually just type the (uppercase or lowercase) glyph when then want to refer to a particular letter. The pronunciation instructions enclosed in slashes are broad transcriptions based on the IPA system (in notes, more narrow transcriptions are enclosed in square brackets).
'
| Glyphs | Spelling | Pronunciation | Notes on usage (for more, see Finnish phonology) |
|---|---|---|---|
| A, a | aa | /ɑː/ | |
| B, b | bee | /beː/ | Occurs in relatively unestablished loanwords, such as banaani (banana) or bussi (bus). Often pronounced as [p]. |
| C, c | see | /seː/ | Occurs in unestablished loanwords, such as curry or cesium. Typically pronounced as [k] or [s]. |
| D, d | dee | /deː/ | Historically used to stand for the voiced dental fricative [ð], which has since disappeared from Finnish. In present standard language, D stands for [d] but the pronunciation in dialects varies a lot. Natively used in Western dialects as [ɾ] and not at all in Eastern dialects. |
| E, e | ee | /eː/ | The precise pronunciation tends to be between [e] and [ɛ]. |
| F, f | äf, äffä | /æf/, /ˈæfːæ/, occasionally /ef/ | Occurs in relatively unestablished loanwords, such as asfaltti (asphalt) or uniformu (uniform). In dialectal pronunciation (apart from some Western dialects), [f] is typically replaced with [ʋ] or medially [hʋ]. The more established loanwords also tend to have an alternative spelling where V [ʋ] has replaced F (asvaltti, univormu). |
| G, g | gee | /geː/ | Occurs natively in the digraph ng, which marks the long velar nasal [ŋː]. Otherwise G occurs in relatively unestablished loanwords, such as gaala (gala) or geeni (gene). Often pronounced as [k]. |
| H, h | hoo | /hoː/ | This is normally [h], an unvoiced sound, but after certain vowels (in ah, ih, uh, or between vowels) frication occurs. |
| I, i | ii | /iː/ | The precise pronunciation tends to be between [i] and [e]. |
| J, j | jii | /jiː/ | As in Swedish and German, the letter 'j' is without exception the sound [j] (English 'y'), never fricated as in French or English. |
| K, k | koo | /koː/ | |
| L, l | äl, ällä | /æl/, /ˈælːæ/, occasionally /el/ | |
| M, m | äm, ämmä | /æm/, /ˈæmːæ/, occasionally /em/ | |
| N, n | än, ännä | /æn/, /ˈænːæ/, occasionally /en/ | |
| O, o | oo | /oː/ | The precise pronunciation tends to be between [o] and [ɔ]. |
| P, p | pee | /peː/ | |
| Q, q | kuu | /kuː/ | Mainly occurs in foreign proper names. Typically pronounced as [k] or [kv]. |
| R, r | är, ärrä | /ær/, /ˈærːæ/, occasionally /er/ | |
| S, s | äs, ässä | /æs/, /ˈæsːæ/, occasionally /es/ | |
| T, t | tee | /teː/ | The precise pronunciation tends to be dental rather than alveolar. |
| U, u | uu | /uː/ | The precise pronunciation tends to be between [u] and [o]. |
| V, v | vee | /ʋeː/ | Typically pronounced as approximant [ʋ] rather than fricative [v]. |
| W, w | kaksois-vee, tupla-vee | /ʋeː/, /ˈkɑksoisˌʋeː/, /ˈtuplɑˌʋeː/ | May occur natively as an archaic variant of V, but otherwise in unestablished loanwords and foreign proper names only. Typically pronounced as [ʋ]. |
| X, x | äks, äksä | /æks/, /ˈæksæ/, occasionally /eks/ | Occurs in unestablished loanwords, such as taxi or fax, but there is often a preferred alternative where X has been replaced with KS (taksi, faksi). Typically pronounced as [ks]. |
| Y, y | yy | /yː/ | The precise pronunciation tends to be between [y] and [ø]. |
| Z, z | tset, tseta | /tset/, /ˈtsetɑ/ | Occurs in unestablished loanwords, such as zeniitti (zenith) or pizza, but there may be an alternative spelling with TS (e.g., pitsa). Typically pronounced as [ts] or sometimes as [s]. |
| Å, å | ruotsalainen oo | /oː/, /ˈruotsɑˌlɑinen oː/ | The "Swedish O", carried over from the Swedish alphabet and redundant in Finnish; retained especially for writing Finland-Swedish proper names. Pronounced as [o] or [ɔ]. |
| Ä, ä | ää | /æː/ | |
| Ö, ö | öö | /øː/ | The precise pronunciation tends to be between [ø] and [œ]. |
The Finnish orthography strives to represent all morphemes phonologically and, roughly speaking, the sound value of each letter tends to correspond with its value in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) – although some discrepancies do exist. When writing Finnish, the foundational principle is that each letter stands for one sound and each sound is always represented by the same letter, within the bounds of a single morpheme. The most notable exception to this rule is the velar nasal [ŋ], which do not have an allotted letter; instead, it is written with the digraph ng when geminated, and otherwise with N that is followed by K.
In Finnish, the vovels and consonants may be short or long, and the difference is significant. A short sound is written with a single letter and a long sound is written with a double letter. It is necessary to recognize the difference between such words as tuli (/tuli/, fire), tuuli (/tuːli/, wind) and tulli (/tulːi/, customs) or tapaan (/tɑpɑːn/, I meet) and tapan (/tɑpɑn/, I kill).
The two extra vowel letters Ä and Ö (accompanied by the Swedish Å, which is actually not needed for writing Finnish) are the main peculiarities in the Finnish alphabet. In Finnish, these extra letters are collectively referred to as the ääkköset (a somewhat playful modification of aakkoset, which is the Finnish word for the alphabet as a whole) when they need to be distinguished from the basic Latin alphabet.
Although the glyphs of the ääkköset are derived from the similar looking German umlauted letters, they are considered letters in their own right and thus alphabetized separately (after Z). The dots on the base glyph are not modifications but essential parts of each letter, much like the hook in Q distinguishes Q from O. As Finnish is unrelated to Germanic languages, the Germanic umlaut or convention of considering AE equivalent to Ä, and OE equivalent to Ö is inapplicable in Finnish. Moreover, in Finnish, both AE and OE are vowel sequences, not single letters, and have independent meanings, e.g. haen (I seek) vs. hän (he, she).
If the proper letters are not available, Ä and Ö must be replaced with A and O, respectively. Even though there are lots of minimal pairs, e.g. saari (island) vs. sääri (leg), or vaara (danger) vs. väärä (wrong), which may be confused, the correct meaning can usually be reconstructed. For a Finnish reader, replacing Ä and Ö with A and O is less distracting than using the Germanic alternatives AE and OE.
In handwritten text, the actual form of the extra marking may vary from a pair of dots to a pair of short vertical bars, to a single horizontal bar, or to a wavy line resembling a tilde (in practice, almost any diacritic mark situated above the base glyph would probably be interpreted as a carelessly written pair of dots), but in computerized character sets, these alternatives are incorrect.
In the Finnish writing system, some basic Latin letters are considered redundant, and other letters generally represent sounds that are not inherent in the Finnish language. Thus, they are not used in established Finnish words, but they may occur in newer loanwords as well as in foreign proper names, and they are included in the Finnish alphabet in order to maintain interlingual compatibility. The pronunciation of these letters varies quite a lot.
Diacritical or accent marks are never added to letters in Finnish words (since the dots above the Finnish graphemes Ä and Ö are not diacritics). Generally, diacritics are retained in foreign-language proper names, e.g. Vilén, if possible, but when arranging words alphabetically, diacritics are usually ignored. A few foreign characters or glyphs may need closer scrutiny: