Message: "I'm pretty sure it's..."

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[Facts] I'm pretty sure it's...

by Marija Luminitsa

4/5/2006, 7:14 AM

SOH-vee, but I would like a Finnish speaker to back me up on it. Generally, the stress is on the first syllable of nearly everything in Finnish.

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~~Counting down the days until I go to Spain~~

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- Kevlar +2

4/5/2006, 8:32 AM

I'm not really sure how to describe the pronunciation. The vowels are short. The 'o' is like a British short 'o' in words like shop or pot. The 'i' is also short, like in pit. (At least to me, describing the last syllable as vee makes the 'i' seem longer than it should be.)

The real difficulty is the h. It's pronounced, but it's not guttural. It's a soft h sound.

And, yes, the stress is on the first syllable, as in all Finnish words and names. No exceptions.

I'm not sure if any of this makes sense. If you can get it to work, there's a Finnish speech synthesizer, www.mikropuhe.com/demo.asp, that will pronounce any Finnish name correctly. Just write the name in the text field and click on 'Kuuntele puhe'.

This message was edited 4/5/2006, 8:33 AM

- aria_nna

4/6/2006, 6:49 AM

Thanks! you really helped me! The link was very usefull and clear! Thanks

- Marija Luminitsa (guest)

4/5/2006, 10:46 AM

Thanks for the explaination and the cool link. I figured the H was pronounced and I know that the letter "I" isn't exactly an EE sound, but somewhere between that and a short "I" sound. It is a bit difficult for a non-native speaker (especially a silly American like me) to explain. I learned what little I know about Finnish from my best friend (she is a Finn By the way) that lives in Hämeenlinna.

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~~Counting down the days until I go to Spain~~

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