speaking finnish

Learn and discuss the Finnish language with Finn's and foreigners alike
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wellwell
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speaking finnish

Post by wellwell » Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:11 am

i can say a couple of words in finnnish but i cant say any of them because i cant pronounce them. Does anyone know any good, free websites or anything free that i can hear the language being spoken so i can learn how to say it because at the moment i am really struggling because i dont know how to say what i am learning.
thank you :wink:



speaking finnish

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kalmisto
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Post by kalmisto » Tue Nov 23, 2004 11:50 am

wellwell

You can listen to this speech synthsizer :

http://www.mikropuhe.com/demo.asp

Write a Finnish word or sentence in the text field, then click on "Kuuntele puhe"!

This synthesizer pronounces words correctly but its intonation is a bit weird.
You do not notice this if you give it only one word ( at a time ) to pronounce.

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Hank W.
The Motorhead
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Post by Hank W. » Tue Nov 23, 2004 12:38 pm

The thing is you have to relearn the alphabet.

You know vowels , a, e i o u y ä ö

In finnish they are aa, ee, ii, oo, uu, yy, ää, öö

In English the Finn hears ei, ii, ai, ou, vai...
Cheers, Hank W.
sitting here like a lemon looking for a gin.

PeterF
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Post by PeterF » Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:10 pm

You can come and join me on my "training course" at the Rio...
Hank does not let one slip of pronunciation go un-noticed.....as he spits out his beer and says .."do you know what you have just asked her to do this time?" :roll: :oops:

The rule, which I forget after a few pints is..:
There are no short cuts in Finnish pronunciation..every letter has a sound and every sound must be sounded correctly..miss one or sound it as it would be as pronounced in Sowf Londern..at your peril. :roll:

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mookoo
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Post by mookoo » Wed Nov 24, 2004 2:09 am

I am trying this darn Finnish pronunciation myself. My most common phrase while practicing is "isn't that what I said?" I guess my ears can't hear it. My boyfriend will fire off two words that if you asked anyone in the world 99.99% of them would say its the same word BUT ITS NOT! :evil: And I have experienced first hand where you get your CD's in the mail and practice one phrase for 3 hours until you think you have got it perfect and then you go in front of the Finns and do your thing and get nothing but blank stares in return. Then comes the "what were you trying to say ... in English". And then after thinking about it for a minute they can guess what Finnish phrase you were trying to say. :roll:
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PeterF
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Post by PeterF » Wed Nov 24, 2004 8:33 am

One of the professors of linguistics at HU wrote this...(Eugene Holman an American).

"Finnish Pronunciation: Easy... in the sense that it uses a small number of sounds which are subject to a surprisingly small amount of allophonic variation; but... difficult in the sense that the ability to speak and understand Finnish is crucially dependent on having learned to distinguish between long and short vowels and consonants, ....and learning to articulate unstressed syllables crisply without the slightest trace of slurring or reduction, ....this being the exact opposite of what an English speaker is likely to do."

The last few lines being the key factor...

wellwell
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Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2004 5:04 am

thanx!!!

Post by wellwell » Wed Nov 24, 2004 8:49 am

thank you! you've really helped! though im still struggling a bit im sure it will get much easier now that i can find out how to actually say the words! :D :D :D

kalmisto
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Post by kalmisto » Fri Nov 26, 2004 7:41 am

wellwell

Click on this link, then choose a subject ( like KOTIMAA ), then click on "KUUNTELE" ( LISTEN )! :

http://www.papunet.net/selko/uutiset/?kat=1

You can listen and read at the same time!

kalmisto
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Post by kalmisto » Fri Nov 26, 2004 12:29 pm

wellwell

For more Papunet stories click on "Juttuarkisto" ( Story Archive ) or click on this! :

http://www.papunet.net/selko/uutiset/?kat=5


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