Difficult pronounciation?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:39 am

Those tongue knotters are in any language.
They're a good practise though!

"De postbode poetst de postkoets."

**Sponsor:**

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 8:59 pm

pyörä and yötä

I can say them quite well, but I really have to strain to get it out right. The sound formations don´t feel natural even the more I practice.

Great Scott · Post by **Great Scott** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 6:02 am

Hmm, the only ones I have problems with are the H's when following a vowel. IH, AH, EH (pihvi, kahvi, pehmeä). I find it difficult to make pahvi sound different from paavi without making myself have a coughing fit.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:32 am

You can imagine it being an f...

kaffi, paffi, piffi

Atleast in Helsinki you just sound like you'r an old lady from Tölö

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 10:46 am

Great Scott wrote:Hmm, the only ones I have problems with are the H's when following a vowel. IH, AH, EH (pihvi, kahvi, pehmeä). I find it difficult to make pahvi sound different from paavi without making myself have a coughing fit.

Or if you're familiar with the gurgling sounds from some other languages

, you could imagine it to be a soft 'g'.
I had the same problem when I just came here, but this was a good help.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:59 pm

>> You're not the only one. Back to the title of this: 'difficult pronounciation'

The difference between ä and e
The difference between i and e

is for English speaking always difficult. <<

I do not understand this at all. Isn´t the Finnish "ä" sound exactly like the "a" in the English word "bat"? If you can pronounce the word "bat" you should be able to say "tämä" ( Finnish for "this" )

And you can certainly hear the difference between "bat" and "bet".

The Finnish "e" is like the "e" in "them" and "hell". Are those words difficult to pronounce?

The Finnish "i" is like the"i" in "hill" and the Finnish "e" is like the "e" in "hell". I am sure that you can hear the difference between "hill" and "hell".

And please do not get me wrong. I am not trying to be critical or unfriendly. I just do not understand what you mean.

Tom and Jerry · Post by **Tom and Jerry** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:13 pm

kalmisto wrote:The difference between ä and e
The difference between i and e

is for English speaking always difficult.

I do not understand this at all. Isn´t the Finnish "ä" sound exactly like the "a" in the English word "bat"? If you can pronounce the word "bat" you should be able to say "tämä" ( Finnish for "this" )

The Finnish "i" is like the"i" in "hill" and the Finnish "e" is like the "e" in "hell". I am sure that you can hear the difference between "hill" and "hell".

And please do not get me wrong. I am not trying to be critical or unfriendly. I just do not understand what you mean.

Hi Kalmisto,

I got that information from a book of Kalevi Wiik. They did some thirty years ago research on the frequencies of the vocales. If I remember it correct the Finnish e was just between the English i and e.
I'm sorry I can't remember exactly the title 'finnish fonology' or so. I hope some newer research has been done on this, but it sounds logic to me that it is difficult for English people to simply hear the difference between a high ä and a lower e.

I hope I have given a good explanation, but if you have a better one, please, I would like to hear it.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:38 pm

>> I got that information from a book of Kalevi Wiik. They did some thirty years ago research on the frequencies of the vocales. If I remember it correct the Finnish e was just between the English i and e.
I'm sorry I can't remember exactly the title 'finnish fonology' or so. I hope some newer research has been done on this, but it sounds logic to me that it is difficult for English people to simply hear the difference between a high ä and a lower e. <<

The "e" in the English word "net" sounds to me exactly like the "e" in the Finnish word "netti". I do not hear any difference at all.

Use this Finnish speech synthesizer to listen to "netti":

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

I do not know what is meant by a high ä or a lower e. Can you give me a few examples?

The vowels in the Finnish word "vesi" sound to me exactly like the vowels in the "hesi"part of the English word "hesitate". I can not hear any difference. Can you?

Tom and Jerry · Post by **Tom and Jerry** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:02 pm

It's more that the vocals in a language are not pronounciated always the same way.

There is a certain area of frequences in which a Finnish e is perceived as an e.

There is another area of frequences for the English i

These two areas overlap each other. Hence the difficulty for English listeners to seperate the vocales, since sometimes the e is perceived as the English e and sometimes as an a.

Ok, perhaps it is good to see what the professionals say nowadays on this topic.

But, it is my experience that many English speakers cannot distinguish so well in spoken Finnish the vocales a,e and i.

Tom and Jerry · Post by **Tom and Jerry** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:04 pm

"I do not know what is meant by a high ä or a lower e. Can you give me a few examples? "

Some people speak with a high voice, other with a low voice. Still one is able to recognize eg. the word mäkättää.

aurora · Post by **aurora** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:28 pm

I hope Ihave spelled these right as I still am a bit confused between can you see and would you like to @#$%? Especially with the pronounciation . Found this out at a birthday party ( blind man´s buff) when I was asking all the little kids as they put the scarf over their eyes " can you @#$%" husband came rushing in to point out the error- sound a bit Michael Jacksonish doesn´t it. Aurora

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:03 pm

Colin from England claims that he pronounces the English word "cow" like Finns pronounce the Finnish word "käy". See this :

http://www.insidecolinshead.com/baltism.html

Any comments on that ?

And Finnish is "the most terrifying language in Europe".

Freckles · Post by **Freckles** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:05 pm

I also have problems with "r". I CANNOT role my R's and it makes the Finnish language difficult. I have to flick my tongue across my teeth to make it remotely sound right. I understand some Finnish children go to Speech Pathologists to get this problem fixed, so I may consider it myself when I come back.

So the most difficult word for me is:

VIHREÄ

And it just so happened that it was the the LM VIHREÄ packet of smokes I had to ask for at Kioskit!! It was a little challenge everytime!

Freckles.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:14 pm

>> And it just so happened that it was the the LM VIHREÄ packet of smokes I had to ask for at Kioskit!! It was a little challenge everytime! <<

It does not matter if you can not pronounce the Finnish "r" correctly. Finns understand what you say even if you do not roll the "r". Some Asian immigrants can not pronounce the "r" sound at all. In stead of "roisto" ( scoundrel) they say "loisto" (shine,glow)

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:32 pm

>> So the most difficult word for me is:

VIHREÄ <<

I just noticed that the word "vihreä" has the same letters as the word "hirveä" ( awful )

Try to say this : "Vihreä" on hirveä sana ääntää. ( "Green" is an awful word to pronounce )

Finland Forum

Find information about moving to, living in and life in Finland

Difficult pronounciation?

Naitko? näetkö?