Difficult pronounciation?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 9:24 pm

kalmisto wrote: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".

Surprises me that I'm the first one to not agree...
If there would be a word 'kau' in Finnish and 'cow' has to be compared with something that would look alike in Finnish (and I don't even think 'kau' would be the same) it would be that.
Honestly I don't think the Finnish 'käy' sounds remotely close to the English 'cow'.

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Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 9:27 pm

Or then... I was just thinking...
It must be some very thick dialect.
I know in some areas in GB they completely ummm... 'rape' the words... Maybe this cow was also raped?

Tom and Jerry · Post by **Tom and Jerry** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 10:43 pm

No Arno, käy is pronounciated as cow in some areas in Mid-England.

I should have said that otherwise. Some from Mid-England may think that when hearing the Finnish käy sound like their cow.

The cows in Texas are completely different of course.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:11 pm

What about the words "tuuli" and "tyyli"? Is it difficult to hear which is which?

Andrew_S · Post by **Andrew_S** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:38 pm

Using Finnish orthography the nearest you could get to the British RP pronunciation of "cow" is "käu". The Finnish "y" does not occur in English so a newcomer to that sound would find the nearest English word to käy to be English "cow".

So it's no surprise to me if an English speaker says käy sound quite like cow.

English speakers usually rationalize Finnish "y" as "ju".
As if 2 components of the one sound (lip and inside of the mouth) are separated. I get them to round their lips (like oo of good) and with rest of their mouth say ee of e.g. seen (well Finnish i in fact)
Although feeling strange to the beginner it produces something close to "y".

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:47 pm

Tö pöt sit on tö pränts?

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:51 pm

Freckles wrote: I understand some Finnish children go to Speech Pathologists to get this problem fixed, so I may consider it myself when I come back.

Well, if you hear Mme. President or the left-league's Suvi-Anne Siimes speak, their 'r' -sound shows the speech pathologists gave up as the fault was pathological. Thats why probably I like to speak English as I have a "ärlärlärl" -fault as well. My roll comes as a rdzh

gerg_861 · Post by **gerg_861** » Sun Dec 07, 2003 6:18 am

I have the most trouble with öy words like köyhä and höyry. I actually know a few finns who have had to have their frenulums clipped to allow them to properly make rs, and have willingly undergone the procedure because otherwise they feel that they sound mentally impaired. BTW, does anyone know what frenulum is in finnish?

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Thu Dec 11, 2003 10:37 pm

>> Does anyone know what "frenulum" is in Finnish? <<

Frenulum = kielijänne, kieliside

You can find "frenulum" on this list : http://www.opiskelijakirjasto.lib.helsi ... nglhak.htm

How did I find this list ? I used the search engine here :

http://www.suomi24.fi

I used "frenulum" as the search word and chose "suomeksi" ( in Finnish )

Slothrop · Post by **Slothrop** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 11:27 pm

I can just about get my head around käy and cow, but it would require that the English-speaker was from the West Country or at least extremely agricultural in speech (yeah, could be deep Suffolk, too) with lots of Oi sounds for I. In fact it almost sounds caricatured.

Kind of like this does.

Eh! dites-le, dites-le,
De quatre et méfie de le.
Haine de caoutchouc me Douvres de mou.
Le lit le dos que l'a fait de
Tous s'y sèchent à c'port
Et de digérant, ohé! Ouida, ce pou.

There's a bovine content here, as well.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 1:09 pm

>> ]I can just about get my head around käy and cow, but it would require that the English-speaker was from the West Country or at least extremely agricultural in speech (yeah, could be deep Suffolk, too) with lots of Oi sounds for I. In fact it almost sounds caricatured <<

You could write to Colin and invite him to this discussion. His email address is : colin@insidecolinshead.com

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Difficult pronounciation?

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