Apparently English began to be taught in Finnish schools in the 1970s, but my mother-in-law learned English many years before that, in the 1940s, before she moved to the US in the early 1950s.Jukka Aho wrote:What I meant was that even if you read the word “English” as if it were a Finnish word — subject to similar pronunciation rules as any written Finnish word when read aloud — it’s still two syllables: /eŋ-liʃ/ or /eŋ-lish/. Well, maybe someone could even say /en-ɡliʃ/ or /en-ɡlish/, or replace the /ɡ/ with a /k/, or drop the /h/ since the consonant clusters in that word are rather “foreign” for a supposed Finnish word. But it’s a bit difficult to imagine how that four-syllable pronunciation came about.
For instance, consider "Helsingin" (Hel-sin-gin) and then consider her pronunciation of "English" (En-g-lis-(h)). The "g" of "Helsingin" is quite similar to the "g" of her pronunciation of "English". There is no "gl" sound in Finnish, and so she pronounces "g-l". There is no "sh" sound in Finnish, and so she pronounces "s-h".
En-g-lis-(h)
Today Finns can speak English properly, but many years ago my mother-in-law had to adapt Finnish into English. Call it "Old School", but that is how she pronounces English.
