Double letters

[SpeedOfLight]

My native language is English, but I'm thinking about learning Finnish for fun, and I had a couple questions. When letters are doubled are you supposed to break up the sound, for example is "kirkko" pronounced "kirk-ko" or just one long flowing "k" sound? because I find it easy for a word like "kuukausi" or "kiitos" to do the long sounds, but it just sounds brutal when I try to pronounce a long flowing "tt" or "kk" sound.

[jrdioko]

They're not pronounced like two separate letters (i.e. "kirk ... ko"), it's more like starting the sound, pausing for a second, then finishing it. You really have to hear it to see what's going on, and I'm sure some others can post some good links to some samples.

[Andrew_S]

Double k is different from a single k.

English "black cat" isn't pronounced "bla cat".

Note the Finnish k doesn't have the aspirate "huh" after it like English.

So it's double but don't release the first k before saying the second k.

Best to hear it from a native speaker.

English has doubles in "unnatural" (2 n's), "wholely" (2 l's - as opposed to holy), "midday" (2 d's). Double d doesn't occur in Finnish though.

[Papu]

try downloadfing some finnish lessons from the internet... there are prononciation samples on various sites....

[Hank W.]

if you get past kirkko, then try kirkkoherranvirasto

[E Maya]

Question...

tt kk etc. are pronounced with what you call a 'glottal stop', I think. It involves stopping the air from flowing through whatisitagain.

Informative?
Not so happy anymore!

[Jarkka]

Pronouncing these sounds involves blocking the airflow for a moment (the "occlusion") before the "explosion". During the occlusion, there's no sound at all of course. A double consonant just means a longer silence in the middle of the word. Easy really, just shut up for half a second or so...

[kalmisto]

SpeedOfLight

How to pronounce Finnish names ( sound samples ) :

http://www.sci.fi/%7Ekajun/finns/

There is a Finnish speech synthesizer at :

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

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

[kalmisto]

SpeedOfLight

See this also ( more sound samples ) ! :

http://www.ddg.com/LIS/InfoDesignF97/pa ... onunc.html

[Pecchio]

Question...

tt kk etc. are pronounced with what you call a 'glottal stop', I think. It involves stopping the air from flowing through whatisitagain.

The whole of Finnish language is a glottal stop.
It stops the thought from communicating through to another mind....

You just have to learn to speak silently...