Finnish (suomi) is a Finno-Ugric language spoken by about 5 million people in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Canada and Russia.
Finnish starting to appear in writing during the 16th century. The first piece of Finnish literature was a translation of the New Testament by Michael Agricola which was published in 1548.
Until 1809 Finland was a part of Sweden and Swedish was the official language. From 1863 the Finnish language could be used along with Swedish when dealing with authorities. Civil servants were obliged to use the Finnish language and issue documents in Finnish from 1883. In 1892 Finnish became an official language and gained a status comparable to that of Swedish. Today Finland is officially bilingual in Finnish and Swedish.
Finnish alphabet (suomen aakkoset)
Finnish pronunciation
Notes
- The letters in blue are only used in names and foreign loanwords
- The letter G appears in native Finnish words in combination with N as ng [ŋ]
- Before unvoiced consonants, b = [p], d = [t], f = [f], g = [k] and h = [x]
- c = [k] when it appears before a, o and u, and [s] when in front of e, i, y, ä and ö
- Stress always falls on the first syllable of words.
- Vowels and consonants can be short (written with one letter), or long (written with two letters).
- Finnish has a system of vowel harmony. There are three types of vowels: front vowels (ä, ö, y), back vowels (a, o, u) and neutral vowels (e, i). Front and back vowels cannot co-exist in the same word. Neutral vowels can be used with either of the two other types. For more details, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_harmony#Finnish
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