Colloquial or spoken Finnish (Finnish: suomen puhekieli) is the unstandardized spoken variety of the Finnish language, in contrast with the standardized form of the language (Finnish: yleiskieli). It is used primarily in personal communication and varies somewhat between the different dialects.
This article focuses on the variety of spoken Finnish that is predominant in the Helsinki metropolitan area and urbanized areas in the Tavastian and Central Finland dialectal areas, such as the cities of Tampere, Jyväskylä, Lahti, Hyvinkää, and Hämeenlinna – as well as in coastal cities such as Vaasa and Porvoo,[1] which have been traditionally Swedish-speaking and have experienced an influx of Finnish speakers from a variety of dialectal areas.
The standard language takes most of its features from these dialects, i.e. most "dialectal" features are reductions with respect to this form of language. The combination of the common spoken Finnish and a dialect gives a regional variant (Finnish: aluepuhekieli), which has some local idiosyncrasies but is essentially similar to the common spoken Finnish.
The basics of Finnish needed to fully understand this article can be found in pages about Finnish phonology and Finnish grammar.
As in any language, the spoken version(s) of Finnish often vary from the written form. Some of the latter's constructs are either too arbitrary (e.g. "soft d", cf. Finnish phonology), or too dialectal, e.g. Finnish: hän (see below), for use in the spoken language. Furthermore, some very common and "accentless" sound changes are not reflected in the standard language, particularly fusion, liaison and some diphthong reductions.
There is also the problem that purists want to avoid irregularity regardless of actual usage. This has left some sound changes common in spoken language out from the standard language. There is a tendency to favor "more logical" constructs over easily pronounceable ones. This ideal does reflect spoken Finnish usage to a degree, as Finnish is demonstrably a conservative language with few reduction processes, but it is not entirely accurate. The problem of avoiding "irregularity" is most evident in spelling, where internal sandhi is not transcribed, because there is the idea that morphemes should be immutable. For example, the "correct" spelling is Finnish: syönpä ("I eat" with emphasis), even though the pronunciation is usually Finnish: syömpä. The explanation is that Finnish: -n- and Finnish: -pä are in different morphemes just like the explanation that English boys is not spelled with a z is that they are in different morphemes.
There are also a number of grammatical forms which are used in written Finnish, but only very rarely in spoken. For example, there are a number of constructions using participles which are usually rendered analytically in speech. Some cases and moods are rarely constructive in spoken Finnish, e.g. the instructive and comitative cases and the potential mood. Some survive only in expressions.
On the other hand, spoken language has its own features rarely or never found in formal language. Most importantly, there is very common external sandhi, and some assimilatory sound changes. (On the contrary, there is no vowel reduction.) In some variants (e.g. Vaasa, Kymenlaakso) of spoken Finnish Finnish: -n kanssa ("with [something]") is abbreviated into a clitic that is effectively a comitative case, e.g. Finnish: -nkans or Finnish: -nkaa.
The most common reflexes for old Finnish dental fricatives are pronounced as //d// for pronounced as //ð//, and pronounced as //ts// or pronounced as //t(ː)// for pronounced as //θ(ː)//. For example, Finnish: metsä, metsän or Finnish: mettä, metän ← Finnish: meθθä, meθän "forest, of the forest" and Finnish: meidän < Finnish: meiðän "ours". Loss of pronounced as //d// also occurs, e.g. Finnish: meiän. These are seen as "accent-free" pronunciations. Dialects generally have different reflexes - in fact, the different reflexes are used as a distinguishing feature between different dialects. For more details, see Finnish phonology.
One important sound change, which has gone to completion in Estonian but occurs idiosyncratically in Finnish, is mutation of word-final pronounced as //n// into a glottal stop pronounced as //ʔ//, orthographically represented by an apostrophe. In some dialects, such as Savo, word-final pronounced as //n// is systematically replaced by pronounced as //ʔ//, e.g. Finnish: isä'iän ← Finnish: isän ääni "father's voice". Both pronunciations can be heard in the Helsinki area. This means that the genitive/accusative form Finnish: -n, which is very common in any form of Finnish, is simply noted by a glottal stop. However, this glottal stop undergoes sandhi whenever followed by consonant, or more often than not (see below).
Certain wordforms that end in pronounced as //si// in Standard Finnish occur without the word-final pronounced as //i// in the spoken language. This includes the base form of certain word stems as well as inflectional endings. In nouns this affects the translative case ending Finnish: -ksi and the 2nd person singular possessive suffix Finnish: -si. In verbs, loss of i affects the conditional mood ending Finnish: -isi and, in certain verb inflection classes where it is preceded by an s, the preterite ending Finnish: -i. These endings occur word-finally in 3rd person forms.
| Finnish: anteek'''si''' | pronounced as //ˈɑnteːksi// | pronounced as /[ˈɑnteːks]/ | 'sorry, excuse me' | – | |
| Finnish: yk'''si''' | pronounced as //ˈyksi// | pronounced as /[yks]/ | 'one' | – | |
| Finnish: kak'''si''' | pronounced as //ˈkɑksi// | pronounced as /[ˈkɑks]/ | 'two' | – | |
| Finnish: uu'''si''' | pronounced as //ˈuːsi// | pronounced as /[ˈuːs]/ | 'new' | – | |
| Finnish: oli'''si''' | pronounced as //ˈolisi// | pronounced as /[ˈolis]/ | '(s/he) would be' | Finnish: olla 'to be' | |
| Finnish: pala'''si''' | pronounced as //ˈpɑlɑsi// | pronounced as /[ˈpɑlɑs]/ | 'your piece” '(s/he) returned' | Finnish: pala 'piece' Finnish: palata 'to return' | |
| Finnish: pää'''si''' | pronounced as //ˈpæːsi// | pronounced as /[ˈpæːs]/ | 'your head' '(s/he) reached, was released' | Finnish: pää 'head' Finnish: päästä 'to reach, be released' |
In many dialects loss of final i is commonplace not only in these cases but also elsewhere.
Particularly in Helsinki, deletion of pronounced as //æ// or pronounced as //ɑ//, spelt «ä» and «a», respectively, in highly frequent words is common. This is a feature of Western Finnish dialects, found also in Savonian dialects and Estonian.
Finnish: mutta - Finnish: mut 'but'
Finnish: kyllä - Finnish: kyl 'yes'
Finnish: -sta - Finnish: -st elative case, 'out of / away from the inside of'
Word-final vowel clusters ending in pronounced as //ɑ// or pronounced as //æ// have much variation in dialects of Finnish. Especially in Helsinki they assimilate, where only the resulting chroneme marks the partitive in many words.
Finnish: puhun suomea - Finnish: puhun suomee "I speak Finnish"
Finnish: pitkiä - Finnish: pitkii "(some) long (things)"; partitive plural of Finnish: pitkä, longAn pronounced as //eɑ// or pronounced as //eæ// cluster also appears in many adjectives:
Finnish: pimeä — Finnish: pimee "dark"In other areas of Finland, these clusters may have a different fate. Another common dialectal variant is the raising of pronounced as //e// to pronounced as //i// in the adjectives: Finnish: pimiä. (Partitives are unaffected by this.) Some rarer versions of this suffix include Finnish: -jä / -ja, Finnish: -ie, and even Finnish: -ii.
Similar to the diphthongization of older pronounced as /
pronounced as // uo̯ yø̯// can become pronounced as //iː uː yː// when in contact with another vowel. In many cases this results from colloquial deletion of pronounced as //d//. For example:
A related phenomenon is the final consonant sandhi. When two words co-occur in the same prosodic unit, the consonant beginning the second word assimilates to the word-final consonant in the first word, creating a long consonant. This is not commonly written down, except in dialectal transcriptions. For example,
| Standard | Finnish: Nyt se tulee! | pronounced as //ˈnyt ˈse ˈtuleː// | “It's coming now” |
| Casual | Finnish: Ny se tulee! | pronounced as /[ˈnysːe ˈtuleː]/ |
Some dialects have the full-length personal pronouns Finnish: minä and Finnish: sinä, but most people use shorter forms, like these found in the Helsinki metropolitan area region:
Finnish: minä → Finnish: mä
Finnish: sinä → Finnish: sä
Note: these do differ depending on where the speaker is from. For example Finnish: minä can also be Finnish: mie, Finnish: miä, Finnish: mää etc.
The root words are also shorter:
Finnish: minu- → Finnish: mu-, e.g. Finnish: minun → Finnish: mun "my"
Finnish: sinu- → Finnish: su-, e.g. Finnish: sinun → Finnish: sun "yours"
The third-person pronouns Finnish: hän ('he', 'she', singular 'they') and Finnish: he (plural 'they'), are rarely used in the spoken language outside of Southwestern Finland and are getting rare there, as well. Elsewhere, they are usually replaced by Finnish: se and Finnish: ne, which in the standard language do not refer to people.
Finnish: hän → Finnish: se
Finnish: he → Finnish: ne
For example, the sentence "Did he mistake me for you?" has these forms:
Finnish: Luuliko hän minua sinuksi?
Finnish: Luuliks se mua suks? or Finnish: Luulikse mua suks?
Similarly, non-personal demonstrative pronouns are often used in place of Finnish: hän or Finnish: he, meaning people may be referred to as 'that' and 'those'. This also does not carry any pejorative meaning. The words are also changed from their written form.
Finnish: hän → Finnish: tuo → Finnish: toi
Finnish: he → Finnish: nuo → Finnish: noi
For example, when pointing out a culprit, the sentence "He broke it." has these forms:
Finnish: Hän rikkoi sen.
Finnish: Tuo rikko sen. or Finnish: Toi rikko sen.
Numerals 1–10 in colloquial spoken Finnish:
Numbers 11-19 are formed by appending Finnish: -toista, which can be shortened to Finnish: -toist. Numbers 20-90 are formed by appending Finnish: -kymmentä, which can be shortened to Finnish: -kymment or even Finnish: -kyt(ä). Finnish: Kolme, Finnish: neljä and Finnish: seittemän can be abbreviated to Finnish: kol-, Finnish: nel- and Finnish: seit- with Finnish: -kytä, but not independently, as in Finnish: kolkytäkolme "33" or Finnish: seitkytäneljä "74".
When counting out loud, even shorter forms are used, mostly one-syllable words with long vowels:
Finnish: -toista becomes Finnish: -toi, Finnish: -too or even Finnish: -to. Finnish: -kymmentä becomes Finnish: -kyt, with 20-60 typically retaining their longer numeral forms (e.g. Finnish: kakskyt rather than Finnish: **kaakyt for 20). 70 is typically Finnish: seitkyt or Finnish: seiskyt, while 80 and 90 do with Finnish: kasi- and Finnish: ysi-.
The numerals 1 - 9 have their own names, different from the cardinal numbers used in counting. Numbers that have longer names are often shortened in speech. This may be problematic for a foreigner to understand, if they have learnt words by book:
Finnish: ykkönen (number one)
Finnish: kakkonen (number two)
Finnish: kolmonen (number three)
Finnish: nelonen (number four)
Finnish: viitonen (number five) → Finnish: vitonen, Finnish: femma (Helsinki slang)
Finnish: kuutonen (number six) → Finnish: kutonen
Finnish: seitsemäinen (number seven) → Finnish: seiska
Finnish: kahdeksainen / Finnish: kahdeksikko (number eight) → Finnish: kasi / Finnish: kaheksikko
Finnish: yhdeksäinen / Finnish: yhdeksikkö (number nine) → Finnish: ysi / Finnish: yheksikkö
Finnish: kymmenen → Finnish: kymppi, Finnish: kybä (Helsinki slang)
The Finnish: -kko suffix normally denotes a group of x people, but on 8 and 9, it doubles as a synonym for the numeral's name. Finnish: Kahdeksikko is also used to describe a figure eight shape.
The regular Finnish: -Onen / Finnish: -inen forms can additionally be used of objects with an ID number. For example, bus 107 is called Finnish: sataseiska, and a competition winner is an Finnish: ykkönen (not Finnish: *sataseittemän or Finnish: *yks.)
Personal pronouns are used extensively in spoken Finnish whereas in formal forms the pronoun is often optional (indicated in brackets in this article). Furthermore, the pronouns themselves in spoken Finnish are different from those used in formal Finnish.
Personal pronouns Finnish: mä and Finnish: sä are used extensively in colloquial Finnish in place of Finnish: minä and Finnish: sinä ('I' and singular 'you'). The pronouns Finnish: se and Finnish: ne, which in the formal language are used only as non-human personal pronouns meaning ('it' and plural 'they'), are used in the spoken language as personal pronouns (which in the formal language would be Finnish: hän ('he', 'she' and singular 'they') and Finnish: he (plural 'they').
See the tables below for examples.
One striking difference between colloquial Finnish and formal Finnish is use of the passive form in the first person plural. Thus for example:
Finnish: Olemme Helsingissä (formal language)
Finnish: Me ollaan Helsingissä (colloquial Finnish)
We're in Helsinki
Another is that the third person plural suffix Finnish: -vat or Finnish: -vät is not used in the spoken language; instead, the third person singular form is used with plural meaning being conveyed by the pronoun Finnish: ne (Finnish: they)
Therefore, the full present-tense paradigm of Finnish: puhua "to speak" in everyday speech is:
Finnish: mä puhun (spoken) - Finnish: (minä) puhun (standard)
Finnish: sä puhut - Finnish: (sinä) puhut
Finnish: se puhuu - Finnish: hän puhuu
Finnish: me puhutaa(n) - Finnish: (me) puhumme
Finnish: te puhutte - Finnish: (te) puhutte
Finnish: ne puhuu - Finnish: he puhuvat
Some e-stem verbs have abbreviated (irregular) oblique forms, where pronounced as //n// or pronounced as //l// is elided. This class includes only four frequently used verbs. In Finnish, verbs have an infinitive form, marked with Finnish: -ta and used in the infinitive, and an oblique form, which is used in personal forms. Consonant gradation and assimilation of the 't' in Finnish: -ta may be applied. In the standard language, the correspondence between the two is always regular. In spoken language, some verbs have assimilated oblique forms, while retaining the regular infinitive:
| engl. | I inf. | oblique stem | irreg. stem | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| be | Finnish: olla | Finnish: ole- | Finnish: oo- | |
| come | Finnish: tulla | Finnish: tule- | Finnish: tuu- | |
| go | Finnish: mennä | Finnish: mene- | Finnish: mee- | |
| put | Finnish: panna | Finnish: pane- | Finnish: paa- |
For example, these forms, as such, are represented by the imperatives:
Finnish: Mene tai tule, mutta pane se ovi kiinni ja ole hiljaa (standard)
Finnish: Mee tai tuu, mut paa se ovi kii ja oo hiljaa. (word-by-word) "Go or come, but put the door closed and be quiet."To demonstrate the use of the personal form, the reply is:
Finnish: Meen tai tuun, paan oven kii ja oon hiljaa ("I go or come, (I) put the door closed and (I) am quiet").The infinitives are unchanged, as in:
Finnish: Mennä tai tulla, panna ovi kii ja olla hiljaa ("To go or to come, to put the door closed and to be quiet").As are participles, despite their using the oblique stem:
Finnish: menevä tai tuleva, oven kii paneva ja hiljaa oleva ("Going or coming, door closed-putting and quiet-being").
The 't' at the end of participles ending Finnish: -nut, -rut, -lut, -sut (or Finnish: -nyt etc.) is often dropped when no consonant follows, or replaced by gemination of the following consonant:
Finnish: minä en puhunut (formal)
Finnish: mä en puhunu (colloquial)
I didn't speakbut:
Finnish: mä en puhunu kenellekään (colloquial)
I didn't speak to anyoneis actually pronounced as if it were:
Finnish: mä en puhunuk kenellekkään (with examples of gemination)
In the formal language some pronouns are considered optional, but in spoken language the pronoun is usually enunciated but may be optional when answering questions (which puts the person in the proper context).
Finnish: Menemme Ouluun or Finnish: Me menemme Ouluun ("We are going to Oulu") (formal language)
Finnish: Me mennään Ouluun ("We are off to Oulu") (informal language)
In the latter example, dropping Finnish: me would change the meaning from a statement to a suggestion:
Finnish: Mennään Ouluun ("Let's go to Oulu") (informal or spoken language suggestion)
Compare the conjugation of Finnish: OLLA in the formal language (Table 1) and in the spoken or colloquial language (Table 2). Table 2 shows in highlights the areas where there are differences in the structures between formal and informal. Optional pronouns are in brackets. English equivalent is in Table 3.
| TABLE 1 indicative mood of Finnish: OLLA (to be) in the "formal" or "written" style | |||||||||||
| active voice | present tense | imperfect | perfect | pluperfect | |||||||
| per. | no. | pron. | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative | |
| 1st | sg. | Finnish: (minä) | Finnish: olen | Finnish: en ole | Finnish: olin | Finnish: en ollut | Finnish: olen ollut | Finnish: en ole ollut | Finnish: olin ollut | Finnish: en ollut ollut | |
| 2nd | Finnish: (sinä) | Finnish: olet | Finnish: et ole | Finnish: olit | Finnish: et ollut | Finnish: olet ollut | Finnish: et ole ollut | Finnish: olit ollut | Finnish: et ollut ollut | ||
| 3rd | Finnish: hän | Finnish: on | Finnish: ei ole | Finnish: oli | Finnish: ei ollut | Finnish: on ollut | Finnish: ei ole ollut | Finnish: oli ollut | Finnish: ei ollut ollut | ||
| 1st | pl. | Finnish: (me) | Finnish: olemme | Finnish: emme ole | Finnish: olimme | Finnish: emme olleet | Finnish: olemme olleet | Finnish: emme ole olleet | Finnish: olimme olleet | Finnish: emme olleet olleet | |
| 2nd | Finnish: (te) | Finnish: olette | Finnish: ette ole | Finnish: olitte | Finnish: ette olleet | Finnish: olette olleet | Finnish: ette ole olleet | Finnish: olitte olleet | Finnish: ette olleet olleet | ||
| 3rd | Finnish: he | Finnish: ovat | Finnish: eivät ole | Finnish: olivat | Finnish: eivät olleet | Finnish: ovat olleet | Finnish: eivät ole olleet | Finnish: olivat olleet | Finnish: eivät olleet olleet | ||
| passive voice | Finnish: ollaan | Finnish: ei olla | Finnish: oltiin | Finnish: ei oltu | Finnish: on oltu | Finnish: ei ole oltu | Finnish: oli oltu | Finnish: ei ollut oltu | |||
| TABLE 2 indicative mood of Finnish: OLLA (to be) in the "informal" or "spoken" style | |||||||||||
| active voice | present tense | imperfect | perfect | pluperfect | |||||||
| per. | no. | pron. | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative | |
| 1st | sg. | Finnish: mä | Finnish: oon | Finnish: en '''oo''' | Finnish: olin | Finnish: en ollu | Finnish: oon ollu | Finnish: en oo ollu | Finnish: olin ollu | Finnish: en ollu ollu | |
| 2nd | Finnish: sä | Finnish: oot | Finnish: et '''oo''' | Finnish: olit | Finnish: et '''ollu''' | Finnish: oot ollu | Finnish: et '''oo ollu''' | Finnish: olit '''ollu''' | Finnish: et '''ollu ollu''' | ||
| 3rd | Finnish: se | Finnish: on | Finnish: ei '''oo''' | Finnish: oli | Finnish: ei '''ollu''' | Finnish: on '''ollu''' | Finnish: ei '''oo ollu''' | Finnish: oli '''ollu''' | Finnish: ei '''ollu ollu''' | ||
| 1st | pl. | Finnish: me | Finnish: ollaan | Finnish: ei olla | Finnish: oltiin | Finnish: ei oltu | Finnish: ollaan oltu | Finnish: ei olla oltu | Finnish: oltiin oltu | Finnish: ei oltu oltu | |
| 2nd | Finnish: te | Finnish: ootte | Finnish: ette '''oo''' | Finnish: olitte | Finnish: ette '''ollu''' | Finnish: ootte ollu | Finnish: ette oo ollu | Finnish: olitte '''ollu''' | Finnish: ette '''ollu ollu''' | ||
| 3rd | Finnish: ne | Finnish: on | Finnish: ei oo | Finnish: oli | Finnish: ei '''ollu''' | Finnish: on ollu | Finnish: ei oo ollu | Finnish: oli '''ollu''' | Finnish: ei ollu ollu | ||
| passive voice | Finnish: ollaan | Finnish: ei olla | Finnish: oltiin | Finnish: ei oltu | Finnish: on oltu | Finnish: ei ole oltu | Finnish: oli oltu | Finnish: ei oltu oltu | |||
| TABLE 3 indicative mood To BE in the informal English style | ||||||||||
| active voice | present tense | imperfect | perfect | pluperfect | ||||||
| per. | no. | pron. | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative | affirmative | negative |
| 1st | sg. | I | 'm | 'm not | was | wasn't | 've been | haven't been | 'd been | hadn't been |
| 2nd | You | 're | aren't/ain't | were | weren't | 've been | 've not been | 'd been | hadn't been | |
| 3rd | s/he it | 's | isn't | was | wasn't | 's been | hasn't been | 'd been | hadn't been | |
| 1st | pl. | We | 're | aren't | were | weren't | 've been | 've not been | 'd been | hadn't been |
| 2nd | You | 're | aren't/ain't | were | weren't | 've been | 've not been | 'd been | hadn't been | |
| 3rd | They | 're | aren't | were | weren't | 've been | 've not been | 'd been | hadn't been | |
In everyday speech, the Finnish: -ko/kö suffix has the Finnish: -s clitic added, becoming Finnish: -kos/kös, which in turn reduces to Finnish: -ks:
Finnish: olenko minä hengissä? → Finnish: oo(n)ks mä hengis? "am I alive?"
Finnish: puhutko sinä englantia? → Finnish: puhut sä enkkuu? or Finnish: puhuks(ä) enkkuu? "do you (sg.) speak English?"
Finnish: tuliko hän jo? → Finnish: tulikse jo? (via Finnish: tulikos se jo?) "did he/she come yet?"
The choice of morphemes Finnish: -kos/kös or Finnish: -ks is not always purely dialectal or accidental. Many Finns regularly use more than one variation in their speech. The choice might depend among others on the rhythm of the sentence or the (wished) tempo of the discussion. Sometimes it has other clearly communicational purposes e.g. the longer variation might be used to soften an intruding question.
The clitic Finnish: -s is also found in imperatives, e.g. Finnish: me(n)es "(I expect you to) go!" It can also be, that the Finnish: -tkö elides not to Finnish: -ks, but Finnish: -t before a 's', e.g. Finnish: menetkö sä ? Finnish: me(n)et sä. Because this is identical to Finnish: sä menet except for the word order, questions are indicated by word order.
Spoken language has a different grammar for the possessive suffix. In contrast, in the literary language, the pronoun is optional and typically omitted. Compare English in which, e.g., "The house to which this door belongs" would be the correct written form even though "the house whose door this is" would be the more common spoken version.
| Formal | Spoken | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish: (minun) talo'''ni''' | Finnish: mun talo | my house | |
| Finnish: (sinun) talo'''si''' | Finnish: sun talo(s)/talos | your (sg) house | |
| Finnish: (hänen) talo'''nsa''' | Finnish: sen talo/talonsa | his/her house | |
| Finnish: (meidän) talo'''mme''' | Finnish: meiän talo | our house | |
| Finnish: (teidän) talo'''nne''' | Finnish: teiän talo | your (pl) house | |
| Finnish: (heidän) talo'''nsa''' | Finnish: niitten/niien talo/talonsa | their house |
Here, the pronoun of the literary form is also shown.
Notice that Finnish has no possessive adjectives. The pronouns are regularly inflected, like if "I's house", "you's house", "we's house".
However, the suffixes Finnish: -s, Finnish: -nsa and Finnish: -nne are used to avoid repeating a pronoun, e.g. "He took his hat and left" is Finnish: Se otti lakki<u>nsa</u> ja lähti. (The translation from English *Finnish: Se otti <u>sen</u> lakin ja lähti would mean "He took his/her hat and left" or "He took the (specific) hat and left").
When a negative sentence is formed, the main verb goes into the connegative form, which is identical to the imperative mood, and gives all of its inflections to the negative verb Finnish: ei, e.g. Finnish: tuemme → Finnish: emme tue. Usually the word Finnish: mitään ("anything") and an expletive is added to the sentence. This means that even if the negative verb Finnish: ei is left out, the meaning is indicated by this context. For example:
Finnish: <u>Ei</u> se mitään osaa. "He doesn't know anything."
Finnish: Se mitään osaa. "He know anything." ("doesn't" omitted)
This omission of the negative verb Finnish: ei is considered one of the most recent changes in Finnish. Usually this construction indicates mistrust or frustration. (A parody article by Jaakko Häkkinen calls this Finnish: aggressiivi, see aggressive mood.) However, it can be a neutral negative statement: Finnish: Tästä artikkelista <u>mitään opi</u> (From this article, you don't learn anything).
Linguists such as Mielikäinen argue that the dialects of Finnish have been considerably homogenized by 20th century developments of urbanization and other internal population movements to the point that "pure" dialects have disappeared. "Local spoken languages" have developed from standard Finnish to give variety with essentially standard Finnish structure but with some local features. Considerable stigma has been associated with dialects (accurately or not) perceived as rural in the 20th century. People who have moved to the city have adopted a variety resembling standard Finnish, which has been imposed upon dialect speakers by the school, the military and the employers.
Breaking up some consonant clusters on syllable boundaries with an epenthetic vowel is a feature of several dialects, such as those of Ostrobothnia and Savonia: The neutral vowel is the same as the preceding vowel. For example, Finnish: juhla → Finnish: juhula "celebration", Finnish: salmi → Finnish: salami "strait", Finnish: palvelu → Finnish: palavelu "service", Finnish: halpa → Finnish: halapa "cheap", Finnish: äffä → Finnish: ähävä (via Finnish: ähvä) "letter F". Pairs of dissimilar consonants with pronounced as //l// or pronounced as //h// (in Savo, also pronounced as //n//) as the first consonant are subject to epenthesis; other clusters or geminates are not. However, a strong epenthetic vowel is seen as dialectal, and in Helsinki and urbanized areas, indicates origins "in the countryside" (since for Helsinki people, everything but Helsinki is rural).
Tavastian dialects are diverse because other, surrounding dialects have influenced them. The following features are all found in Finnish spoken in Helsinki, and many of them occur also in some other Tavastian dialects.
| Written | Spoken | Written example | Spoken example | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish: minä | Finnish: m' | Finnish: minä olen, Finnish: minä en, Finnish: minä en ole | Finnish: moon, Finnish: mäen, Finnish: mäen o | |
| Finnish: sinä | Finnish: s' | Finnish: sinä olet, Finnish: sinä et, Finnish: sinä et ole | Finnish: soot, Finnish: säet, Finnish: säet o | |
| Finnish: hän | Finnish: s' | Finnish: hän on, Finnish: hän ei, Finnish: hän ei ole | Finnish: son, Finnish: sei, Finnish: sei'oo | |
| Finnish: me | Finnish: m' | Finnish: me olemme, Finnish: me emme, Finnish: me emme ole | Finnish: mollaan, Finnish: mei, Finnish: mei'olla | |
| Finnish: te | Finnish: t' | Finnish: te olette, Finnish: te ette, Finnish: te ette ole | Finnish: tootte, Finnish: tette, Finnish: tette oo | |
| Finnish: he | Finnish: n' | Finnish: he ovat, Finnish: he eivät, Finnish: he eivät ole | Finnish: noon, Finnish: nei, Finnish: nei'oo |