Finnish Alphabet - Non-native Letters in The Finnish Alphabet

Non-native Letters in The Finnish Alphabet

In the Finnish writing system, some basic Latin letters are considered redundant, and other letters generally represent sounds that are not inherent in the Finnish language. Thus, they are not used in established Finnish words, but they may occur in newer loanwords as well as in foreign proper names, and they are included in the Finnish alphabet in order to maintain interlingual compatibility. The pronunciation of these letters varies quite a lot.

• The redundant letters are often replaced with more common alternatives in Finnish, except in proper names. They include c (which may be replaced with either k or s), q (which is usually replaced with k, and particularly qu with kv), and x (which is replaced with ks). In addition, the Swedish å is redundant from the Finnish point of view, as its pronunciation is more or less equivalent to the Finnish way of pronouncing o. It is officially included in the Finnish alphabet so that keyboards etc. would be compatible with Swedish, which is one of the two official languages in Finland, as well as for the reproduction of Swedish proper names, which are quite common in Finland, even as surnames of monolingual speakers of Finnish.

• The letters representing foreign sounds can be found in relatively new loanwords, but in more established loanwords they have been replaced with alternatives that better reflect the typical Finnish pronunciation, e.g. kahvi 'coffee', parta 'beard'. The letters include b, f, and g (which is also used to mark the inherent velar nasal, however). From a historical point of view, even d could be said to belong to this group, but the sound has long been an established part of standard language.

• The letters w and z could be classified into both of the aforementioned groups. The sound is not regarded as a phoneme in Finnish, but historically w was used to mark (or, rather, ), as in German or Polish. Although this is today considered archaic and v is used instead, w may still occur in some old surnames as a variant of v. Occasionally this can also be applied for faux-archaic effect, as in Wanha Satama "Ye Olde Harbour". Likewise, the sound is not native to Finnish, but z (or tz) was formerly used to denote (as in German). It is still often pronounced, but its pronunciation varies greatly: some speakers may pronounce it, or sometimes .

• The letters š and ž (s and z with caron) are officially recommended instead of sh and zh for transliteration from another alphabet. For example, Russian Бре́жнев (transcribed Brezhnev in English) is transliterated Brežnev. However, these sounds are foreign to the Finnish language, the letters do not appear on Finnish keyboards and their pronunciation is not consistent. The sound is familiar to most Finnish speakers and quite commonly used in many loanwords, e.g. šakki 'chess', shampoo, but is restricted to foreign words only. In practice, official publications, dictionaries, encyclopedias and some formal register journals use these letters, otherwise sh and zh are used or the distinction is simply ignored.