The Finnish Language

Ever heard this tongue twister?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

As much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Okay, so the Finnish version of this is even better.

-Kokoo kokoon koko kokko.

-Koko kokkoko?

-Koko kokko.

The translation:

-Pile up together the whole bonfire.

-The whole bonfire?

-The whole bonfire.

Isn't this great?!

The above Finnish tongue twister showcases one of the more unique aspects of the Finnish language: double consonants and double vowels are actually pronounced. For instance, in the first word kokoo; in order to pronounce it correctly, you have to spend more time saying the last part of the word. You have to make the 'oo' last longer, time-wise, than the first 'o'. And then take kokko: to make sure you're pronouncing the double 'k', you almost have to make a stop between the first and second 'k'. You can try looking at it like 'kok ko'. Of course, it is difficult to fully understand this unless you have an aural example, which I don't know how to upload. But, hopefully you get the idea.

Also, an important and unique thing about Finnish is that the first syllable of every word is stressed. This creates an interesting rhythm when you listen to the language. If this is hard to imagine, think of saying the words 'banana', 'america', and 'vacation' with the stress on the first syllable: 'BA-nana', 'A-merica', 'VA-cation'. Make sure you pronounce the vowels the same as you normally would, but just emphasize the beginning of each word. Well, every single word in Finnish is treated like this.

Finnish is also a gender free language. For instance,

1) There is no word for he or she- there is just hän.

2) There are also no gender specific articles that are associated with a noun. The noun stands alone. For instance, in German, there are 3 definite gender articles: 'der' (masculine), 'die' (feminine) and 'das' (neuter). das Buch= the book, and because 'das' is the article that accompanies it, 'book' has a neuter connotation. die Frau= the woman, and it makes perfect sense that the feminine article would accompany this noun. Many western European languages use gender specific articles; Spanish, French, German, Italian. However, Finnish and English don't.

In closing, I think Finnish is an amazing and really interesting language. I'm currently taking a Finnish class in an attempt to eventually understand and speak it and I plan to continue next semester with my Finnish class. However, I'm not going to lie, I sometimes feel like this:

when I try to pronounce even the most basic words in Finnish.