Saturday, 06-Sep-2008 06:34:01 GMT Tell a friendLink to this pageRandom Article
 
 
Online encyclopedia

 


Finnish alphabet

The Finnish alphabet is:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö

The main feature of the Finnish alphabet that makes it different from other Latin based alphabets are:

"Å" is only used in Swedish names on persons and (rarely) places.

"W" is used mainly in foreign names and loanwords. Some old Finnish names still retain it from the time when it was used instead of "V".

The "Ä" occurs frequently, for example even five times in päivämäärä (date).

The characters "Å", "Ä" and "Ö" looking similar to German umlauts ('ü', 'ä', 'ö') are in fact considered letters of their own merits, despite them representing sounds similar to the corresponding sounds in German. As it's not a case of marking grammatical variation, i.e. of tempus or modus, or of syllable modification (i.e. diaeresis), it is in fact not a case of diacritical marking, and it ought to be improper to call these characters umlauts. However, no better name is known in English.

Due to technical reasons or for convenience, the letter combinations "sh" and "zh" are often used in quickly or less carefully written texts instead of "š" and "ž". In Finland this is illogical and may even cause problems in interpretation. This kind of practice is against the Finnish orthography, where each sound corresponds to one letter, and each letter corresponds to one sound.

See also: Latin alphabet, Letter Å, Letter Ä, Letter Ö, Swedish alphabet.

 

Tell a friend about this page.
Send this page
Bookmark Finnish alphabet.

 

Link to this page: The easy way to educate your website visitors. Post a link to definition / meaning of " Finnish alphabet " on your site.
HTML code: Resulting link:

Finnish alphabet

 

This online educational article is provided by contributions of Wikimedia Foundation.
Licensed under the GNU free documentation license. View live article. Copyright & Disclaimer - Contact

Partners: Digital Gadgets | Logo Design | Business Articles | Online Calculators

Anti-Spam Coalition