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Finnish (Standard)

Phylum: Uralic

Genus: Finnic

Lat/lon: 61.0, 24.5

ISO code: fin

Consonants

Basic short series

bilabiallabio-dentaldentalalveolarpalatalvelarglottal
stoppk
trill
fricativefsh
nasalmŋ
approximantʋj
lateral approximant

Long series

glottal
stopʔː

Vowels

Basic short series

frontback
closei, yu
close-mide̞, ø̞
near-openæ
openɑ

Licit initial clusters

pr̺, kr̺, t̪r̺, pl̺, kl̺, st, sp, sk, sl̺, d̺r̺, fr̺, fl̺, str̺, skr̺

Licit finals

t̪, s, n̺, r̺, l̺, m, n̺s

Licit syllabic templates

((s)C(L))V(V)(C)(C)

Source: Suomi, Kari; Toivanen, Juhani; Ylitalo, Riikka. 2008. Finnish sound structure: Phonetics, phonology, phonotactics and prosody. University of Oulu, Oulu.

Comments: /b/, /g/, /ʃ/ occur in educated speakers. /ʔː/, /ŋ/, /d̺/ and /f/ might be absent. As to the finals, only /t̪/, /s/, /n̺/ are frequent. /m/ and /n̺s/ only occur word-finally in loanwords. If word-final vowel reduction is acknowledged, many more combinations are possible. Syllable-initial cluster occur exclusively in loanwords.

Contributed by: André Nikulin (andre.n.guzman@gmail.com)