Phonetics

Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony is a very typical phenomenona in Finno-Ugric languages.

Basic rule

There cannot be front vowels (y, ö, ä) and back vowels (u, o, a) in a same word.

This rule is important when using different suffixes. There is usually two versions (allomorphs) of one suffix, eg. -nut /-nyt, -ko/kö , -ssa/-ssä, la/lä.

The rule of thumb: if there's already vowels with dots in the word, the suffix should have dots, too. (Think y as ü.)

I and e are neutral, and they can mix. When they are alone, they are usually counted as front vowels.

Examples

Inessive: Minä asun Turussa, but Hän asuu Jyväskylässä

Ko-question Tuletko mukaan? but Lähdetkö pois?

Nut-participle: En ole nukkunut hyvin but, Olen syönyt paljon

Other suffixes: Hän on ammatiltaan taitelija, but Minä olen piirtäjä

All topics

• Vowel harmony
• Consonant gradation
• Verbs in general
• Personal forms
• Tempus
• Infinitives
• Verb types
• Negation
• Participles
• Nomines in general
• Nominative, genitive, partitive
• Essive, translative, abessive
• Location cases
• Pronouns
• Subjects and objects
• Types of senteces
• Questions
• Modifiers
• Derivation
• Orthography