Finnish voice overs: what you need to know

Finnish is a Uralic language, spoken mostly in Finland where it’s the sole official language. Currently, there are around 5.4 million Finnish speakers, 500,000 of which speak Finnish as a second language.

There are several Finnish speaking communities outside of Finland too. For example, Finnish is an official minority language in Sweden. Russia also has a Finnish speaking population, mostly in the country’s northwestern regions.

Language History

Like other Finnic languages, Finnish originated from the Proto-Finnic language that existed in Northern Europe around 1500–1000 BCE.

However, the first written text in Finnish dates back only to the 15th century. The first written variant of Finnish was greatly influenced by Latin, Swedish, and German.

Finnish became the official language in Finland only in 1863. Until then, Swedish was primarily used in education, official matters, and literature. So, the Finnish language is definitely a late bloomer – it’s been in widespread use only since the 19th century.

Close Relations

Finnish shares similarities with other Finnic languages – Estonian, Karelian, and Vepsian. The only language Finnish is thought to be mutually intelligible with is Karelian. While Estonian belongs to a different sub-branch of Finnic languages, it shares some similarities with Finnish.

Over the centuries, Finnish borrowed many words from foreign languages, mostly from the neighboring territories. Since Finland was a part of Sweden for almost 700 years, there is a significant number of Swedish words in the Finnish vocabulary. In later years, Russian loanwords entered the language. However, Swedish had the biggest impact on the Finnish lexis.

Accents and Voice Over Tips

Finnish dialects are divided into two groups: Western and Eastern. Both dialect groups are mutually intelligible, however, share some differences mainly in pronunciation. Because of the geographical proximity, Western dialects have more similarities with Estonian than Eastern ones.

Standard Finnish is based on the Western dialects used in the Greater Helsinki area. However, the capital city has a rather unique Helsinki slang. This particular slang greatly differs from the standard and other dialects – it has a huge number of foreign loanwords. Alongside regional varieties, standard Finnish is used in official matters: education, broadcasting, business, and sciences.

When it comes to spoken Finnish, keep in mind that it’s spoken as it’s written. In fact, Finnish has almost 100% similarity between sounds and written letters. However, Finish has two vowels that might be unfamiliar to a foreign ear – ä and ö.

Because of its simple stress system (the first syllable is always stressed), Finnish is rather easy to read and speak properly.

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