Your finger... in finnish

From: Mikko Rintasaari <rintasaa_at_mail.student.oulu.fi>
Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 20:22:01 +0300 (EEST)

> "Sormesi hölmö"
>
> Though it could be translated in at least half a dozen other ways too.
>
> Good luck figuring out how to pronounce that :)

:Jane asked:
:So how would a Finn pronounce it? Roughly? Or rather, in your experience
:of English-speakers attaenmpting to pronounce Finnish, what noises would
:we make that approximated to it?

Ok, I'm not a linquist, but I'll do my best.

Sormi = finger, and with a little modification it becomes your finger

 => sormesi

Now that I look at it, I think a native english speaker will pronounce it recognizably well. The R should be hard, but I can't explain how it's done since the hard R is not used in the english language. Think of a russian accent, parhaps for the R.

 hölmö = fool (a mild, not very insulting word for it)

[h] as in hot
[ö] as as the u in murder

That should get you pretty close,

        -Adept

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