For My Finnish-Speaking Friends

[KG Erwin]

I found an online program that speaks typed-in Finnish words. If I'm gonna play as them, I wanna know how to say those unit names.

See http://www.bitlips.fi/tts/demo.cgi

My question to the Finns is: how accurate is this program? I'm aware that there are different dialects, but I have no clue if there's such a thing as "generic" Finnish.

I have another question: is there a Finnish battle hymn? I was thinking of using something from Sibelius' "Finlandia" as a game theme for them.

Any suggestions?

[Korpraali V]

Nice program you've found [:)] How accurate it is? Well, it does pronounce things as we do. The problem is about where it loads the pressure within words (not sure how that should be said in English...). The program seems to be modelled in a way that they've said parts like 'tal' 'vi' 'so' 'ta' in parts so that it would be easier to cover all the words used. That however makes f.e. the word 'talvisota' (Winter war) sound like TalViSoTa (you know what I mean?). It is pronounced as that but the pressure should be 'TAlvisota'. Usually the pressure in Finnish is on the first part of a word. But basically that's a very good program [:)]

[Korpraali V]

After some brief searches I found clips of Finnish battle hymns. Naturally there are lots of marching songs too like in every country but just couldn't find any clips for now.

Here are some hymns:

- Sillanpään marssilaulu (Sillanpää's marching song)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sillanp%C3 ... arssilaulu
Clip:
http://www2.mil.fi/sotilasmusiikki/imag ... arssilaulu

- Jääkärimarssi (The Jaeger March)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_J%C3%A4ger_March
Clip:
http://www2.mil.fi/sotilasmusiikki/imag ... ien+marssi

- Hakkapeliittain marssi (Hakkapeliittas' march)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakkapeliitta (In the bottom of page - the march dating back to 30-year war in 1618-48, words by Sakari Topelius in 1880's)
Clip:
http://www2.mil.fi/sotilasmusiikki/imag ... sa+sodassa

- Porilaisten marssi (Words were for Pori Regiment in 19th Century, from 1918 composed as the honorary march of Finnish defence forces. Also used as a president's ceremony march)
Clip:
http://www2.mil.fi/sotilasmusiikki/imag ... ten+marssi

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: KG Erwin

I found an online program that speaks typed-in Finnish words. If I'm gonna play as them, I wanna know how to say those unit names.

See http://www.bitlips.fi/tts/demo.cgi

Heh, nice one. I'll translate the interface here:

Heta is woman's voice, other are men. I think I like Martti's voice more than Esa's

Efekti = effect
normaali puhe = normal speech
kuiskaus = whisper
robotti = robot
smurffi = smurf
mieshormoni = man hormone (???)

Nopeus = speed
In left is slowest, in right is fastest and everything between are in between. Default is tavallinen = ordinary/normal

[edit]
Yeah, that accuracy... I'm in library right now, and even though monitor's built in speakers are plugged, I don't dare make extensive testing. I'm not as picky with accentuation as Korppi is. But try the program with different parameters: accentuation might go better with faster speech setting. And get some new finnish movies so you can have some reference (audio sucks in old movies). I recommend Rukajärven tie (Ambush in english [&:])

[Whitmire]

I'm Finnish too, from the Häme - Satakunta region (SW Finland), so I thought I'd drop a comment or two. I think I speak fairly "normal" Finnish, when it comes to dialects, which we have many, despite the small population... I think it's got to do with the population density - or the lack of it: we have 5 000 000 people in a country as big as Germany (with over 80 million people). Well, there isn't a dialect here that another Finn wouldn't understand, so I think Finnish is fairly standard compared to many languages.

I'll start with the voices. I prefer Esa's voice over the others, because Martti sounds a bit sloppy or fuzzy to me, and Heta doesn't sound like a woman at all (or human for that matter). So I'd choose Esa as the enunciator of exemplary Finnish.

I followed the advice above and tried the different speeds, and I find that Esa's speech is reasonably realistic when you put it on fast speed ("nopea") and avoid all the other buttons, like the male hormone thingy (which just lowers the voice and seems to slow it down somewhat). Then try putting in something like "jääkäriryhmä" (jaeger squad), "panssari" (panzer / tank), "konekivääriryhmä" (MG squad) or "tykistöpatteri" (artillery battery) and you should hear a reasonably realistic Finnish pronunciation. Like the others, Esa does sound a bit strange, but when he's speaking quickly, the odd stress (that he puts on the different syllables of a word) is slightly less strange. Of course, if you want to learn how to say the words, you can pick out the syllables better when the speed is slower (tavallinen = normal, rauhallinen = "calm" or "careful", but it sounds like he's making a point or teaching somebody how to enunciate).

Note that Finnish is "spoken like it's written", so you don't need to learn how to pronounce the syllables in more than one way.

In short, I'd click the following buttons, when using the program: Esa, normaali puhe, nopea. I hope that helps!

For a bit of fun, you can make Esa speak the longest Finnish word "epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänkäänkö". (It's actually a question that doesn't make much sense, but it is grammatically acceptable.)

Oh, and do note the effect of Scandinavian letters that are often omitted in computer games: "jääkäriryhmä" differs from "jaakariryhma" in a clear way. In fact, the latter sounds like Estonian to me.

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: Whitmire

we have 5 000 000 people in a country as big as Germany (with over 80 million people).

As I use to say it: larger than Great Britain, but less people than there is in London [;)]