The J in Finnish

In Finnish, syllables can be divided into three parts:

  • Onset - the initial consonants of a syllable
  • Nucleus - the vowels
  • Coda - the final consonants of a syllable

In a word like spook, sp is the onset, oo is the nucleus and k is the coda. A syllable doesn't have to have an onset or a coda, but every syllable needs a nucleus.

Different languages treat diphthongs differently, e.g. in Swedish the diphthong ej is analyzed as having the nucleus e and the coda j, while Finnish analyzes the same diphthong as having no coda, just a nucleus: ei. In other words, the second element of the diphthong in Swedish is analyzed as a consonant, while in Finnish it is analyzed as a vowel.

The difference between i and j in Finnish is that j occurs in the onset, while i occurs in the nucleus. j is the consonantal form of i. The name of the letter J in Finnish is jii, where j is the onset and ii is the nucleus.

Sonja would be pronounced with two syllables: son + ja. In Finnish, ia cannot occur within a single syllable, so Sonia would be three syllables: so + ni + a. In Sonja, the j is an onset (i.e. a consonant), while in Sonia it's a nucleus (i.e. a vowel).

/r/Finland Thread