How would the name Jylhä be pronounced? I know the J is pronounced like a Y.
How about pää (which means head).
Thanks to anyone who knows. Please spell out phonetically in English, if you know.
I’m sure some real live Finns will be along, but I believe it’s:
YUL-ha
paa (really; double vowels, AFAIK, mean that you just drag out the sound a bit)
- toadspittle, whose ancestors changed their last name from Juntilla to Jackson
To write it in English-based phonetics is difficult since many of these sounds don’t exist in English. Luckily, Finnish orthography to a large extent matches I.P.A.
“j” as you say is like the English semi-vowel consonant “y” as in “yello” (ASCII I.P.A. [j])
“y” is a front, high, rounded vowel, like German “u-umlaut (or ue)” as in “muede” or French “u” as in “du” (ASCII I.P.A. [y])
“l” and “h” are more or less as in English (ASCII I.P.A. [l] and [h])
“ä” is a short, low-mid, front, rounded vowel like “e” in “bet” (ASCII I.P.A. [E])
So in ASCII I.P.A., it comes out [jyl hE]. You might think of it as yule-heh, where the “u” in “yule” is a front rounded vowel instead of a back unrounded vowel.
“pää” is two syllables with the “ä” (as above) like “e” in “bet.” In ASCII I.P.A., its [pE E]. Maybe peh-eh would get you close.
To write it in English-based phonetics is difficult since many of these sounds don’t exist in English. Luckily, Finnish orthography to a large extent matches I.P.A.
“j” as you say is like the English semi-vowel consonant “y” as in “yello” (ASCII I.P.A. [j])
“y” is a front, high, rounded vowel, like German “u-umlaut (or ue)” as in “muede” or French “u” as in “du” (ASCII I.P.A. [y])
“l” and “h” are more or less as in English (ASCII I.P.A. [l] and [h])
“ä” is a short, low-mid, front, unrounded vowel like “e” in “bet” (ASCII I.P.A. [E])
So in ASCII I.P.A., it comes out [jyl hE]. You might think of it as yule-heh, where the “u” in “yule” is a front rounded vowel instead of a back unrounded vowel.
“pää” is two syllables with the “ä” (as above) like “e” in “bet.” In ASCII I.P.A., its [pE E]. Maybe peh-eh would get you close.
Sorry for the double. The second one is correct. The “ä” is unrounded, not rounded.
An actual Finn here. I have no idea about English phonetical spelling, but the guides above seem to be both correct. However, the last syllable of word Jylhä (hä) sounds to me a lot like english word ‘has’, without the s obviously. As for pää, say ‘damn’ with a really long vowel. Now take only the starting d and the vowel sound, then substitute d with p and you should have it. I might be wrong though, I’m not exactly comfortable with pronunciation of English.
Surely you mean Junttila? 
It’s important to get those double letters right.
If you want to actually hear how the words are pronounced, try Mikropuhe, an online Finnish text-to-speech program. Type the words into the field and click “Kuuntele puhe”. “Jylhä” and “pää” come out pretty much the way they’re supposed to.
Hey, that’s so cool. Thank you so much for posting it!
I’ve always been told that the Finnish “p” is pronounced more like an English “b”. The aforementioned website seems to agree with this.
In many languages, such as Finnish, Chinese, and Bengali, a “p” is pronounced without any aspiration at all. In Bengali, at least, an aspirated “p” (“ph”) is a separate phoneme. To some English speakers, a completely unaspirated “p” sounds kind of like a “b,” but to actually pronounce it like a “b” is a mistake.
Perhaps it should be pointed out that in Finnish (and a number of other, Germanic, languages) a and ä/æ are two completely different letters, as are o and ö/ø.
a is pronounced much like u in “cut”. I can’t think of a good English example for aa, but it’s the same sound only longer. A rule of thumb for Finnish spelling and pronunciation is that a short sound (both vowels and consonants) is written with a single letter and a long sound with double letters (perhaps not always true as a Finninsh friend of mine once put it, perkele should rather be spelt perrrkele).
A bit late, I know, but I was absent for a bit back in January and just came across some old threads again.
So quick question–how does this work? I’ve typed and hit the button, but to no avail. The screen clears and redraws, but there is no sound at all. Suggestions? (I can’t read the Finnish text to see what system requirements, etc., there may be!)
And Eurograff, I think you’re right. Silly ancestors! Now I need to go dig up some family tree info to be sure…