this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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Now let a German pronounce it.
Just like all PIE-speakers, they absolutely butcher Finnish pronunciation.
It's much easier to learn to pass of as a native English speaker than it ever would to pass off as a native Finnish speaker.
German is very melodic, sing-songy, and fair, compared to Finnish.
That's funny, because that's how I would describe spoken Finnish. I guess it's all in the eye of beholder.
It's every much contextual as well.
You can achieve softness with both languages, if you so choose. Harshness as well.
Finnish in itself is about almost as varied as UK-accents. The very northern dialects do sound sing-songier to me than average German, I do admit that.
However I'm from the southern end of Finland, our dialect is kinda harsh. And some 100km NW it's even shorter and harder.
Here's a video titled "Can you recognise the Finnish accents?" in Finnish, displaying a few of the various dialects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfReKFBfu0A