German characters are sometimes used, in which case w always represents the v sound. In the Roman character v and w are used indifferently to express the sound of the English v.
The pronunciation of the consonants offers little difficulty. Most of them have the same sounds as in English.
D. In true Finnish words this letter is never found at the beginning or end, and in the middle always represents a softened t (vide changes of consonants p. [13]). Even in this position it is hardly ever heard in the language as spoken by peasants, but replaced in the West Finnish dialect by a sound between r and l, and in the Eastern dialect entirely omitted. Educated people, however, pronounce it as in English. Thus the educated pronunciation of the genitive case of sota is sodan; but in dialects the forms soran, solan, or soan are found. The letter d is always omitted in the Kalevala, which is written in the Karelian dialect.
G, except in a few foreign words, is only found in the combination ng, representing an original nk, pronounced as in English. In the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg this letter is never used, k taking its place.
H is a stronger aspirate than in English, and is almost the Russian x or German ch. It is heard very distinctly at the end of syllables, e.g. in tehdä.
J is the English y in yes or yard.
The remaining letters of the Roman Alphabet b, c, f, q, x, z, and the Swedish å (pronounced o) are sometimes met with in foreign words, but an uneducated Finn will always pronounce b and f as p and v, and is also incapable of producing such sounds as the English ch and sh, which when occurring in Russian names are generally represented in a Finnish mouth by simple s.
There is also a slight aspiration found at the end of some words, as veneʻ, a boat, syödäʻ, to eat. It is not usually written, and hardly heard except in some dialects, though it has a grammatical importance, and in some educational works is marked, as above, by an inverted comma.
It will be seen that there is a great paucity of consonants in the Finnish language; the alphabet contains but 13, and of these g and d are never found at the beginning of native words. Further no word can begin with two consonants, and foreign words, commencing with such combinations, always lose one or more letters, for instance the Swedish words strand (shore), and spel (game), appear as ranta, peli.