It is often remarked that Jean Sibelius, born 150 years ago this December 8, composed music that captured the sound and cadence of the Finnish language.
To enhance that experience, we asked a colleague, Toni Karlsson, to share some native Finnish pronunciations with us. Karlsson, a digital producer at Minnesota Public Radio and American Public Media, is originally from Pori, Finland, but now lives in Minnesota. He has taught classes at the Minnesotan Suomikoulu, the Finnish Language School of Minnesota.
Finnish differs from the languages of its Nordic neighbors; Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelanic come from Germanic roots, whereas Finnish is from the Finno-Ugric language family. Karlsson says other languages that resemble Finnish are Estonian and Hungarian.
Listen to the audio above as Karlsson speaks these names in their native Finnish pronunciation.
Composers
Jean Sibelius
Armas Järnefelt
Oskar Merikanto
Erkki Melartin
Toivo Kuula
Leevi Madetoja
Uuno Klami
Aulis Sallinen
Conductors
Osmo Vänskä
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Tauno Hannikainen
Okko Kamu
Pekka Kostiainen
Jukka Tiensu
Musicians
Pekka Kuusisto
Mikko Franck
Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Susanna Mälkki
Elina Vähälä
Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch
Musically relevant cities in Finland
Helsinki
Espoo
Tampere
Turku
Oulu
Lahti
Kuopio
Jyväskylä
Pori
Hämeenlinna
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