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Subject: 4.8<Compiled by Nils O. Monaghan>Dictionaries and other study-material
BOOKS USEFUL FOR LEARNING FINNISH (Version 2.3)
Many thanks to all those who have contributed and commented on this list. As usual any additions, corrections, and other comments should be mailed to <nmonagha@nyx.cs.du.edu>.
This list contains works which may be found useful for learning Finnish - either whether by self-study or other means. Some works are directed towards teachers rather than students. Older works are retained as these are often the ones that will be stumbled across in libraries.
INDEX
Grammars, Primers, Phrase Books.
Dictionaries
Readers
Materials for Teaching Finnish
Miscellaneous
Course Details
Acknowledgements
Maija-Hellikki Aaltio: Finnish for Foreigners (1963)
A good book to work through, it teaches grammar and
vocabulary in small chunks with plenty of grammatical exercises
and reading exercises. The emphasis on obtaining a practical
command of the language (even if mainly a reading knowledge)
makes it very useful. I think there may well be an updated
version available these days. A new edition is now available. [NOM]
Maija-Hellikki Aaltio: Finnish for Foreigners (1987):
Finnish for Foreigners 1 Textbook
Finnish for Foreigners 1 Exercises
Finnish for Foreigners 2 Textbook
Finnish for Foreigners 2 Exercises
Finnish for Foreigners 3 Textbook
[ There are also 2 cassettes per book giving aural
versions of the chapter readers and listening
exercises for the exercise books. ]
I find these books OK for learning progressively, and the
reference tables in the back are more useful as a quick grammar
reference than Fred Karlsson's book, however there are two
distinct drawbacks:
1. It is very difficult to find anything in the books, e.g. if
you decide you want to check up a particular grammatical
feature or item of vocabulary.
2. The texts are getting a bit out of date (they're quite
sixties/seventies in their topics and attitudes in places).
[Matthew Faupel]
A complete revision of the original 1963 book which
bore the same title, this has long been the standard work
for teaching Finnish to English-speaking foreigners. The
book is slightly dated with respect to language teaching
methodology, but it takes the student from the basics to
a solid command of the language. The 1987 edition devotes
considerable attention to the peculiarities of spoken Finnish.
[Eugene Holman]
J. Atkinson: Finnish Grammar (Helsinki, 1956)
A course in Finnish grammar for the learner. It concentrates
on explaining the grammar and thus contains only a
few short reading passages and a very limited vocabulary.
Michael Branch et al: A Student's Glossary of Finnish: The Literary
Language Arranged by Frequency and Alphabet (Werner Soderstrom
Osakeyhtio, Porvoo, 1980)
1200 items, graded and accompanied by morphological
information. Glossed in several languages, including English.
[Lance Eccles]
Berlitz Finnish for Travellers
Various editions in various languages.
A typical inexpensive Berlitz pocket language guide.
Like all the these guides, it of great help unless you actually
know a little bit already, but then it is very helpful for
vocabulary in various situations - especially menus. [NOM]
Björn Collinder: A Handbook of the Uralic Languages. Part 2. Survey of
the Uralic Languages (Stockholm, 1957) [This may have been
issued separately entitled "A Finnish Primer".]
Although a book aimed at compartative linguists, the Finnish
section contains a graded grammatical introduction together
with reading passages and a vocabulary. I have seen this Finnish
section as a separate pamphlet but without any publication
details. [NOM]
Artem Davdijants Inge Davidjants, Eugene Holman, Riitta Koivisto-Arhinmäki:
Terve, Suomi! Conversational Finnish in video ( Helsinki/Tallinn
1992)
This is the first attempt to produce an audiovisual
course in Finnish. The course consists of a 45-minute video
(VHS-PAL) dramatization of a trip to Finland, a 60-minutte
audio cassette, and a 140-page textbook. The English version
is a translation and expansion of the Estonian original. The
course was produced under difficult circumstances during the
last days of Soviet Estonia, and it has some unfortunate
shortcomings. Nevertheless, it represents a totally new
approach to presenting and teaching Finnish as a foreign langauge.
Contact <holman@elo.helsinki.fi> for further information.
[Eugene Holman]
Eugene Holman: Handbook of Finnish Verbs. 231 Finnish verbs
conjugated in all tenses (Finnish Literature Society, 1984)
Modelled on the famous Barrons 201 Verbs series, this
book contains a detailed discussion of all the regularities
and peculiarities of Finnish verb morphology, in
addition to which it has information on the cases used in
conjunction with more than 1200 Finnish verbs.
Eugene Holman: Finnmorf (1986)
An MS-DOS computer program which generates
all the forms of a Finnish verb, noun, adjective, numeral
or pronoun if given the dictionary form. It is thus a computer
emulation of a handbook of Finnish inflectional morphology.
Particularly useful for teachers of Finnish because it
quickly produces neatly formatted full paradigms
which can be saved as text files for further editing. Available
as freeware upon request from <holman@elo.helsinki.fi>.
[Eugene Holman].
Leena Horton: First Finnish (Helsinki, 1982)
Teaches a very basic knowledge of Finnish with a limited
vocabulary through pictures. There are no grammatical
explanations beyond the translations in the vocabularies for
each chapter. This book was designed for use with children in a
classroom situation. [NOM]
Mirja Joro et al.: Askelia Suomeen (Ammattikasvatushallitus,
Helsinki, 1985-86)
Four slim vols, all in Finnish, and intended for
newcomers to Finland. [Lance Eccles]
Fred Karlsson: Finnish Grammar (tr Andrew Chesterman, WSOY,
Porvoo-Helsinki-Juva, 1983).
Finnish edition: Suomen peruskielioppi (1982)
Swedish edition: Finsk grammatik (1978).
Karrlsson systematically covers the grammar of Finnish. This
is an excellent book - the grammar rules are easy to read and
understand and numerous examples are given. The book uses a very
clear and understandable style of layout. However, it is a
grammar and will need to be used in conjunction with other
material. [NOM]
I've got this book, and while I find it useful, I'd
hesitate to call it "excellent". It's difficult to find things
in it sometimes, it doesn't cover everything (e.g. I would dearly
love to have information on such things as the use of "fossilised"
cases (e.g. maanatai/sin, posti/tse) and I find the rule blocks
written entirely in capitals difficult to read. There is
definite room for improvement. [Matthew Faupel]
Aira Haapakoski, Seija Koski & Mirja Valkesalmi: HUOMENTA SUOMI (Valtion
painatuskeskus, Helsinki, 1990, ISBN 951-861-175-0)
I've used it for adults and children. It
illustrates basic grammar fairly clearly and may make teaching
grammar more fun, it does not, however, give verbal rules, mainly
the info is given in "boxes". Huomenta Suomi costs around 100
FIM (= $25 CAD). [Marja Coady]
Marjatta Karanko & Ulla Talvitie: TOTTAKAI! (Oy Finn Lectura Ab, Loimaan
kirjapaino, Loimaa 1993, ISBN 951-8905-71-1)
I have not used it much yet but it would seem to
be suitable especially for teenagers since its texts are geared
towards them. Grammar is explained somewhat and the book
contains exercises as well. Everything is done in Finnish.
[Marja Coady]
Meri Lehtinen: Basic Course in Finnish (Ural and Altaic Series #27,
Indiana UP, Bloomington, 1963)
A huge book, full of drills. Unfortunately now out of
print. [Lance Eccles]
Terttu Leney: Teach Yourself Finnish (New Version, Hodder and Stoughton,
ISBN 0-340-56174-2) [An audio casette is also available]
Whitney's notorious _Teach Yourself Finnish_ has been
superseded by a new Finnish textbook compiled according to the
Council of Europe's Threshold guidelines on language learning.
It is an excellent introduction to spoken and written
Finnish. [Eugene Holman]
Teach Yourself has just recently brought out a
new version. A colleague recckons its pretty good. [Matthew Faupel]
The new version seems to be a *much* better
book [Antti Lahelma]
Anneli Lieko: Suomen kielen fonetiikkaa ja fonologiaa ulkomaalaisille
(1992) [Finnish phonetics and phonology for foreigners].
A clearly written presentation of the Finnish sound
system intended for foreigners with a good reading knowledge
of the language. The book concentrates on the learning
difficulties foreigners speaking a wide range
of languages face when trying to master Finnish pronunciation.
[Eugene Holman]
I would like to say that the book is certainly useful
but far from being a complete presentation of Finnish phonetics and
phonology for foreigners. It does not, for example, specify exactly
when a two-vowel pair is pronounced as a diphthong (instead of two
vowels belonging to distinct syllables), nor does it describe the
rules for secondary stress in Finnish. Admittedly, these are areas
which have not been studied extensively enough, and they seldom have
any phonematic effect. But the phenomena certainly affect the
naturalness of one's speech in Finnish. [Jukka "Yucca" Korpela]
Olli Nuutinen: Suomea Suomeksi 1. (Suomalaisen Sirjallisuuden Seura,
Helsinki, repr. 1992) Vocabuary available in Danish, Icelandic,
French, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, English, German, and Italian.
Teaches everything in Finnish only. Probably less suitable
for self studies. No audio cassettes available. As a student
I know only this one and can't compare, but my impression is
quite good. Seems to be up to date. The German vocabulary
contains many errors. [Uwe Geuder]
At first the book looks extremely childish but all of
the grammar is there. I have found it quite effective when used in
tandem with Karlsson's grammar. I first used this book in
1982 and I would guess it was first published in the
late 70's. This book makes Finnish feel EASY and
with a little imagination is fun to learn from (and teach with!).
[Cecelia A Musselman].
John B. Olli: Fundamentals of Finnish Grammar (Northland Press, New
York, 1958)
This book concentrates mainly on long lists of declensions
and conjugations. The approach taken is not a very helpful for the
learner. [NOM]
Anges Renfors: Finnish Self-Taught (Thimm's System) with Phonetic
Pronunciation (Marlborough's Self Taught Series, London, 1910)
Quite a old one! It is really a structured vocabulary with a
brief grammar and a mini-phrase book. Very similar in many ways
to the modern Berlitz books. [NOM]
Thomas A. Sekeboed (?): Spoken Finnish
It seems to be good for having lots of conversational
stuff in it, though probably you need the tapes (and a grammar)
to make a good go of it [Robert Cumming]
Leena Silfverberg: Suomen kielen jatko-oppikirja (Finn Lectura,
Helsinki?, 1990)
An intermediate course. All in Finnish. Has vocab lists,
but no translations. [Lance Eccles]
Arthur H. Whitney: Finnish (Teach Yourself Books, Hodder and Stoughton,
1956)
Being available in the cheap Teach Yourself Series, this book
is easily and widely available. Which makes it such a shame that
it is so bad. It consists of 20 chapters each of which has a
grammatical section, a vocabulary, and exercises including short
reading passages. The grammar is dreadfully complicated with the
reader learning rare variations almost immediately. It is also
very poorly laid out with no attempt at making it even vaguely
easy on the eye and brain. The vocabularies seem somewhat
pointless - they are normally 4 or 5 pages long which is an
incredible amount of learning expected for a single chapter - it
would have been better to include them alphabetically at the end
of the work and then tell the reader "learn the words beigining
with 'a' today". The exercises and reading passages are short
and no great aid to someone working alone - as "Teach yourself"
implies. A replacement by Terttu Leney is now available in this
series. [NOM]
Yes, that book presents the reader with the most massive
vocabulary lessons I have seen in any text book. But, I liked
one thing about it; the reading passages form a real continuing
story. This is something most language books lack completely.
Personally, I also liked the fact that even the first passage is
far from trivial, not on the order of "Hello, Mrs. Paivinen.
That is a house." But as usually happens with me and language
books, I didn't assimilate the whole of the book. A
lot has stuck, though.
[ <konarj@eua.ericsson.se> ]
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Suomi-Englanti-Suomi taskusanakirja, WSOY, Porvoo-Helsinki-Juva 1989.
A small pocket dictionary with a stylised picture of the Union
Jack as its cover. Just about passable as a pocket dictionary,
but it often doesn't give an indication of whether the word is
a noun, adjective or verb (not always obvious) and only gives
the basic form of each word (not helpful if it has an irregular
partitive or whatever). It also lacks most Finnish
colloquialisms (the dictionary seems to be designed for Finns
coming to Britain rather than vice-versa). [Matthew Faupel]
WSOY Suomi/Englanti and Englanti/Suomi.
Two volumes, about the same size as the Concise Oxford
(i.e. about 25cmx20cmx8cm). Hence lots of words and
examples. [Matthew Faupel]
Suomi/Englanti/Suomi Sanakirja, Gummerus Kirjapaino OY, 1989
A single volume mid-size dictionary with a reasonable amount
of colloquial information in, but still no information on
things other than the basic forms of words (other than
indirectly via examples). [Matthew Faupel]
Nykysuomen sanakirja
Something like 6 volumes. Irreplaceable for knowing
which words inflect in which ways, and for less common words.
Clearly not for beginners, because of the total lack of English,
but it's currently a bargain at around 300FIM (40 pounds
sterling) in softback. [Steve Kelly]
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Robert Austerlitz: Finnish Reader and Glossary (Research and Studies in
Uralic and Altaic Languages No 14, Indiana UP, 1963)
Aili Rytkönen Bell & Augustus Koski: Finnish Graded Reader (1968)
(Foreign Service Institute. Department of State. 1968)
[Audio cassettes are also available]
A behemoth (744 pgs.) of a book, this book takes the
student from the advanmced elementary level (approx. 500 words
and basic grammar) up to unedited journalistic, literary, and
historical texts. Jam packed with interesting exercises and
information otherwise unavailable about Finnish vocabulary,
idioms and phraseology. In my opinion this is the
BEST BOOK AVAILABLE for mastering Finnish in all of its
stylistic variety after you have learned the basics. The book
is a public document and costs $17.50 according to the latest
information I have available. [Eugene Holman]
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(Language Centre for Finnish Universities)
Eija Aalto (ed.): Kohdekielenä suomi. Oppimateriaalien kommentoitu
bibliografia. (Information from the Language Centre for Finnish
Universities, 1991) (in Finnish)
Jönsson-Korhola & White: Rakastan sinua. Pidätkö sinä minusta? Suomen
verbien rektioita. (Language Centre Materials No. 66, 1989)
H. Koivisto: Suomi-tytön kieli. Suggestopedinen alkeiskurssi (Finnish-
English). (Language Centre Materials No. 75, 1990)
K. Siitonen: Auringonvalo. Elämää suomalaisessa kylässä. (Reading
materials for conversation classes). (Language Centre Materials
No. 79, 1990)
E. Aalto: Kuule hei! Suomen kielen kuunteluharjoituksia
vieraskielisille, (listening comprehension material, booklet + tapes).
(Language Centre Materials No. 80, 1990)
Ahonen & White: Monta sataa suomen sanaa. (reader for vocabulary
building and revision, English glossaries). (Language Centre
Materials No. 101, 1993)
All the above can be ordered from: Language Centre for Finnish
Universities, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40351 Jyväskylä,
Finland. If you want further information, feel free to contact Helena Valtanen
<valtanen@jyu.fi>.
[Helena Valtanen]
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Peter Hajdu: Finno-Ugrian languages and peoples (tr and adapted by G.F.
Cushing fr Hungarian "Finnugor nepek es nyelvek", Deutsch,
London, 1975).
Gives a background to the peoples and cultures of the
Finno-Ugrian family of languages. [NOM]
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Suomea/Finska/Finnish
Soumen kielen ja kultuurin opinnot kesällä 1994 /
Att studera finska och Finlands kultur sommaren 1994 /
Courses in Finnish language and culture summer 1994
(Council for Instruction of Finnish for Foreigners, Ministery of
Education)
This brochure is available from UKAN/Opitusministeri|
PL 293, FIN-00171 Helsinki, Finland [Uwe Geuder]
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With lots of additions & help gratefully received from: Uwe Geuder <Uwe.Geuder@informatik.uni-stuttgart.d400.de>; Matthew Faupel <matthew@cpdapo.tele.nokia.fi> Antti Lahelma <alahelma@cc.helsinki.fi> Eugene Holman <holman@elo.helsinki.fi> Robert Cumming <rjc@mail.ast.cam.ac.uk> Cecelia A Musselman <cam17@edu.columbia> Helena Valtanen <valtanen@tukki.jyu.fi> Arndt Jonasson <Arndt.Jonasson@eua.ericsson.se> Brian Wilkins <bew@cix.compulink.co.uk> Hans-Christian Holm <hcholm@idt.unit.no> Lance Eccles <leccles@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au> Steven Kelly <stevek@cs.jyu.fi> Jukka "Yucca" Korpela <jkorpela@gamma.hut.fi> Marja Coady <COADY@ERE.UMONTREAL.CA> plus others.
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