Ah, Ismo; perhaps my favourite Finnish stand-up comedian. (Ali Jahangiri may be second.)
Yes, I can confirm [1] that Finns often struggle with 'b'. An IME very common example: The word "pub" for a drinking establishment has been loaned as-is into Finnish. But the expression "Let's go to the pub" is, I think more often than not, rendered as "Mennään buppiin".
As I understand it, this is because Finns can pronounce the letter 'b' (even though it isn't natively used in the Finnish language), but for many (most?) it takes quite a bit of concentration and leads to some amount of nervous tension. So when you see one coming -- i.e. having just decided that you're going to say "pub" -- you prepare, tense up... And release it too early, at the start of the word (no wonder, since it starts with the treacherously similar letter 'p'). Then, having blown all your tense preparation already (and perhaps just jumbling it up with the other consonant you also had prepared to pronounce), the end of the word comes out as the (again, treacherously similar) letter 'p'.
No biggie, but definitely still a little funny. (At least to me. Sorry.)
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[1]: Foreigner, but since last spring lived longer (26 years) in Finland than in any other country.
Yes, I can confirm [1] that Finns often struggle with 'b'. An IME very common example: The word "pub" for a drinking establishment has been loaned as-is into Finnish. But the expression "Let's go to the pub" is, I think more often than not, rendered as "Mennään buppiin".
As I understand it, this is because Finns can pronounce the letter 'b' (even though it isn't natively used in the Finnish language), but for many (most?) it takes quite a bit of concentration and leads to some amount of nervous tension. So when you see one coming -- i.e. having just decided that you're going to say "pub" -- you prepare, tense up... And release it too early, at the start of the word (no wonder, since it starts with the treacherously similar letter 'p'). Then, having blown all your tense preparation already (and perhaps just jumbling it up with the other consonant you also had prepared to pronounce), the end of the word comes out as the (again, treacherously similar) letter 'p'.
No biggie, but definitely still a little funny. (At least to me. Sorry.)
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[1]: Foreigner, but since last spring lived longer (26 years) in Finland than in any other country.