soinnittomien

Soinnittomien is the genitive plural form of the Finnish adjective soinnittomat, a term used in phonology to refer to the class of voiceless or unvoiced consonants. In linguistic descriptions, soinnittomien is used to describe the set of consonants produced without vocal fold vibration, as opposed to soinnilliset consonants, which involve voicing. The distinction between voiceless and voiced consonants is a standard part of describing Finnish phonology, even though it does not function as a full phonemic contrast for most native words.

In standard Finnish, many native consonants are unvoiced, such as p, t, k, f, s, and h. Voiced consonants, including b, d, g, v, and z, occur mainly in loanwords and in occasional proper names; they do not form a large, native phonemic inventory. Thus, discussions of Finnish consonants often treat unvoiced sounds as the default category and refer to the minority of voiced sounds as borrowings or allophones in specific contexts.

The term soinnittomien is most commonly encountered in linguistic descriptions, grammars, and dictionaries when grouping consonants by voicing or when illustrating phonological processes that involve voicing. It appears in phrases such as soinnittomien konsonanttien tuotanto or soinnittomien ja soinnillisten konsonanttien erottaminen, meaning the production or distinction of voiceless versus voiced consonants.

See also: Finnish phonology, unvoiced consonants, voiced consonants, consonant harmony.