Rally English (from Finnish: ''rallienglanti'') is a humorous or derogatory term to describe English spoken by, or in the manner of, non-native English speakers, particularly

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

. It features heavy accent and/or non-standard pronunciation, consisting of basically English words delivered with typically Finnish pronunciation and intonation. It gets its name from the characteristic speech patterns of Finnish athletes from the 1970s to the 1990s, especially

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sport ...

drivers such as

Markku Alén Markku Allan Alén (born 15 February 1951) is a Finland, Finnish former Rallying, rally and race car driver. He drove for Fiat, Lancia, Subaru World Rally Team, Subaru and Toyota Team Europe, Toyota in the World Rally Championship, and held the ...

and

Tommi Mäkinen Tommi Antero Mäkinen (; born 26 June 1964) is a Finnish racing executive and former rally driver. Mäkinen is one of the most successful World Rally drivers of all time, ranking fifth in rally wins (24) and third in championships (4), tied wit ...

. Rally English stems from the significant

phonological Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...

differences between English and, in the original instance, Finnish; in a wider sense, it is a feature of non-native speakers adapting to speak English or any other foreign language in a way that comes naturally to them. It may derive from the conventional methods of language teaching based on written materials such as text books, which better facilitate the learning of reading and writing than of pronunciation or intonation. Rally English places more emphasis on conveying meaning than sounding "correct". It is both looked down upon as an 'unsophisticated' way of speaking a foreign language, and, conversely, praised for pragmatically prioritising information over aesthetics. It can also be a source of embarrassment, or mirth, depending on the speakers or observer's viewpoint.

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Further reading