Etymology

Borrowed from Old Swedish frē(i)adagher, frīadagher, from Proto-West Germanic *Frījā dag.

Since Finnish historically lacks f and initial consonant clusters (such as fr), the word was adapted to fit the language’s phonological rules. These changes can be imagined as *freja => *pereja => *perja (On the first step, F turns to P, and an epenthetic vowel appears to avoid the cluster [PR]. Then, on the second step, the unstressed vowel is dropped). For the -antai ending, compare maanantai (“Monday”) and sunnuntai (“Sunday”).

Pronunciation

IPA(key): /ˈperjɑntɑi̯/, [ˈpe̞rjɑ̝n̪t̪ɑ̝i̯]
Rhymes: -erjɑntɑi
Hyphenation(key): per‧jan‧tai

Noun

perjantai
Friday (day of the week; the fifth day of the week in Finland and in the ISO 8601 standard)