A Finnish Grammar

Example of a noun of first declension with a hard vowel. Puu, a tree:—

There is nothing to be remarked on the declension of this word, except that in the plur. the diphthong uu is shortened to u before the vowel i; puissa, etc., and not puuissa.

The declension of a noun with a soft vowel, e.g. työ, work, is exactly analogous, except that the suffixes have the soft forms -ssä, -stä, etc.

According to rule 4 before the i of the plural the vowel y is rejected from the diphthong yö. So suo, yö, tie form in the plural soissa, öillä, tein.

The Second Declension.

The second declension has the following characteristics:—

(1) The partitive sing. ends in -a or -ä (-ta, -tä) after a short vowel. (Polysyllables have often -ta, -tä.)

(2) The nominative has the same number of vowels as the root, and generally preserves those vowels unaltered except that the final a or ä of comparatives and final e become i.

(3) The illative sing. ends in the last vowel of the root doubled with n suffixed; kirkkoon, not kirkohon.

(4) The genitive plur. generally ends in -jen or -en, as described above. In the ordinary language this -en is further weakened to -in after the vowel of the root, unless that vowel is itself i.

(5) Hard consonants at the beginning of the last syllable are of course softened by rules 24-35, when the syllable becomes closed.

This declension comprises—

A. Roots ending in the vowels o, ö, u, y, which never change.

Example:—Aurinko, the sun.

Here in the majority of cases the k is weakened to g, because the syllable which it commences becomes closed containing a single vowel or a diphthong formed by that vowel with the i of the plural; but the k remains in such places as the illative, where the syllables remain open. The original form of the genitive plur. would be aurinkoiten. This is weakened to auringoiden. Then the d dropping out we have aurinkojen, aurinkoen, or aurinkoin.

Luettu (past participle), meaning read, is thus declined:—

Here tt is weakened to t when the syllable becomes closed (rule 30), and the partitive and genitive plur. either take or reject t.

The declension of words with soft vowels is precisely similar, except that the suffixes have soft vowels. Eläimistö, animal kingdom, lyöty, struck.

Here the t of lyöty is weakened when the syllable is closed, but the t of eläimistö remains, being preceded by s and consequently unchangeable.

B. All roots ending in a, ä, except superlatives for adjectives, e.g. pata, a pot. In this declension the final a frequently becomes o in the plural by rule 7. Dissyllabic words reject t in the partitive both sing. and plur., and in the genitive plur.; but polysyllabic words optionally preserve it in these cases.

Such words as sota, war, korva, the ear, do not change the final a to o in the plural.

Polysyllabic nouns are declined as follows:—

Similarly, Isäntä, a father of a family, makes isäntää, isännän (t becoming n by rule 31), isännässä. This word in the plur. loses its final vowel, and does not change it to o. Isännät, isäntiä, isäntien (-äin), isännissä, etc.

Comparatives whose root ends in -mpa, -mpä, change the final vowel to i in the nominative sing.; e.g. parempa, better. Nominative parempi, partitive parempaa or parempata, genitive paremman (by rule 34), inessive paremmassa, etc. Plur. nominative paremmat, partitive parempia, genitive parempien, parempaen, or parempain, inessive paremmissa, illative parempiin, etc. All comparatives reject the final a before the i of the plural.

C. All roots ending in -i. The root of the plural ends in the diphthong ei or short i, e.g. kaupunki, a town.

Here k becomes g when the syllable is closed, and ii in the plur. ei (26 and 21).

D. Dissyllables ending in the vowel e, preceded by k, p, v, a doubled consonant, or two consonants of which the last is h, j, or m; that is to say, roots like reke, nukke, hanhe, kolme, pilve, etc.

A few words coming under none of these heads also belong to this declension.

a. With a few exceptions the final e becomes i in the nominative sing.

b. The plur. stem ends in simple i (14), but in speaking ei is sometimes used in order to distinguish the sing. and plur.

Läpe, a hole.

P is weakened to v in the closed syllables (35).

Reke, a sledge.

K is dropped by rule 28. Notice that the word takes the soft terminations.

The Third Declension.

The third declension has the following characteristics:—

(1) The partitive sing. ends in ta or tä after a consonant.

(2) The nominative sing. is never the same as the root.

(3) The root is closed in the partitive sing. and first form of the genitive plur., and sometimes in the nominative and essive sing.

The nouns belonging to this declension may be classed under two divisions.

First Division.

This comprises all words belonging to this declension which have the illative sing. ending in a doubled vowel and n.

To this class belong—

I. Dissyllabic roots ending in e preceded by h, l, n, r, s, t, lt, nt, or rt, and all roots ending in -hte, -kse, -pse, -tse.

E.g. Vete, water.

In the nominative sing. te becomes si by rule 37. The partitive sing. and first genitive plur. are formed from the closed root. In the majority of the cases of the sing. vete becomes vede when the root is closed by the addition of a suffix, while in the plur. te + i becomes ti, which changes to si by the rule above quoted.

The stem miehe, man, forms the nominative mies, partitive miestä, genitive miehen, inessive miehessä, etc. Plur. miehet, genitive miesten, partitive miehiä, inessive miehissä, etc.

Toise, second.

Roots ending in se change this termination in the nominative to nen. Thus kirjase, a little book, venäläise, Russian, iloise, glad, vihollise, hostile, form in the nominative kirjanen, venäläinen, iloinen, vihollinen. In all such words the partitive sing. and first genitive plur. are formed from the closed root and the essive sing. has two forms.

II. All words of more than one syllable ending in -e.

E.g. Root:—Kolmante, third.

Here (1) the e is rejected in the nominative (rule 16), and kolmant becomes kolmas (24 and 37). (2) The partitive also is formed from the shortened root (kolmant), and kolmantta becomes kolmatta. (3) The cases of the singular and nominative plural, where the last syllable of the root is closed, change nt to nn (rule 31). (4) The essive sing. in the form taken from the full root preserves the root entire, kolmanna is not used. All the cases of the plural which take -i reject the final e before that letter, and change nt to ns (rule 37).

Similarly kannukse, a spur, makes in the nominative kannus (rules 16 and 24). The root remains unaltered in the genitive, etc., kannuksen, while the partitive is kannusta for kannuksta. Similarly in the plural we have kannukset, genitive kannuksien or kannusten, partitive kannuksia.

Kalleute, dearness, makes in the nominative sing. kalleus (24 and 37), partitive kalleut-ta, illative kalleuteen, genitive kalleuden, etc.; plur. nominative kalleudet, first genitive kalleutten, but the second genitive is kalleuksien, and all the remaining cases are of the same type (partitive kalleuksia, illative kalleuksiin, etc.), being formed exactly as if the root was kalleukse.

Adjectives like lyhyte, short, ohute, thin, drop the t altogether between two vowels. E.g. nominative sing. lyhyt, partitive lyhyttä. But the genitive lyhyte-n becomes lyhyen, the illative lyhyteen, lyhyeen, etc.; plur. lyhyet, genitive lyhyitten, lyhytten, partitive lyhyitä (or lyhyviä for lyhyiä).

III. All superlatives in -mpa or -mpä, and all negative adjectives in -ttoma.

The termination -mpa is shortened to n (24 and 46) in the nominative, partitive, and genitive plur. (first form), and of course becomes -mma when the last syllable is closed in the other cases (34); -ttoma becomes -ton in the nominative sing., partitive sing., and first form of genitive plur. (46).

E.g. suurimpa, very large:—

In the plural the final a is lost before the i (9).

So also viattoma, guiltless (the termination -ttoma corresponds to the English termination -less, or the prefixes un-, in-). In Nom. viaton, a being lost, m becomes n, and the syllable being thus closed tt becomes t. Partitive from the same shortened root viatonta. Genitive, etc. viattoman, etc., nominative plur. viattomat, genitive viatonten, viattomain or viattomien, partitive viattomia, etc.

Second Division.

(1) The illative sing. ends in -sen, the illative plur. in sin, or hin.

(2) The shortened form of the root is always employed in the nominative sing., which ends in s, t, or the aspiration.

(3) The plural is formed from the shortened root, and the stem ends in a long diphthong of which the last letter is i.

(4) The partitive plur. after this diphthong has the termination -ta, -tä.

(5) The second genitive plur. ends in -den (-tten).

This class is composed of what are called contracted nouns (rule 47).

In poetry we also find a declension: uros, vieras, genitive urohon, vierahan, etc., illative urohosen, vierahasen, plur. urohot, vierahat, urohissa, vierahissa, etc., so that it is clear the roots are uroso, vierasa, being weakened.

Analogously are declined such words as terve, healthy, kevät, spring.

Stems ikehe, a yoke, okaha, point or prickle.

Vapaa, free, koree, beautiful (for korea).

Participles whose nominative ends in nut or nyt (that is past active participles), like oppinut, lyönyt, form the genitive, inessive, etc., from a root ending in nehe, contracted nee; but the nominative and partitive sing., and one form of the essive sing. and genitive plur. are formed from a root ending in ute, yte, which loses its final vowel.

So also lyönyt, partitive lyönyttä, genitive lyöneen, inessive lyöneessä, essive lyöneenä, or lyönynnä; plur. nominative lyöneet, partitive lyöneitä, genitive lyönytten or lyöneiden, etc.

Compound Nouns.

Finnish, especially the modern literary dialect, abounds in compound nouns, in which the last word of the compound is defined by that which precedes it, so that the first word is practically an adjective. Thus in pääkaupunki, a capital, kaupunki means a town, and the word pää, a head, describes what sort of town is intended. So also rautatie, a railway, from rauta, iron, and tie, a road; tullihuone, a custom house; puutarha, a garden (puu, a tree, tarha, an enclosure), kirkkotarha, a churchyard (kirkko, church, tarha, enclosure). Sometimes the first word is an adjective, as omatunto, conscience, from oma, own, and tunto, feeling. This is written as one word, because omatunto conveys a different meaning from the separate words oma and tunto.

When a compound is made up of more than two words, all but the last may be regarded as a single word qualifying the last, and then be decomposed in their turn. For instance in ylioppilaskirjasto, University students’ library, kirjasto, library, is qualified by ylioppilas, describing what kind of a library is meant, and in this word ylioppilas, oppilas, student, is particularised by the addition of yli. Similarly isänmaanrakkaus, patriotism, is composed of isänmaa, fatherland, and rakkaus, love, and isänmaa again is composed of isä, father, and maa, land.

Generally the first word of a compound is used in the nominative case. Sairashuone, a hospital (stem sairaha). Frequently, however, it is in the genitive, this case being either (a) descriptive, as in maantie, highroad, literally road of the land: talonpoika, peasant, literally son of a farm; (b) subjective, that is to say, if the compound were developed into a phrase the word in the genitive would become the subject, as kuunvalo, moonlight; (c) objective, that is to say, if the compound were developed into a phrase the word in the genitive would become the object, hatuntekijä, a hatmaker.

More rarely other cases are used, as toimeentulo, subsistence, kuntoonpano, arrangement, accomplishment.

As a rule, only the last word of a compound is declined, the preceding member remaining unaffected by inflection. But if the first member is an adjective, then both parts of the word receive inflections, e.g. vierasmies, a stranger, forms the genitive vieraanmiehen, inessive vieraassamiehessä, etc. But vierasmiehen is not wrong.

THE ADJECTIVE.

Adjectives are declined exactly like substantives, and like them have no gender.

Besides declension they are susceptible of inflections indicating the comparative and superlative degrees.

I. The Comparative is formed by adding to the root of the positive -mpa or -mpä. Huono, bad, huonompa, worse; paksu, fat, paksumpa, fatter. Root, iloise, gay (nominative of positive iloinen), comparative iloisempa.

If a dissyllabic root end in a or ä, that vowel becomes e before the termination mpa. Vanha, old, vanhempa (13).

It is important to note that the suffix -mpa is added to the root, and not to the nominative of the positive.

The stem thus formed is declined with the usual suffixes, after the models given above: mpa in the nominative sing. becomes mpi, and in the cases where the syllable is closed mma.

II. The Superlative is formed by adding to the root of the positive the suffix impa. Before this suffix the vowels a, ä, e, i are rejected, and aa, ää, ee, become ai, äi, ei. Thus iso, great, isoimpa: huono, bad, huonoimpa; but köyhä, köyhimpä, valkea, valkeimpa, etc.

The root thus obtained is declined after the third declension. Notice the difference in the declension of comparatives and superlatives. In the comparative the final a becomes i in the nominative sing., in the superlative it is lost and mp becomes n by rule 2.

Comparative stem suurempa. Superlative stem suurimpa.

Examples of the formation of the comparative and superlative.

The following words are irregular, the comparative and superlative being formed from different roots to the positive.

Molemmat, both, is an isolated comparative form.

The following adjectives are not declined or compared, but remain invariable in all cases.—Aika, strong; aimo, good; kelpo, worthy; eri, different; koko, all; ensi, next; viime, last; pikku, little. Kaikki, all, is not usually changed in the nominative plural, but otherwise is declined.

FORMATION OF SUBSTANTIVES AND ADJECTIVES.

Some substantives and adjectives are primitive—that is to say, they consist of roots which cannot be further analysed, and to which the case suffixes are directly attached. But a great number of words are not mere roots, but roots with additional syllables which modify the meaning of the original root.

The following are the principal syllables so added to roots to form nouns and adjectives.

SUBSTANTIVES.

I. The following suffixes are used to form substantives from verbs.

-ja. A factitive suffix, that is to say, denoting the doer of the action denoted by the root. Luoja, the creator (luo, to create). Kalastaja, a fisherman. When a root ends in e this letter is generally changed to i before the suffix -ja. Teke, to make, tekijä, a maker; luke, to read, lukija, a reader. This suffix is also found in the forms -jame (nominative -jan or -jain), -jaise (-jainen), -jaa.

-ri has the same meaning as -ja: mylläri, a miller, juomari, a drunkard, petturi, a deceiver. (This is really a foreign termination from the Swedish -re.)

-ma (the termination of the third infinitive) expresses an action or the result of an action. Sanoma, report (“a speaking”), elämä, life, kuolema, death.

-mise (nominative minen, the termination of the fourth infinitive) expresses a continuous action, or an action in an abstract sense. Laulaminen, singing, eläminen, living.

-nto, -nta (chiefly poetical), -nti (added to monosyllabic roots) express an action or a state arising from an action. Luonto, nature (from luo, to create), uskonto, religion (“believing,” from uskoa, to believe), tuonti, bringing to, or importation, vienti, bringing away from, or exportation, laulanta, singing.

o (ö) and u (y) (before which the last vowel of the root is rejected) form abstract nouns denoting action. Muisto, memory, makso, payment, tulo, arrival, lähtö, departure, luku, reading, itku, weeping, maksu, payment.

-okse or -ukse (nominative -os or -us) also form abstract nouns expressing an action, and are specially added to trisyllabic verbs ending in -ta. Valmistus, preparation, harjoitus, practice, vastaus, answer. The same suffix is sometimes found in combination with -ma (-ma + ukse = mukse) juopumus, drunkenness.

-io has the same meaning. Huomio, attention, palkkio, a reward.

-ee (original stem ehe, closed form eʻ) expresses action or the product of action: puhe, conversation, kanne, accusation.

-ime (nominative -in) expresses the instrument with which an action is performed. Avain, a key (‘the opener’), uistin, a fishhook, viskain, anything used to throw things away, e.g. a bucket; viskin is also found.

II. The following suffixes are used to form derivative nouns from other nouns.

-se, -ise (nominative -nen, -inen) are used to form family names, like the Russian terminations -овъ, -евъ, Peltonen, Koskinen, Karhunen, etc.

-ttare (nominative -tar) is a similar affix for feminine names. Karhutar, Ilmatar (daughter of the air), Manalatar (daughter of death).

-laise (nominative -lainen) is used to form designations of nationality. Suomalainen, a Finn; Ruotsalainen, a Swede; Venäläinen, a Russian; Englantilainen, an Englishman.

The following suffixes are used to form diminutives—

-se (nominative -nen), or ise (nominative -inen). Kirjanen, emonen, poikanen.

-lo. Purtilo, kotelo.

-ue, ye (originally ute, yte; nominative -ut, -yt). Poiut, kuuhut, päivyt, päähyt.

-kka, -kaise (nominative kainen). -kkee (original form -kkehe, nominative keʻ). Annikka, mullikka, lapsukainen, silmäke.

The following terminations have a local significance—

-kko or -ikko indicates a place where anything is found in a quantity; rapakko, a muddy place; kivikko, a heap of stones; koivikko, a birchwood; kuusikko, firwood.

-la, added to the name of a person, expresses the place where that person lives; pappila, a priest’s house; setälä, uncle’s house; tuonela, the house of death.

-nko or -nte is used to form local substantives. Alanko, a low-lying place (Alankomaat, the Netherlands), ylänkö, a height; tasanko, a plane.

Suffixes denoting a collection of objects are—

-sto, generally used of inanimate objects; kirjasto, a library; laivasto, a fleet; hongisto, pinewood.

-uee (original form uehe, nominative -ueʻ), generally used of animate objects; matkue, laivue, seurue.

III. Names of abstract qualities are formed from adjectives with the suffix -ute, -yte (nominative -us, -ys). Before this suffix a, ä, e are changed to u or y, and form a long vowel; hyvyys, virtue (hyvä); rakkaus (from stem rakkaa); arkuus, cowardice; turhuus, vanity. If a root ends in i or ii this vowel generally becomes e in dissyllabic roots, and u in polysyllabic. Kalleus, but naapuruus, kumppanuus.

ADJECTIVAL TERMINATIONS.

The commonest adjectival suffix is -ise (nominative -inen), which is added usually to nouns. Aamu, morning, aamuinen, early; kulta, gold; kultainen, golden. This suffix is sometimes added to cases, especially the essive; yksinäinen, ominainen, luonteinen. Similarly the very common suffix -llise (nominative -llinen) is the result of adding ise to the adessive or allative—maallinen, rahallinen, vihollinen.

-ttoma (nominative ton) is a caritive suffix signifying without or deprived of (cf. the English -less); isätön, fatherless; rahaton, moneyless. It is frequently added to the third infinitive of verbs, e.g. kuolematon, immortal.

-kkaha (nominative -kkas) is the exact contrary of this last suffix, and signifies progressing or provided with; rahakas, having much money; voimakas, strong.

-isa and -va have much the same meaning as -kkaha; kuuluisa, glorious; kalaisa, rich in fish; lihava, fat; terävä, sharp.

-se, -kaise, and -hka, -hko are used to form adjectival diminutives; lyhykäinen, short (Russian коротенькій), pitkähkö, longish.

The suffix -mainen forms adjectives meaning like, or rather; English -ish; lapsimainen, childish; poikamainen, boyish; hyvämäinen, pretty good.