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 diphthonguuis shortened toubefore the voweli;puissa, etc., and notpuuissa.
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 rule4before theiof the plural the vowelyis rejected from the diphthongyö. Sosuo,yö,tieform in the pluralsoissa,öillä,tein.
The second declension has the following characteristics:—
(1) The partitive sing. ends in-aor-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 finalaoräof comparatives and finalebecomei.
(3) The illative sing. ends in the last vowel of the root doubled withnsuffixed;kirkkoon, notkirkohon.
(4) The genitive plur. generally ends in-jenor-en, as described above. In the ordinary language this-enis further weakened to-inafter the vowel of the root, unless that vowel is itselfi.
(5) Hard consonants at the beginning of the last syllable are of course softened by rules24-35, when the syllable becomes closed.
This declension comprises—
A. Roots ending in the vowelso,ö,u,y, which never change.
Example:—Aurinko,the sun.
Here in the majority of cases thekis weakened tog, because the syllable which it commences becomes closed containing a single vowel or a diphthong formed by that vowel with theiof the plural; but thekremains in such places as the illative, where the syllables remain open. The original form of the genitive plur. would beaurinkoiten. This is weakened toauringoiden. Then theddropping out we haveaurinkojen,aurinkoen,oraurinkoin.
Luettu(past participle), meaningread, is thus declined:—
Herettis weakened totwhen the syllable becomes closed (rule30), and the partitive and genitive plur. either take or rejectt.
The declension of words with soft vowels is precisely similar, except that the suffixes have soft vowels.Eläimistö,animal kingdom,lyöty,struck.
Here thetoflyötyis weakened when the syllable is closed, but thetofeläimistöremains, being preceded bysand consequently unchangeable.
B. All roots ending ina,ä, except superlatives for adjectives, e.g.pata,a pot. In this declension the finalafrequently becomesoin the plural by rule7. Dissyllabic words rejecttin the partitive both sing. and plur., and in the genitive plur.; but polysyllabic words optionally preserve it in these cases.
Such words assota,war,korva,the ear, do not change the finalatooin the plural.
Polysyllabic nouns are declined as follows:—
Similarly,Isäntä,a father of a family, makesisäntää,isännän(tbecomingnby rule31),isännässä. This word in the plur. loses its final vowel, and does not change it too.Isännät,isäntiä,isäntien(-äin),isännissä, etc.
Comparatives whose root ends in-mpa,-mpä, change the final vowel toiin the nominative sing.; e.g.parempa,better. Nominativeparempi, partitiveparempaaorparempata, genitiveparemman(by rule34), inessiveparemmassa, etc. Plur. nominativeparemmat, partitiveparempia, genitiveparempien,parempaen,orparempain, inessiveparemmissa, illativeparempiin, etc. All comparatives reject the finalabefore theiof the plural.
C. All roots ending in-i. The root of the plural ends in the diphthongeior shorti, e.g.kaupunki,a town.
Herekbecomesgwhen the syllable is closed, andiiin the plur.ei(26and21).
D. Dissyllables ending in the vowele, preceded byk,p,v, a doubled consonant, or two consonants of which the last ish,j, orm; that is to say, roots likereke,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 finalebecomesiin the nominative sing.
b.The plur. stem ends in simplei(14), but in speakingeiis sometimes used in order to distinguish the sing. and plur.
Läpe,a hole.
Pis weakened tovin the closed syllables (35).
Reke,a sledge.
Kis dropped by rule28. Notice that the word takes the soft terminations.
The third declension has the following characteristics:—
(1) The partitive sing. ends intaortäafter 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.
This comprises all words belonging to this declension which have the illative sing. ending in a doubled vowel andn.
To this class belong—
I. Dissyllabic roots ending inepreceded byh,l,n,r,s,t,lt,nt, orrt, and all roots ending in-hte,-kse,-pse,-tse.
E.g.Vete,water.
In the nominative sing.tebecomessiby rule37. The partitive sing. and first genitive plur. are formed from the closed root. In the majority of the cases of the sing.vetebecomesvedewhen the root is closed by the addition of a suffix, while in the plur.te + ibecomesti, which changes tosiby the rule above quoted.
The stemmiehe,man, forms the nominativemies, partitivemiestä, genitivemiehen, inessivemiehessä, etc. Plur.miehet, genitivemiesten, partitivemiehiä, inessivemiehissä, etc.
Toise,second.
Roots ending insechange this termination in the nominative tonen. Thuskirjase,a little book,venäläise,Russian,iloise,glad,vihollise,hostile, form in the nominativekirjanen,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) theeis rejected in the nominative (rule16), andkolmantbecomeskolmas(24and37). (2) The partitive also is formed from the shortened root (kolmant), andkolmanttabecomeskolmatta. (3) The cases of the singular and nominative plural, where the last syllable of the root is closed, changenttonn(rule31). (4) The essive sing. in the form taken from the full root preserves the root entire,kolmannais not used. All the cases of the plural which take-ireject the finalebefore that letter, and changenttons(rule37).
Similarlykannukse,a spur, makes in the nominativekannus(rules16and24). The root remains unaltered in the genitive, etc.,kannuksen, while the partitive iskannustaforkannuksta. Similarly in the plural we havekannukset, genitivekannuksienorkannusten, partitivekannuksia.
Kalleute,dearness, makes in the nominative sing.kalleus(24and37), partitivekalleut-ta, illativekalleuteen, genitivekalleuden, etc.; plur. nominativekalleudet, first genitivekalleutten, but the second genitive iskalleuksien, and all the remaining cases are of the same type (partitivekalleuksia, illativekalleuksiin, etc.), being formed exactly as if the root waskalleukse.
Adjectives likelyhyte,short,ohute,thin, drop thetaltogether between two vowels. E.g. nominative sing.lyhyt, partitivelyhyttä. But the genitivelyhyte-nbecomeslyhyen, the illativelyhyteen,lyhyeen, etc.; plur.lyhyet, genitivelyhyitten,lyhytten, partitivelyhyitä(orlyhyviäforlyhyiä).
III. All superlatives in-mpaor-mpä, and all negative adjectives in-ttoma.
The termination-mpais shortened ton(24and46) in the nominative, partitive, and genitive plur. (first form), and of course becomes-mmawhen the last syllable is closed in the other cases (34);-ttomabecomes-tonin the nominative sing., partitive sing., and first form of genitive plur. (46).
E.g.suurimpa,very large:—
In the plural the finalais lost before thei(9).
So alsoviattoma,guiltless(the termination-ttomacorresponds to the English termination-less, or the prefixesun-,in-). In Nom.viaton,abeing lost,mbecomesn, and the syllable being thus closedttbecomest. Partitive from the same shortened rootviatonta. Genitive, etc.viattoman, etc., nominative plur.viattomat, genitiveviatonten,viattomainorviattomien, partitiveviattomia, etc.
(1) The illative sing. ends in-sen, the illative plur. insin, orhin.
(2) The shortened form of the root is always employed in the nominative sing., which ends ins,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 isi.
(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 (rule47).
In poetry we also find a declension:uros,vieras, genitiveurohon,vierahan, etc., illativeurohosen,vierahasen, plur.urohot,vierahat,urohissa,vierahissa, etc., so that it is clear the roots areuroso,vierasa, being weakened.
Analogously are declined such words asterve,healthy,kevät,spring.
Stemsikehe,a yoke,okaha,pointorprickle.
Vapaa,free,koree,beautiful(forkorea).
Participles whose nominative ends innutornyt(that is past active participles), likeoppinut,lyönyt, form the genitive, inessive, etc., from a root ending innehe, contractednee; but the nominative and partitive sing., and one form of the essive sing. and genitive plur. are formed from a root ending inute,yte, which loses its final vowel.
So alsolyönyt, partitivelyönyttä, genitivelyöneen, inessivelyöneessä, essivelyöneenä,orlyönynnä; plur. nominativelyöneet, partitivelyöneitä, genitivelyönyttenorlyöneiden, etc.
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 inpääkaupunki,a capital,kaupunkimeans a town, and the wordpää,a head, describes what sort of town is intended. So alsorautatie,a railway, fromrauta,iron, andtie,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, asomatunto,conscience, fromoma,own, andtunto,feeling. This is written as one word, becauseomatuntoconveys a different meaning from the separate wordsomaandtunto.
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 inylioppilaskirjasto,University students’ library,kirjasto,library, is qualified byylioppilas, describing what kind of a library is meant, and in this wordylioppilas,oppilas,student, is particularised by the addition ofyli. Similarlyisänmaanrakkaus,patriotism, is composed ofisänmaa,fatherland, andrakkaus,love, andisänmaaagain is composed ofisä,father, andmaa,land.
Generally the first word of a compound is used in the nominative case.Sairashuone,a hospital(stemsairaha). Frequently, however, it is in the genitive, this case being either (a) descriptive, as inmaantie,highroad, literallyroad of the land:talonpoika,peasant, literallyson 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, askuunvalo,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, astoimeentulo,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 genitivevieraanmiehen, inessivevieraassamiehessä, etc. Butvierasmiehenis not wrong.
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-mpaor-mpä.Huono,bad,huonompa,worse;paksu,fat,paksumpa,fatter. Root,iloise,gay(nominative of positiveiloinen), comparativeiloisempa.
If a dissyllabic root end inaorä, that vowel becomesebefore the terminationmpa.Vanha,old,vanhempa(13).
It is important to note that the suffix-mpais 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:mpain the nominative sing. becomesmpi, and in the cases where the syllable is closedmma.
II. The Superlative is formed by adding to the root of the positive the suffiximpa. Before this suffix the vowelsa,ä,e,iare rejected, andaa,ää,ee, becomeai,äi,ei. Thusiso,great,isoimpa:huono,bad,huonoimpa; butköyhä,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 finalabecomesiin the nominative sing., in the superlative it is lost andmpbecomesnby rule2.
Comparative stemsuurempa. Superlative stemsuurimpa.
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.
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.
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 inethis letter is generally changed toibefore 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-janor-jain),-jaise(-jainen),-jaa.
-rihas 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(nominativeminen, 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(fromluo,to create),uskonto,religion(“believing,” fromuskoa,to believe),tuonti,bringing to, orimportation,vienti,bringing away from, orexportation,laulanta,singing.
o(ö) andu(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.
-okseor-ukse(nominative-osor-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.
-iohas the same meaning.Huomio,attention,palkkio,a reward.
-ee(original stemehe, closed formeʻ) 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;viskinis 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), orise(nominative-inen).Kirjanen,emonen,poikanen.
-lo.Purtilo,kotelo.
-ue,ye(originallyute,yte; nominative-ut,-yt).Poiut,kuuhut,päivyt,päähyt.
-kka,-kaise(nominativekainen).-kkee(original form-kkehe, nominativekeʻ).Annikka,mullikka,lapsukainen,silmäke.
The following terminations have a local significance—
-kkoor-ikkoindicates 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.
-nkoor-nteis 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 formuehe, 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 suffixa,ä,eare changed touory, and form a long vowel;hyvyys,virtue(hyvä);rakkaus(from stemrakkaa);arkuus,cowardice;turhuus,vanity. If a root ends inioriithis vowel generally becomesein dissyllabic roots, anduin polysyllabic.Kalleus, butnaapuruus,kumppanuus.
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 addingiseto the adessive or allative—maallinen,rahallinen,vihollinen.
-ttoma(nominativeton) 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.
-isaand-vahave much the same meaning as-kkaha;kuuluisa,glorious;kalaisa,rich in fish;lihava,fat;terävä,sharp.
-se,-kaise, and-hka,-hkoare used to form adjectival diminutives;lyhykäinen,short(Russianкоротенькій),pitkähkö,longish.
The suffix-mainenforms adjectives meaning like, or rather; English-ish;lapsimainen,childish;poikamainen,boyish;hyvämäinen,pretty good.