Declension of nouns and adjectives

Point 1: Basic case endings. The basic case endings are exactly the same in both singular and plural with the only exceptions of the nominative, which has no ending in the singular and the ending -t in the plural, and the genitive, which has the ending -n in the singular and -en in the plural. All singular case endings plus the nominative/accusative plural ending -t are attached to the singular stem. All other plural case endings are attached to the plural stem, where plural stem = singular stem + plural i (taking into account certain changes provoked by the addition of plural i). The variants with a are used for words which contain a back vowel u, o, a. The variants with ä are used for words which do not contain a back vowel u, o, a.

singular case endings plural case endingsnominative – -tgenitive -n -enpartitive -a/-ä -a/-äaccusative -n (= genitive) -t (= nominative)illative -Vn (V = lengthening of vowel) -in (V = always i in the plural)inessive -ssa/-ssä -ssa/-ssäelative -sta/-stä -sta/-stäallative -lle -lleadessive -lla/-llä -lla/-lläablative -lta/-ltä -lta/-ltäessive -na/-nä -na/-nätranslative -ksi -ksiabessive -tta/-ttä -tta/-ttäinstructive (-n) -ncomitative -ine- -(i)ne-prolative -tse -tse

Table 1. Basic case endings.

Endings that seem to differ from these basic endings are merely modifications due to certain phonological environments. The declension tables that follow do not include the rare cases abessive, instructive, comitative and prolative which can be formed regularly by simply attaching their endings to the stems.

Point 2: Vowel overview.

front backclose i, y uhalf-close e, ö oopen ä a

Table 2. Finnish vowels.

Table 2 is very telling when it comes to describing the phenomenon of "vowel changes" provoked by i. i is the mark of the plural, the past tense and the conditional, i.e. plural, past and conditional stems are built from singular stems/present stems by the simple addition of i. This i is directly added to the

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rounded vowels u, y, o, ö without affecting them at all (u + i –> ui, y + i –> yi, o + i –> oi, ö + i –> öi). The remaining, unrounded vowels – including i itself – are influenced to different degrees. When the singular stem of a noun or adjective or the present stem of a verb ends in e or ä, the addition of plural/past i expulses e or ä (e + i –> i, ä + i –> i). a, which is farthest away from i, does not give in so easily. Sometimes it is expulsed (a + i –> i), sometimes it stays but gets pulled closer towards i which has the effect that it changes to o (a + i –> oi). In verbal forms there is the tendency for i to have less of an effect than in nominal forms. i itself is only affected in nominal forms (i + i –> ei), in verbal forms it is unaffected (i + i –> i). e, ä, a behave the same in past verbal forms as in plural nominal forms, but in the conditional both ä and a simply add i (ä + i –> äi, a + i –> ai) with only e, being closest to i and unable to escape its devastating effect, still getting expulsed (e + i –> i). So one could speak of a first loosening effect in the past tense (i + i –> i) and a second loosening effect in the conditional (ä + i –> äi, a + i –> ai).

Point 3: u, y, o, ö – the free spirits. The rounded vowels u, y, o, ö are always stable and refuse to react to attempts at disturbing them. The singular stem of nouns/adjectives ending in these single vowels is identical to the nominative singular. The plural stem is formed by simply adding plural i to the singular stem (u + i –> ui, y + i –> yi, o + i –> oi, ö + i –> öi). So nominative talo has singular stem talo- and plural stem taloi-, and all case endings in both singular and plural are directly attached to the stems. Table 3 shows the complete pattern for talo.

singular pluralnominative talo talotgenitive talon talojenpartitive taloa talojaaccusative talon talotillative taloon taloihininessive talossa taloissaelative talosta taloistaallative talolle taloilleadessive talolla taloillaablative talolta taloiltaessive talona taloinatranslative taloksi taloiksi

Table 3. Declension of nominatives ending in u, y, o, ö.

The seeming irregularities in genitive, partitive and illative plural are due to plural i and not to the rounded vowels themselves. They will be explained later.

Point 4: ä and a – the submissive and the rebel. The open vowels ä and a are stable except in contact with i. ä always gives in and disappears in contact with i (ä + i –> i), a sometimes disappears and sometimes changes to o (a + i –> i/a + i –> oi). As a guideline for two-syllable words, a changes to o when the vowel in the first syllable is a, e or i, and a disappears when the vowel in the first syllable is u or o (due to the principle of vowel harmony there can be no y, ö or ä in the first syllable with a in the second syllable). As an attempt to understand this phenomenon one might say that the relationship between rounded vowels and i goes in both directions, i.e. the rounded vowels are not affected by plural i and in

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turn they do not affect plural i either. So, in a word like muna, a is on its own in its rebellion against plural i without any support from rounded u, and so a loses and gets kicked out of the word by i. On the other hand, a, e and i are all affected by plural i and so their presence in the first syllable may absorb some of the effect of plural i. This enables a to stay in the word, but not completely unaffected. Table 4 illustrates this phenomenon.

adessive singular adessive pluralmatkalla matkoillaherralla herroillakirjalla kirjoillakoiralla koirillamunalla munilla

Table 4. a reacting to plural i.

In almost all adjectives and verbs and in many nouns with more than two syllables a is expulsed by plural i/past i (a –> i). An exception (a –> oi) are the following types of nouns:

- when the second to last syllable contains a short i, in which case one might argue that this short i is particularly good at absorbing the effect of plural i,

- when a is preceded by short l, n, r or by two consonants, in which case one might say that these consonants also have the ability to absorb some of the effect of plural i.

adessive singular adessive plurallukijalla lukijoillaomenalla omenoillasanontalla sanontoillakanava kanavilla

Table 5. a in three-syllable nouns.

There are exceptions to these rules and some words may even have parallel forms. This makes a the vowel with the most unpredictable behaviour among all Finnish vowels. Being farthest away from i, a tries to rebel against i but the outcome is not always certain.

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Nouns/adjectives in which a/ä dissappear show the most regular behaviour in both singular and plural.

singular pluralnominative muna munatgenitive munan munienpartitive munaa muniaaccusative munan munatillative munaan muniininessive munassa munissaelative munasta munistaallative munalle munilleadessive munalla munillaablative munalta muniltaessive munana muninatranslative munaksi muniksi

Table 6. Declension of nominatives on ä and nominatives on a with a disappearing before plural i.

Nominatives on a with a changing to o before plural i follow the pattern outlined in table 3.

Point 5: i – the troublemaker. As the mark of the plural, the past tense and the conditional, i attaches to other vowels and tries to disturb them. As stated under points 2 and 3, the rounded vowels are immune to disturbances coming from i, but all unrounded vowels – including i itself – are affected. Beyond that, i is also unstable in itself. Nouns/adjectives of foreign origine ending in i usually keep the i for the singular stem, whereas most Finnish nouns/adjectives change i to e.

singular singularnominative sali järvigenitive salin järvenpartitive salia järveäaccusative salin järvenillative saliin järveeninessive salissa järvessäelative salista järvestäallative salille järvelleadessive salilla järvelläablative salilta järveltäessive salina järvenätranslative saliksi järveksi

Table 7. Singular declensions of nominatives ending in i.

Under the influence of plural i, the i of the singular stem changes to e (i + i –> ei). This is the strangest phenomenon among all the vowel changes and it only happens in nominal forms, never in verbal forms. It parallels the change of nominative i to singular stem e (like in järvi –> järve-). Usually it is i that kicks out e and here all of a sudden it is the other way around. It can perhaps be understood by the closeness of i and e. e, being the closest neighbour to i among all unrounded vowels, is the only one that always gets kicked out by an attaching i in all situations (plural/past/conditional). But due to their closeness i

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itself is not totally free from disturbances coming from e. This is the "revenge of e". An i coming from the outside always kicks out an e, but an i being part of a word can be attacked by an e coming out of nowhere and can be kicked out itself. This is what happens when nominatives of original Finnish words ending in i form their singular stem (järvi –> järve-) and when all singular stems ending in i form their plural stems (sali + i –> salei-). Table 8 shows the complete pattern for sali.

singular pluralnominative sali salitgenitive salin salienpartitive salia salejaaccusative salin salitillative saliin saleihininessive salissa saleissaelative salista saleistaallative salille saleilleadessive salilla saleillaablative salilta saleiltaessive salina saleinatranslative saliksi saleiksi

Table 8. Declension of nominatives ending in i – words of foreign origin.

The bold forms in table 8 as well as in table 3 still have to be explained, and now the time has come to deal with the seemingly irregular genitive and partitive plural forms. The illative plural will still have to wait.

If i is surrounded by other vowels it tries to hide and changes to j. Less dramatically put, a sequence of three vowels with i in the middle (e.g. oie) is unstable. In such situations i changes to its related half-vowel j and the resulting sequence is stable again (e.g. oje). This explains the genitive and partitive plural forms of talo in table 3 and the partitive plural of sali above.

So the partitive plural of talo is formed as follows: nominative + plural i + partitive ending = talo + i + a = taloja with plural i changing to j between surrouding vowels.

The genetive plural of talo is formed accordingly: nominative + plural i + genitive ending = talo + i + en = talojen with plural i changing to j between surrounding vowels.

Idem for the partitive plural of sali: nominative + plural i + partitive ending = sali + i + a = salei + a = saleja. Here it has to be remembered that singular stem i + plural i = ei as explained above.

The genitive plural of sali is formed in the same way with just a slight modification: nominative + plural i + genitive ending = sali + i + en = salei + en = salien, and not salejen as one might expect. As mentioned before, e is the vowel closest to i and the one that most easily succumbs to the disturbing effect of i. In a form like talojen the original vowel sequence is oie, so i is surrounded by two vowels one of which is rounded o against which i is without power. Since a vowel sequence of this kind is unstable and i cannot kick out o, i itself gives in and changes to its related half-vowel j producing the stable sequence oje. In a

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form like salien, however, the original vowel sequence is eie, with i being surrounded on both sides by the vowel that most easily gets kicked out of words by i. And this is exactly what happens: the first e gets kicked out and the result is the stable sequence ie.

Now a brief return to järvi. Being an original Finnish word, järvi has the singular stem järve-. Attaching plural i to the singular stem kicks out e and gives the plural stem järvi-. Table 9 shows the complete pattern.

singular pluralnominative järvi järvetgenitive järven järvienpartitive järveä järviäaccusative järven järvetillative järveen järviininessive järvessä järvissäelative järvestä järvistäallative järvelle järvilleadessive järvellä järvilläablative järveltä järviltäessive järvenä järvinätranslative järveksi järviksi

Table 9. Declension of nominatives ending in i – original Finnish words.

Nominatives of this type show a very regular declension pattern with all endings being directly attached to the stem without any modifications.

Point 6: e – the dark horse. Nouns/adjectives ending in short e change this e to long ee in the singular stem. Furthermore these words behave as if they were ending in a closed syllable, meaning that consonants that undergo gradation (explained under point 9) take their weak forms in the nominative and their strong forms when the nominative is opened by the long ee. Daniel Abondolo claims that words ending in short e are pronounced with a glottal stop at the end which explains their behaving like being closed. So one might look at the nominative-genitive pair sade/sateen rather like sade'/sateen, where ' represents the glottal stop and shows the closure of the last syllable. Under the influence of plural i, ee changes to ei (e + i –> i and thus ee + i –> ei). Here is the complete pattern for a nominative singular ending in short e:

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singular pluralnominative perhe perheetgenitive perheen perheidenpartitive perhettä perheitäaccusative perheen perheetillative perheeseen perheisiininessive perheessä perheissäelative perheestä perheistäallative perheelle perheilleadessive perheellä perheilläablative perheeltä perheiltäessive perheenä perheinätranslative perheeksi perheiksi

Table 10. Declension of nominatives ending in e.

The bold forms in table 10 still have to be explained. All other forms are produced regularly by direct attachment of the case endings to singular stem perhee- and plural stem perhei-.

Point 7: Double vowels – complete loss of individuality. Whatever individualistic characteristics the vowels may have on their own, when they team up they all behave pretty much the same. All double vowels – whether long vowels or diphthongs or just two different vowels – are stable in the absence of plural i.

In the presence of plural i:

- Long vowels lose the second team member: aa + i –> ai, ee + i –> ei, etc.- Diphthongs on i are unchanged: ai + i –> ai, oi + i –> oi, etc.- The so-called raising diphthongs ie, uo, yö lose the first team member: ie + i –> ei, uo + i –> oi,

yö + i –> öi.- Other vowel combinations lose the second team member: ue + i –> ui, ye + i –> yi, etc.

Double vowels provoke certain changes in the basic case endings, namely for the partitive singular and plural, the illative singular and plural and the genitive plural. As a quick look at the case endings in table 1 will show, these are exactly the case endings which begin with a vowel, all others begin with a consonant (the comitative is built on plural i in both singular and plural and follows the usual rules for the attachment of plural i). When a case ending beginning with a vowel is attached to a stem ending in two vowels the result would be three vowels in a row, e.g. nominative maa + partitive ending a = partitive maaa? Since Finnish has only two vowel quantities – long and short – such a sequence is not possible. Instead, a consonant is inserted between stem and ending. For the partitive (both singular and plural) this consonant is t: maa + partitive ending a = maata. For the illative (both singular and plural) the consonant is h: maa + illative ending an = maahan. For the genitive plural the consonant is d: mai + genitive plural ending en = maiden.

Actually, the situation is not really this straightforward. The explanation with the impossibility to have three equal vowels in a row breaks down for plural forms (and also for singular forms ending in two

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different vowels). The plural stem of maa is mai-, so the partitive plural could be formed from mai- + a = maja, the illative plural could be mai- + in = maiin, the genitive plural could be mai- + en = majen. maja and majen look like perfectly acceptable forms, maiin a little less so. It is indeed a small step from maiin to maihin or from taloiin to taloihin. It would seem that the h has the task to better separate the ending from the stem. maiin could be pronounced ma-iin instead of mai-in and the h points clearly out that the break has to be between mai and in.

The situation is different for the partitive and genitive plural. The triggering event for partitive plural -ta/-tä and genitive plural -den is actually the long vowel in the singular stem. This seems to be a situation where the language tries to homogenize its forms and this homogenization overrides influences coming from specific phonological environments. A long vowel in the singular stem produces the partitive singular on -ta/-tä and this form entails the partitive plural on -ta/-tä and the genitive plural on -den. By the way, the genitive plural ending -den can always be replaced by the equivalent ending -tten. It does not seem to matter which of the two endings is used.

This finally explains the illative plural of talo in table 3, the illative plural of sali in table 8 and the partitive plural and genitive plural of perhe in table 10.

There are, however, some further considerations.

For the illative: The illative singular ending is only -hVn (where V stands for the vowel in the preceding syllable) for monosyllabic stems ending in a long vowel. For polysyllabic stems ending in a long vowel the illative singular ending is -seen and this ending always entails the corresponding illative plural ending -siin. This explains the illative singular and illative plural of perhe in table 10. The illative plural ending -hin is independent of the illative singular ending and is always used when the plural stem ends in two vowels, unless the ending -siin is required by the illative singular -seen.

nominative illative singular illative pluralmaa maahan maihinvapaa vapaaseen vapaisiintalo taloon taloihin

Table 11. Comparison of illative endings.

For the partitive: The partitive plural ending is only -ta/-tä when the singular stem ends in two vowels. A two-vowel plural stem which was produced from a single-vowel singular stem is not convincing enough to make partitive intermediate -t show up in the plural.

nominative singular stem partitive singular plural stem partitive pluralmaa maa- maata mai- maitatalo talo- taloa taloi- taloja

Table 12. Comparison of partitive endings.

For the genitive plural: As already stated above, the genitive plural follows the partitive and its ending can only be -den/-tten when the partitive plural has the ending -ta/-tä.

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nominative singular stem genitive singular plural stem genitive pluralmaa maa- maan mai- maiden/maittentalo talo- talon taloi- talojen

Table 13. Comparison of genitive endings.

Tables 14 and 15 show the complete declensions for maa and vapaa.

singular pluralnominative maa maatgenitive maan maiden/maittenpartitive maata maitaaccusative maan maatillative maahan maihininessive maassa maissaelative maasta maistaallative maalle mailleadessive maalla maillaablative maalta mailtaessive maana mainatranslative maaksi maiksi

Table 14. Declension of monosyllabic nominatives ending in a long vowel.

singular pluralnominative vapaa vapaatgenitive vapaan vapaiden/vapaittenpartitive vapaata vapaitaaccusative vapaan vapaatillative vapaaseen vapaisiininessive vapaassa vapaissaelative vapaasta vapaistaallative vapaalle vapailleadessive vapaalla vapaillaablative vapaalta vapailtaessive vapaana vapainatranslative vapaaksi vapaiksi

Table 15. Declension of polysyllabic nominatives ending in a long vowel.

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Point 8: Consonant overview.

bilabial labiodental alveolar palatal velar glottalplosive p t, d ksibilant sfricative v hlateral ltrill rglide jnasal m n ŋ

Table 16. Finnish consonants. Voiceless consonants are in bold.

labial dental palatal glottalplosive p t, d kfricative v s j hliquid r, lnasal m n ŋ

Table 17. Finnish consonants. Simplified model. Voiceless consonants are in bold.

Table 16 shows a phonetically accurate description of the Finnish consonants (after Fred Karlsson: Finnish, An Essential Grammar). Table 17 is a simplified phonological model which contains all the oppositions necessary for a phonological analysis. One important point to notice is that almost all of the most common voiceless/voiced pairs are absent in Finnish: p/b, f/v, s/z, k/g. The only existing pair is t/d. On the other hand Finnish makes abundant use of sound alternations which are based on voiceless-voiced oppositions. The only full pair of this type is t/d, other alternating pairs (in lack of better candidates) are p/v and k/j. Perhaps induced by the phenomenon that p and k alternate with neighbours that are not only voiced but also fricatives, t also alternates not only with d but also with s, although in a different context. Other alternations are n/s and n/m. The first consonants to be looked at are the plosives p, t, k which undergo the important phenomenon called consonant gradation.

Point 9: p, t, k – the big guys. The big voiceless plosives p, t, k need a lot of space in open syllables in order to thrive. As soon as a syllable closes they either get kicked out of the word or they have to crouch down and change their shapes, making themselves smaller. When a closed syllable opens they come back in or stretch out again. Closed syllables end in a consonant, open syllables end in a vowel. For instance, the word lippu has two syllables: lip and pu. lip is closed, pu is open. When the genitive singular ending -n is added, lippu + n, the second syllable closes and one p is kicked out of the word: lippu + n –> lipun. This process is called consonant gradation. Consonants in open syllables are called "the strong grade", consonants in closed syllables are called "the weak grade".

Some words have a lot of space. In the open syllables of these words there is room for a whole pair of pp, tt or kk. When the syllable closes one of the pair is kicked out but there is still enough room for the other one to stay.

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nominative (open) genitive (closed)kuppi kupinkatto katonlaukku laukun

Table 18. Consonant gradation, type 1.

Other words do not have that much space. They have only room for a single p, t or k in an open syllable. When the syllable closes, k – the biggest guy from the dark regions back under the palate – gets kicked out completely, but p and t manage to crouch down and change their shapes so that they can still stay in the word. Crouching down, these two fellows lose their rough voiceless edges and become smooth and voiced, i.e. voiceless t changes into voiced d and voiceless p changes into voiced v (neither b nor f exist in original Finnish words, so that p and v can be considered forming a voiceless-voiced labial pair, see table 17).

nominative (open) genitive (closed)leipä leivänkatu kadunruoka ruoan

Table 19. Consonant gradation, type 2.

Then there are words with medium size space offers. In open syllables of these words p, t, k coexist with their nasal relatives from the same articulation point – labial plosive p coexists with labial nasal m, dental plosive t coexists with dental nasal n, palatal plosive k coexists with palatal nasal ŋ. When the syllable closes the plosives crouch down and take on the shape of their smaller neighbours which enables them to stay. Note: ŋk is written nk and ŋŋ is written ng which gives the impression that the case with nk/ng is different from the other two. But this is only an orthographical matter, phonologically the situations are exactly equal (mp –> mm, nt –> nn, ŋk –> ŋŋ).

nominative (open) genitive (closed)kampa kammanranta rannankenkä kengän

Table 20. Consonant gradation, type 3.

Other medium size words contain t and k in the company of l and r. The situation is analogous to type 3: when the syllable closes t and k crouch down and change their shapes which enables them to stay. Here voiceless dental t changes into the respective voiced dental neighbour l or r, voiceless palatal k always changes into voiced palatal j, and p does not take part in this game at all.

nominative (open) genitive (closed)ilta illankerta kerranjälke jäljenarke arjen

Table 21. Consonant gradation, type 4.

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The last type concerns only k alone. When this big guy is alone in an open syllable and the syllable closes, k gets kicked out completely with the exception of the situation where k is surrounded by either u or y. In this case crouching down and changing shape helps even k to stay in the word. The change from k to v may seem strange, but taking on the shape of a labial consonant in an environment of rounded (labial) vowels is probably the best disguise possible.

nominative (open) genitive (closed)puku puvunkyky kyvyn

Table 22. Consonant gradation, type 5.

Point 10: n, r, l, s, t – the friends. The dental consonants n, r, l, s strive to be with their dental friend t. One dental consonant is missing from this list – d. d is in fact not much more than the weak version of t and does not play an active role itself.

More about the partitive

As explained under point 7, the basic partitive ending -a/-ä is attached with the help of an intermediate t when a stem ends in two vowels. This same intermediate t also appears when a stem ends in a dental consonant followed by e. In such situations e – the most unstable among all Finnish vowels – willingly drops out so that sort of a partitive stem is left which ends in a dental consonant. This dental consonant provokes the appearance of dental partitive intermediate t. So singular stem piene- + partitive ä –> pien(e↓)- + (↑t) + ä –> pien- + t + ä –> pientä. Here e↓ means that e is dropping out and ↑t means that t is coming into existence. This process always takes place when the voiced dental consonants n, r, l are followed by e.

nominative singular singular stem partitive singularpieni piene- pientänuori nuore- nuortakieli kiele- kieltä

Table 23. Partitive singular after dental consonant.

s and t, however, lose their ability to create partitive intermediate t when they are preceded by non-dental consonants. They are both voiceless and need some voiced support from either a vowel or from another (voiced) dental consonant preceding them. Otherwise e stays in place and the regular partitive ending -a/-ä is attached to it (unless the nominative ends in a consonant, as will be explained later). Table 24 illustrates this situation.

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nominative singular singular stem partitive singularlahti lahte- (t preceded by non-dental

consontant)lahtea (regular partitive ending -a)

vesi vete- (t preceded by vowel) vettä (e drops out and intermediate t appears)

kansi kante- (t preceded by dental consonant)

kantta (e drops out and intermediate t appears)

suomalainen suomalaise- (s preceded by vowel)

suomalaista (e drops out and intermediate t appears)

ajatus ajatukse- (s preceded by non-dental consonant)

ajatusta (nominative ends in a consonant)

Table 24. Partitive singular after s, t.

Table 24 seems to bring up more questions than it provides answers. The formation of the singular stem lahte- from the nominative lahti is a regular phenomenon as explained under point 5: nouns/adjectives of foreign origine ending in i usually keep the i for the singular stem, whereas most Finnish nouns/adjectives change i to e. Now what about vesi/vete- and kansi/kante-? As the only two voiceless dental consonants, s and t have an intimate relationship with each other and can easily change from one into the other and back again (t alternating with s was also briefly mentioned under point 8). When i changes to e and at the same time i is preceded by s, then usually s changes to t. When e changes to i and at the same time e is preceded by t, then usually t changes to s. Simpler put: si changes to te and te changes to si, but it has to be kept in mind that these changes are triggered by the rules for the vowel changes concerning i and e. So nominative vesi gives singular stem vete- and plural stem vesi-, nominative kansi gives singular stem kante- and plural stem kansi-. Table 25 shows the complete pattern for vesi which is also a good illustration of the mechanism of consonant gradation at work within the declinational pattern.

singular pluralnominative vesi vedetgenitive veden vesienpartitive vettä vesiäaccusative veden vedetillative veteen vesiininessive vedessä vesissäelative vedestä vesistäallative vedelle vesilleadessive vedellä vesilläablative vedeltä vesiltäessive vetenä vesinätranslative vedeksi vesiksi

Table 25. Declension of nominatives ending in -si.

This seems to be a good moment to say a little more about consonant gradation. The essive vetenä in table 25 consists of three open syllables: ve/te/nä. t is thus in an open syllable and therefore in the strong grade. On the other hand, the translative vedeksi consists of an open, a closed and an open

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syllable: ve/dek/si. Here the t of the stem vete- is in a closed syllable and thus changes to the corresponding weak grade d. Similarly for the other singular forms: ve/den, ve/te/en, ve/des/sä, ve/des/tä, ve/del/le, ve/del/lä, ve/del/tä. The partitive singular vettä cannot be analysed in the light of consonant gradation. It is produced from the singular stem vete- + partitive ä –> vet(e↓)- + (↑t) + ä –> vet- + t + ä –> vettä as explained above for pieni.

An important point to note in this context is the behaviour of double vowels in plural forms. For the purposes of consonant gradation a double vowel counts as a short vowel if it was produced by vowel change from a short vowel, but it counts as a long vowel if it was produced by vowel change from a long vowel or diphthong.

nominative singular singular inflectional stem plural inflectional stem inessive pluralkatu katu- katui- kaduissasade satee- satei- sateissa

Table 26. Consonant gradation in plural forms.

The inessive plural kaduissa is not broken down into syllables as ka/du/is/sa (which would mean an open syllable du, requiring the strong grade and thus the inessive plural katuissa). Instead, kaduissa is broken down as ka/du͜is/sa with a closed syllable du͜is requiring the weak grade. The double vowel u͜i is here felt as a single vowel because it was produced from the single vowel u in the singular stem. On the other hand, the inessive plural sateissa is broken down as sa/te/is/sa leaving t in an open syllable and requiring the strong grade, because the double vowel ei in the plural stem was produced from the double vowel ee in the singular stem. This is a case of homogenization where the language strives to assimilate plural forms to singular forms (inessive singular kadussa –> inessive plural kaduissa, inessive singular sateessa –> inessive plural sateissa), rather than letting the immediate phonological environment determine the forms.

Now back to table 24. Next in line in the table is suomalainen, which introduces the topic of nominatives ending in consonants and their stem changes. Before table 24, the nominatives in all examples ended in vowels, and potential stem changes were due to the vowel changes outlined under points 4, 5, 6 and 7. For singular stems these changes are i –> e and e –> ee. For nominatives ending in other vowels the singular stem is identical with the nominative. Table 27 gives an overview of nominatives ending in vowels and their respective singular stems.

nominative ending nominative example stem change singular stemsingle vowel kala none kala-two vowels maa none maa--i (words of foreign origine)

sali none sali-

-i (Finnish words) järvi i –> e järve--si vesi si –> te vete--e perhe e –> ee perhee-

Table 27. Nominatives ending in a vowel.

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Now it so happens that Finnish nouns/adjectives which end in a consonant usually end in a dental consonant n, r, l, s, t. These will be treated one by one in the next sections.

Point 11: n – nothing too unusual. Four types of nominatives ending in n have to be distinguished:

n-type 1: nominatives ending in -nen,n-type 2: nominatives ending in -en preceded by a consonant other than n,n-type 3: nominatives ending in -n preceded by a vowel other than e,n-type 4: special nominatives ending in -ton/-tön.

n-type 1: nominatives ending in - nen

This ending regularly changes to -se in the singular stem. The basic mechanism to attach case endings to nouns/adjectives ending in consonants consists in using an intermediate e between the end consonant of the nominative and the case endings. If this mechanism were used unmodified, then suomalainen would form its genitive as suomalainenen. This -nenen ending has too many sequences of dental consonant plus e and breaks down (e is very unstable as has already been mentioned before, in particular in environments with dental consonants). But the ending cannot simply be -ne because then the genitive would be identical to the nominative. As a way out of this dilemma n changes to s. This change is not as strange as it may seem at first: voiced dental n changes to voiceless dental s – a perfectly natural process. So instead of -nene, the singular stem ending is -se. Table 28 shows the complete pattern.

singular pluralnominative suomalainen suomalaisetgenitive suomalaisen suomalaisten/suomalaisienpartitive suomalaista suomalaisiaaccusative suomalaisen suomalaisetillative suomalaiseen suomalaisiininessive suomalaisessa suomalaisissaelative suomalaisesta suomalaisistaallative suomalaiselle suomalaisilleadessive suomalaisella suomalaisillaablative suomalaiselta suomalaisiltaessive suomalaisena suomalaisinatranslative suomalaiseksi suomalaisiksi

Table 28. Declension of nominatives ending in -nen.

Table 28 contains one new form – the genitive plural on -ten. The rule is as follows: Nouns/adjectives with a partitive singular on -ta/-tä where partitive intermediate t is not due to a long vowel in the singular stem can have an alternative genitive plural ending -ten. -ten is attached in the same way as partitive -ta/-tä, i.e. right next to the dental stem consonant with e dropping out, and the appearance of genitive intermediate t could be explained in the same way as the appearance of partitive intermediate t. The major difference is that this phenomenon happens only in the singular for the partitive and only in the plural for the genitive. The ending -ten is usually an alternative to the regular ending -en.

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Nominatives ending in -nen seem to be the ones where the genitive plural ending -ten is most commonly used, although the ending -en is apparently correct as well.

n-type 2: nominatives ending in -en preceded by a consonant other than n

This ending simply uses an intermediate e between the end consonant of the nominative and the case endings, e.g. nominative jäsen changes to genitive jäsenen – there is no double -nenen here as would be the case with the -nen nominatives, so the language is okay with this. Table 29 shows the complete pattern for jäsen.

singular pluralnominative jäsen jäsenetgenitive jäsenen jäsenien/jäsentenpartitive jäsentä jäseniäaccusative jäsenen jäsenetillative jäseneen jäseniininessive jäsenessä jäsenissäelative jäsenestä jäsenistäallative jäsenelle jäsenilleadessive jäsenellä jäsenilläablative jäseneltä jäseniltäessive jäsenenä jäseninätranslative jäseneksi jäseniksi

Table 29. Declension of nominatives ending in -en.

The genitive plural has once again parallel forms, but it seems that in this type the genitive plural on -en may be more commonly used.

n-type 3: nominatives ending in -n preceded by a vowel other than e

Nominatives of this type also use an intermediate e between the end consonant and the case endings, but the last -n of the stem changes to -m: nominative puhelin –> genitive puhelimen. n has several neighbours into which it can change, and in this case nasal dental n changes into nasal labial m – another perfectly natural process. But why does n change in the first place? puhelinen would also seem perfectly acceptable. It looks like n needs a preceding e to keep it in place, like in table 29 above for jäsen –> jäsenen. When there is no such e, n changes to m. In any case, table 30 shows the complete pattern for puhelin.

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singular pluralnominative puhelin puhelimetgenitive puhelimen puhelimien/puhelintenpartitive puhelinta puhelimiaaccusative puhelin puhelimetillative puhelimeen puhelimiininessive puhelimessa puhelimissaelative puhelimesta puhelimistaallative puhelimelle puhelimilleadessive puhelimella puhelimillaablative puhelimelta puhelimiltaessive puhelimena puheliminatranslative puhelimeksi puhelimiksi

Table 30. Declension of nominatives ending in -n.

Table 30 requires again another explanation for the partitive singular. The stem of the noun is puhelime-, so this is not a dental consonant followed by e which was given under point 10 as the condition for the e dropping out and letting partitive intermediate t attach directly to the dental consonant preceding e. This cannot happen here, because when e drops out the remainder of the stem would be puhelim- and this last m is not something that partitive intermediate t would want to attach to. The mechanism at work here is actually much easier: Since all nouns/adjectives which end in a consonant end in a dental consonant anyway, the partitive ending attaches directly to the nominative ending by means of partitive intermediate t. This explains the partitive puhelinta and consequently the alternative genitive plural puhelinten: nominative puhelin + partitive a –> puhelin + (↑t) + a –> puhelinta.

A similar process happens for nominatives ending in short e. As was mentioned under point 6, such nominatives could be considered ending in a glottal stop, i.e. nominative perhe could be looked at as perhe' where ' represents the glottal stop which closes the syllable. Here too the partitive is attached to the nominative by means of partitive intermediate t which has the further effect to assimilate the glottal stop, i.e. the glottal stop turns into t: nominative perhe' + partitive a –> perhe' + (↑t) + a –> perhe'ta –> perhetta. This finally explains the partitive singular of perhe in table 10.

n-type 4: special nominatives ending in -ton/-tön

-ton/-tön is a special semantic ending meaning "without". Similarly to n-type 3 the final n changes to m, but the binding vowel is a/ä instead of e. The singular stem thus ends in -oma/-ömä. t is in a closed syllable in -ton/-tön and the opening of the syllable from -on/-ön to -oma/-ömä causes doubling of t. So the complete ending is always -ttoma/-ttömä. Table 31 shows the complete pattern for onneton.

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singular pluralnominative onneton onnettomatgenitive onnettoman onnettomien/onnetontenpartitive onnetonta onnettomiaaccusative onneton onnettomatillative onnettomaan onnettomiininessive onnettomassa onnettomissaelative onnettomasta onnettomistaallative onnettomalle onnettomilleadessive onnettomalla onnettomillaablative onnettomalta onnettomiltaessive onnettomana onnettominatranslative onnettomaksi onnettomiksi

Table 31. Declension of special nominatives ending in -ton/-tön.

The partitive singular is formed in the same way as for puhelin. Since the nominative ends in a consonant and the singular stem does not end in e preceded by a dental consonant the partitive is attached directly to the nominative with the help of intermediate partitive t.

Point 12: r and l – two rare lads. The nominative ending r is rare and occurs mostly in feminine forms of words designating professions. The nominative ending l (usually el) is also rare but does not seem to be linked to a specific type of words. For both types the singular stem is formed regularly with intermediate e between the nominative ending and the case endings. Table 32 shows the complete pattern for tarjoilijatar and table 33 shows the pattern for askel.

singular pluralnominative tarjoilijatar tarjoilijattaretgenitive tarjoilijattaren tarjoilijattarien/tarjoilijatartenpartitive tarjoilijatarta tarjoilijattariaaccusative tarjoilijatar tarjoilijattaretillative tarjoilijattareen tarjoilijattariininessive tarjoilijattaressa tarjoilijattarissaelative tarjoilijattaresta tarjoilijattaristaallative tarjoilijattarelle tarjoilijattarilleadessive tarjoilijattarella tarjoilijattarillaablative tarjoilijattarelta tarjoilijattariltaessive tarjoilijattarena tarjoilijattarinatranslative tarjoilijattareksi tarjoilijattariksi

Table 32. Declension of nominatives ending in -r.

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singular pluralnominative askel askeletgenitive askelen askelien/askeltenpartitive askelta askeliaaccusative askelen askeletillative askeleen askeliininessive askelessa askelissaelative askelesta askelistaallative askelelle askelilleadessive askelella askelillaablative askelelta askeliltaessive askelena askelinatranslative askeleksi askeliksi

Table 33. Declension of nominatives ending in -l.

Point 13: s – surely more unusual. There are three types of nominatives ending in s and they all show a rather strange behaviour:

s-type 1: nominatives ending in -us/ys, -os/-ös, -staus,s-type 2: nominatives ending in -s preceded by an unrounded single vowel,s-type 3: nominatives ending in -s preceded by two vowels other than the ending -staus.

s-type 1: nominatives ending in -us/ys, -os/-ös, -staus

In nouns/adjectives of this type nominative s changes to ks in the singular stem which is then followed by the usual binding e between nominative ending and case endings. Apart from s changing into ks the pattern is perfectly regular. Why does s change into ks? The singular stem ending -se is already occupied by nominatives ending in -nen. This is not actually a reason why nominatives ending in -s should not have the same singular stem ending -se, but Finnish seems to be a language the interior workings of which really strive to keep things neatly apart. Thanks to this process it is not only possible to construct inflected forms regularly from nominatives/infinitives, but it is also possible to reconstruct nominatives/infinitives from inflected forms. This makes Finnish a most regular and systematic language – against all initial appearances. Table 34 shows the complete pattern for ajatus.

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singular pluralnominative ajatus ajatuksetgenitive ajatuksen ajatuksien/ajatustenpartitive ajatusta ajatuksiaaccusative ajatus ajatuksetillative ajatukseen ajatuksiininessive ajatuksessa ajatuksissaelative ajatuksesta ajatuksistaallative ajatukselle ajatuksilleadessive ajatuksella ajatuksillaablative ajatukselta ajatuksiltaessive ajatuksena ajatuksinatranslative ajatukseksi ajatuksiksi

Table 34. Declension of nominatives ending in -us/-ys, -os/-ös, -staus.

The explanation for the formation of the partitive singular was given under point 11 for puhelin. In the case of ajatus it is true that the stem ends in a dental consonant followed by e, but the dental consonant is here s, and for s and t there is the additional requirement that they be preceded by a vowel or by another dental consonant. Since this is not the case here, the partitive ending attaches to the nominative with the help of intermediate t.

s-type 2: nominatives ending in -s preceded by an unrounded single vowel

Nominatives of this form behave in the strangest way, reminiscent of nominatives ending in e which were introduced under point 6. In the singular stem the s of the nominative disappears and provokes a lengthening of the preceding vowel. This vowel lengthening opens the syllable and provokes consonant gradation. So nominative kaunis gives singular stem kaunii-, and nominative rakas gives singular stem rakkaa-. Table 35 shows the complete pattern for kaunis.

singular pluralnominative kaunis kauniitgenitive kauniin kauniidenpartitive kaunista kauniitaaccusative kaunis kauniitillative kauniiseen kauniisiininessive kauniissa kauniissaelative kauniista kauniistaallative kauniille kauniilleadessive kauniilla kauniillaablative kauniilta kauniiltaessive kauniina kauniinatranslative kauniiksi kauniiksi

Table 35. Declension of nominatives ending in a single unrounded vowel plus -s.

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It is interesting to note that the singular stem ending ii does not change in the plural stem (as explained under point 7) which accounts for many singular and plural forms being identical. This is of course not the case for all nominatives belonging to this group, only for those ending in -is.

s-type 3: nominatives ending in -s preceded by two vowels other than the ending -staus

This is another strange case. In the singular stem, nominative s changes to t which is then followed by binding e. The plural stem is formed from the singular stem te changing to plural stem si (as explained under point 10) but with an additional k squeezing in before the s. This gives nominative singular rakkaus, singular stem rakkaute-, plural stem rakkauksi-. Table 36 shows the complete pattern for rakkaus.

singular pluralnominative rakkaus rakkaudetgenitive rakkauden rakkauksienpartitive rakkautta rakkauksiaaccusative rakkaus rakkaudetillative rakkauteen rakkauksiininessive rakkaudessa rakkauksissaelative rakkaudesta rakkauksistaallative rakkaudelle rakkauksilleadessive rakkaudella rakkauksillaablative rakkaudelta rakkauksiltaessive rakkaudena rakkauksinatranslative rakkaudeksi rakkauksiksi

Table 36. Declension of nominatives ending in two vowels plus -s.

One last remark about the partitive singular is necessary here. When the singular stem ends in e preceded by a dental consonant, i.e. when the conditions explained under point 10 for the attachment of partitive -ta/-tä to the singular stem are met, then partitive -ta/-tä does attach to the singular stem and not to the nominative, even if the nominative ends in a (dental) consonant as well. Nominative singular rakkaus has singular stem rakkaute-. This stem meets the conditions to have partitive -ta/-tä attached, so this is what happens and the partitive singular of rakkaus is rakkautta – and not rakkausta. In cases like this one the singular stem always takes priority over the nominative. Only in cases where the conditions to attach partitive -ta/-tä to the singular stem are not met does partitive -ta/-tä attach directly to the nominative.

Point 14: t – truly unexpected. This ending occurs mostly preceded by -u/-y. The regular thing is that a binding e is used between nominative and case endings. One should thus expect nominative olut to have singular stem olute-. The unusual thing is that t drops out of the stem, so nominative olut actually has singular stem olue-. Table 37 shows the complete pattern for olut.

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singular pluralnominative olut oluetgenitive oluen oluidenpartitive olutta oluitaaccusative olut oluetillative olueen oluihininessive oluessa oluissaelative oluesta oluistaallative oluelle oluilleadessive oluella oluillaablative oluelta oluiltaessive oluena oluinatranslative olueksi oluiksi

Table 37. Declension of nominatives ending in -t.

Once again, the partitive singular is formed from the nominative because the singular stem does not end in a dental consonant followed by e. The illative singular is regularly formed by doubling the last vowel. Unlike stems ending in two equal vowels like maa-, which much use a binding h to attach the illative ending in order to avoid three equal vowels in a row, the stem olue- ends in two different vowels and thus has no problem doubling the last one of them. The illative plural follows the general rule that all plural stems ending in two vowels use the ending -hin (with the exception of those that have the illative singular ending -seen). The partitive plural follows the rule that nouns/adjectives with a singular stem ending in two vowels take the partitive plural ending -ta/-tä, and this ending entails the genitive plural ending -den.

Point 15: The partitive-genitive connection. This point deserves some final remarks. The genitive plural shows a close connection to the partitive, but only in certain situations. There are four situations in which partitive singular -ta/-tä appears:

(1) nominatives ending in two vowels,(2) singular stems ending in two vowels excluding situation 1,(3) singular stems ending in dental consonant plus e,(4) nominatives ending in a consonant excluding situation 3.

nominative singular stem partitive singular(1) maa maa- maata(2) perhe perhee- perhettä(3) suomalainen soumalaise- suomalaista(4) puhelin puhelime- puhelinta

Table 38. Partitive singular on -ta/-tä.

Partitive singular on -ta/-tä is produced from the singular stem in situations 1 and 3 and from the nominative in situations 2 and 4 (according to the present analysis; differing analyses are also possible concerning situations 1 and 2). The long vowel in the singular stem in situations 1 and 2 produces a partitive plural on -ta/-tä and consequently a genitive plural on -den/-tten. In situations 3 and 4 the

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partitive plural is not on -ta/-tä (it is formed regularly from the plural stem), and the genitive plural can have the alternative ending -ten.

nominative singular stem partitive singular

plural stem partitive plural genitive plural

(1) maa maa- maata mai- maita maiden/maitten

(2) perhe perhee- perhettä perhei- perheitä perheiden/perheitten

(3) suomalainen suomalaise- suomalaista suomalaisi- suomalaisia suomalaisten/suomalaisien

(4) puhelin puhelime- puhelinta puhelimi- puhelimia puhelimien/puhelinten

Table 39. The partitive-genitive connection.

It appears that genitive plural -ten is the preferred ending when it takes the form -sten (like in suomalaisten) and possibly also -rten (like in nuorten). When the process producing genitive -ten would lead to -tten (as would be the case for vesi with partitive singular vettä and potential genitive plural vetten, or for rakkaus with partitive singular rakkautta and potential genitive plural rakkautten), this form seems to be excluded, probably because the genitive plural ending -den/-tten is due to a different cause and the inner workings of the Finnish language (whatever that may mean) seem to strive to keep things neatly apart, as was already mentioned earlier. Furthermore, it appears that the genitive plural endings -lten and -nten are less used than their respective alternative regular endings (like askelien rather than askelten, or puhelimien rather than puhelinten).

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