There. That’s better.
Tämä biisi svengaa kuin hirvi.
This tune rocks like a moose.
Yle Radio Suomi played this song about two weeks ago. Can you Canadians out there imagine CBC Radio 2 playing this fire-ass beat? Yeah, I think I’m going to like Finland. Anyway.
log entry ID: .a......... 2023-10-04 22:05:00 EEST
Englanninta, suomeksi. About Finnish Cases
In a book called Absolute Friends, John LeCarré wrote that to learn a new language is to gain another soul.
No suomen sieluni on vain yksi-vuottias, niin kirjoitukseni on ehkä melko outoa… Olen pahoillani, lol.
That is supposed to say: Well, my Finnish soul is only one year old, so perhaps my writing is a little strange. I’m sorry, lol.
This is a log entry about a feature of the Finnish language called case.
Do you Canadians remember French verb conjugation? Well, imagine having to conjugate nouns as well as verbs. That’s what Finnish cases are. Only, the process of conjugating a noun is called declining—not conjugating. Here are some Finnish cases for the word koira, or dog:
| suomena | englannina |
|---|---|
| koira | a dog |
| koiraa | part of a dog |
| koiran | of a dog |
| koiraan | into a dog |
| koirassa | in a dog |
| koirasta | out of a dog |
| koiralle | toward a dog |
| koiralla | next to or on top of a dog |
| koiralta | away from a dog |
| koiraksi | transformed into a dog |
| koirana | in the state of being a dog |
| koiranta | transformed from a dog (only some dialects) |
As you can see, it is basically just a way of applying prepositions to a noun. Simple enough, right? Well, the plot thickens… Unfortunately, there are minor variations on the ending depending on the noun’s ending. Koira is the simplest declension. Often, the final consonants of a noun change, in a process called gradation. I’ll use the -n case as an example.
| hakusana | genetiivinen sija |
|---|---|
| koira | koiran (no gradation) |
| noita | noidan |
| lakka | lakan |
| asunto | asunnon |
| poika | pojan |
| silta | sillan |
| jalka | jalan |
This is just the beginning. Words ending in -i, -nen, -e, -s, and -n all get special endings. Sometimes.
| hakusana | genetiivinen sija |
|---|---|
| eväste | evästeen |
| nalle | nallen (surprise!) |
| nainen | naisen |
| kivi | kiven |
| läppäri | läppärin (surprise!) |
| rakennus | rakennuksen |
| mies | miehen (surprise!) |
| taival | taivalen |
What wacky fun!
To make matters exactly twice as bad, each of these endings changes when the word is plural. To make matters quite a lot more than twice as bad, possession is indicated with another ending added after the case ending:
| suomena | englannina |
|---|---|
| koirani | my dog |
| koirasi | thy dog |
| koiransa | their, his, her, or its dog |
| koiramme | our dog |
| koiranne | your(plural) dog |
And no, it isn’t always -nsa, for example, to indicate their, his, her, or its dog. It changes depending on the root word ending and the case.
With variations on rootword ending, gradation, pluralisation, and possessor, there are literally hundreds of endings— enough to keep you entertained for months! :D