Illative Case in The Finnish Language
In Finnish, the case is formed by adding -hVn, where 'V' represents the last vowel, and then removing the 'h' if a simple long vowel would result. For example, talo + hVn becomes talohon, where the 'h' elides and produces taloon with a simple long 'oo'; cf. maa + hVn becomes maahan, without the elision of 'h'. This unusually complex way of adding a suffix can be explained by its reconstructed origin: a voiced palatal fricative. (Modern Finnish has lost palatalization and fricatives other than 'h' or 's'.) In the dialect of Pohjanmaa, the 'h' is not removed; one does say talohon.
The other locative cases in Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are:
- Inessive case ("in")
- Elative case ("out of")
- Adessive case ("on")
- Allative case ("onto")
- Ablative case ("from off")
Read more about this topic: Illative Case
Famous quotes containing the words case, finnish and/or language:
“Sculpture and painting are very justly called liberal arts; a lively and strong imagination, together with a just observation, being absolutely necessary to excel in either; which, in my opinion, is by no means the case of music, though called a liberal art, and now in Italy placed even above the other two—a proof of the decline of that country.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“A conversation in English in Finnish and in French can not be held at the same time nor with indifference ever or after a time.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“One who speaks a foreign language just a little takes more pleasure in it than one who speaks it well. Enjoyment belongs to those who know things halfway.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)