Finnish
Finnish inchoatives may be marked with -nt- (which undergoes consonant gradation to -nn- in weak form).
- vaalentua "to go paler" < vaalea "pale"
- hiljentyä "to go silent" < hiljainen "silent"
An alternative form is of this vaaleta, hiljetä, etc.
Not all inchoatives are marked like this, however, e.g.
- kuolla "to die"
The translative case marks "becoming something" on the noun. Thus, if a target state is specific, it is placed in the translative case (-ksi), e.g. lehti vaalenee keltaiseksi "the leaf pales to yellow". The transformation from a state is marked with the elative case (-sta). For example, lehti vaalenee tummanvihreästä keltaiseksi "the leaf pales from dark green to yellow". In eastern Karelian dialects the exessive case (-nta) is found; it specifically refers to inchoative changes.
Read more about this topic: Inchoative Verb
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