If you like to count, this lesson is definitely for you.
In Kven, aside from consonant gradation, there is one more group of sound alternations that do not
exist in modern standard Finnish.
Before we start, there are a few things to know.
In Kven, there are some situations where we see
either l, m, n, or r and ll, mm, nn, and rr.
The first example can be found in cases. These
are case endings for all grammatical cases in Kven, and they are attached to
the stem. Before we add them to the stem, you will notice that adessive,
allative, and essive have two pairs of ending.
|
Cases |
Singular |
Plural |
|
Nominative |
no ending |
-t |
|
Genitive |
-n |
-t, -ten, -tten |
|
Partitive |
vowel
lengthening, -ta/-tä |
no ending,
vowel lengthening, -ta/-tä |
|
Inessive |
-ssa/-ssä |
-ssa/-ssä |
|
Illative |
-hVn, -hVVn,
-sseen |
-hin, -hVin,
-ssiin |
|
Elative |
-sta/-stä |
-sta/-stä |
|
Adessive |
-la/-lä, -lla/-llä |
-la/-lä, -lla/-llä |
|
Abessive |
-tta/-ttä |
-tta/-ttä |
|
Allative |
-le, -lle |
-le, -lle |
|
Ablative |
-lta/-ltä |
-lta/-ltä |
|
Essive |
-na/-nä, -nna/-nnä |
-na/-nä, -nna/-nnä |
|
Translative |
-ksi |
-ksi |
|
Comitative |
|
-ne |
The second example is past participle form of
verbs. Sometimes we see two consonant -nnu/-llu/-ssu/-rru/-nny/-lly/-ssy/-rry, and sometimes there is
only one consonant, like in -nu/-lu/-su/-ru/-ny/-ly/-sy/-ry.
|
Verb |
Past participle |
|
kiinnostaat |
kiinnostunnu |
|
interesseerata |
interesseerannu |
|
haluta |
halunu |
|
syöđä |
syöny |
|
vässyyt |
väsyny |
The last situation is third person plural form
of a verb, which is characterized by the ending -ma/-mä or -mma/-mmä.
|
Verb |
Vern in 1st pers. pl. (we) |
|
halluut |
halluuma |
|
kävelä |
kävelemmä |
Single or double l, m, n, and r?
In linguist Eira Söderholm’s Kainun kielen grammatikki, selection between l, m, n, r or ll, mm, nn, rr is based on stress/intonation
and stem ending of a word. I personally find it very perplexing because it is
hard for learners to tell which syllable is stressed and which is not.
For example:
kirjoittelima and kirjoitamma
They both have polysyllabic stems obviously, but
without any audio file or diacritic, the stress/intonation is never
known to learners.
Fortunately, I have found a way to this that surprisingly works for almost all words. Those that do not work seem to fall into the category of exception, and are fairly predictable.
So let’s begin.
In order to choose correctly between l, m, n,
and r or ll, mm, nn, and rr, we need to look at two directions.
1. What is the ending of the STEM?
2. How many syllables does the STEM have?
Remember in the previous lessons, we learned how
to extract the stem from a word? Now it is time to use your knowledge.
Monosyllabic words
|
Single |
Double |
|
Monosyllabic
stem ending in a pair of long vowels. |
Monosyllabic stem
ending in a short vowel. |
|
Situations |
Single |
Double |
|
Adessive |
maa-la, jää-lä, tie-lä |
jo-lla, si-llä, tä-llä |
|
Allative |
maa-le, jää-le, tie-le |
jo-lle, si-lle, tä-lle |
|
Essive |
maa-na, jää-nä, tie-nä, *tä-nä *jo-na *si-nä |
|
|
Infinitive |
kuu-la, luu-la |
tu-lla, o-lla, me-nnä, pu-rra |
|
1st person plural (present) |
syö-mä, juo-ma, saa-ma, luo-ma |
e-mmä |
|
Past
participle |
saa-nu, juo-nu, luo-lu, kuu-lu |
me-nny, o-llu, tu-llu, pu-rru |
Polysyllabic words
|
Single |
Double |
|
Polysyllabic
stem ending in a pair of long vowels. |
- |
|
Situations |
Single |
Double |
|
Adessive |
faarii-la, valkkee-le |
- |
|
Allative |
faarii-le, valkkee-le, kantelhee-le |
- |
|
Essive |
vaphaa-na, rikkhaa-na, evakkoi-na |
- |
|
Infinitive |
kirroi-la |
- |
|
1st person plural (present) |
sanoi-ma, halluu-ma |
- |
|
Past
participle |
havai-nu, kirroi-lu |
- |
The next group is a tricky one.
You must count carefully how many syllables there
are in a stem. This is no easy task for words that have more than 3 or 4
syllables.
|
Single |
Double |
|
polysyllabic
stem (even-number syllable) |
polysyllabic stem
(odd-number syllable) |
The following colors represent each syllable of a word. It
should be easier to see how many syllables a word has using the number and
color below.
(The form below is enlarged so that you can count it easier and better.)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
|
Situations |
Single 2, 4, 6, 8 |
Double 1, 3, 5, 7 |
|
Adessive |
naise-la ruijalaise-la |
ihmise-llä hevose-lla, |
|
Allative |
Kiina-le revitaliseeraamise-le |
hevose-lle amtmani-lle |
|
Essive |
heiko-na, poika-na |
evakko-nna, kaupunki-na |
|
Infinitive |
puhe-la, muiste-la, arve-la |
hullute-lla, ajate-lla, asete-lla |
|
1st person plural (present) |
asettele-ma, hulluttele-ma, ajattele-ma |
puhele-mma, muistele-mma, arvele-mma |
|
Past
participle |
lähte-ny, kirjoitutta-nu, puhe-lu, piikaroitte-nu, luke-nu, keri-ny |
ajate-llu, interesseera-nnu, kiinnostu-nnu, varasta-nnu, muistelennu, aukase-nnu, liikene-nny |
*Two exceptions in this
group belong to words ending in -us, -ys,
-os,
-ös,
and -es
and words ending in -uus, -aus, -eus, -ous,
and -yys, which they always fall into the
category of ll, mm, nn, and rr, no matter how many syllables they have in their
stems.
kirjoitukse-lla
rakenukse-nna
hyvvyyđe-lle