Talk:Finnish language noun cases

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Re-Locative cases

Although grammatically correct, the english phrase "Can I try on those pants in the window?" is ambiguous (it can refer to the LOCATION OF THE PANTS or the LOCATION OF THE TRYING ON). Because of the latter, it is also potentially ourtrageous, because in British English the word PANTS is always an abbreviation for UNDERPANTS. US english "PANTS" in British English are always known as "TROUSERS". The mind reels! So even in english construction one needs to be careful about such constructions. The proper english construction that avoids the ambiguity is exactly as per the finnish construction, with the use of a sub-clause, appropriately located.

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[edit] -nne

Does anybody know if the form -nne was once a formal noun case in the history of Finnish and whether this form has a particular case name?

I mean the -nne form as it exists in words like jonnekin, minne and sinne which often have parallel standard case forms like jossakin, missa and sillä.

Also, I'd be grateful to know of other common words that carry this form.

Tom 08:41, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Ah.. answered it myself after a more careful dig on the net... its all explained [http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suomi/sijat/sijatadverbi.html

here].

[edit] The Latin model for case names

The cases are named after the Latin model.

The names of the locative cases continue on this model. That is a Latin preposition and either the verb to be, esse or the feminine past participle of the verb carry/bring, lata.

The cases names that contain -essive suggest stationary position, while the case names that contain -lative suggest motion. For example the inessive case can be thought of as in + being, talossa - in the house, while the illative case can be thought of as in + carried, taloon - into the house. In the same way, abessive, ab - away + to be, talotta - without a house, and ablative, away + carried, talosta - from the house.

[edit] Renaming of article to "Finnish declension"

As the cases in this article are common declensions that affect not just nouns, but also pronouns, adjectives (including superlatives and comparatives) as well as numerals, it is proposed to move the article to a more inclusive new title Finnish declension bringing the article in line with similar Wikipedia articles such as English declension, German declension Czech declension, etc. The old article can redirect to the new one. Comments here please before the action is taken in 1 week's time. --Tom 15:21, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

 What happened to this? Sounds reasonable . . . LookingGlass (talk) 17:20, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fossils?

Is the prolative case really just a "fossil"? If so, it seems to have come to life once more in the computer age, with sähköpostitse (by e-mail) and netitse (via the internet)! Perhaps these should me mentioned in the article. --NigelG (or Ndsg) | Talk 15:28, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Elatiivi

Wouldn't it be more readily comprehensible to use the English preposition: "out of" instead of: "from(inside)" for the elatiivi? LookingGlass (talk) 17:20, 12 March 2008 (UTC)