【芬兰语语法】§18.2 KIVI NOMINALS

 There are three kinds of nominals with a basic form ending in -i, all with an

inflectional stem in -e. The first group, words like kivi ‘stone’, also form the

partitive singular from this inflectional stem.

Inflectional stem followed by:

Basic form Case Plural Poss. suffix

kivi stone kive/n kiv/i/ssä kive/mme

Suomi Finland Suome/n – Suome/mme

kaikki all +kaike/n +kaik/i/ssa kaikke/mme

lehti newspaper +lehde/n +lehd/i/ssä lehte/mme

hetki moment hetke/n hetk/i/ssä hetke/mme

talvi winter talve/n talv/i/ssa talve/mme

järvi lake järve/n järv/i/ssä järve/mme

lahti bay +lahde/n +lahd/i/ssa lahte/mme

jälki trace +jälje/n +jälj/i/ssä jälke/mme

joki river +joe/n +jo/i/ssa joke/mme

nimi name nime/n nim/i/ssä nime/mme

ovi door ove/n ov/i/ssa ove/mme

Words like kivi thus form their partitive singular from an inflectional

stem in -e, and differ in precisely this respect from words of the kieli

type (§18.3) and the vesi type (§18.4).

The declension of nominals 47

Basic form Inflectional stem followed by partitive

kaikki all kaikke/a

Suomi Finland Suome/a

kivi stone kive/ä

lehti newspaper lehte/ä

hetki moment hetke/ä

ovi door ove/a

A comparison of the tunti and kivi types shows that it is not possible to

derive a rule from the basic form which would determine which nominals

have an inflectional stem in -e and which do not. However, it is possible to

state a rule operating in the opposite direction.

This rule always allows us to derive the basic form from the inflectional

stem. The rule does not cover nominals with an inflectional stem in long -

ee, such as perhe ‘family’, perhee/n (§19). There are a few exceptions:

kolme ‘three’, kolme/n; itse ‘self’, itse/n; nalle ‘teddy’, nalle/n; nukke

‘doll’, +nuke/n.