From-hVn where the-h- has been elided between unstressed short vowels.
-an, -en, -in, -on, -un, -yn, -än, -ön (linguistic notation-Vn,V corresponds to the preceding vowel)
- Forms theillative singular case.
- Seethe appendix on Finnish nominal cases for more information on how the illative case is used.
- Used after an unstressed short vowel. The vowel is the same as the final vowel in the stem, thus producing a long vowel.
FromProto-Finnic*-hën.
Originally a reflexive suffix, which developed into a third-person possessive suffix in Eastern Finnish, Karelian and Ingrian. Thus this was at first found only in the eastern dialects, but adopted into the standard language in the 19th century.[1]
-an, -en, -än (linguistic notation-Vn,V corresponds to the preceding vowel)
- The shorter third-personpossessive suffix.
Can always be replaced with-nsa, the longer third-person possessive suffix, but not the other way around. Specifically,-Vn can be used:
- when the vowel preceding-nsa is ashorta,ä ande (general rule, but defers to the next two)
- for nominal inflections (including participles and adverbs derived from such), all cases except the nominative, genitive, illative and instructive
- for verbal inflections, the long 1st infinitive, the 2nd infinitive, and the 5th infinitive
- (depending on the preceding vowel (i.e. lengthens the preceding vowel))-an,-en,-än
- ^Petri Kallio (2021) “Kaksikko aina kaunihimpi? Itämerensuomalaisten possessiivisuffiksien taustaa”, in Taina Saarikivi, Janne Saarikivi, editors,Turhan tiedon kirja: Tutkimuksista pois jätettyjä sivuja (Kirjokansi;291) (in Finnish), pages157-173
From the illative ending (-Vn, etymology 1) attached directly to the verb stem.
-an, -en, -in, -on, -un, -yn, -än, -ön (linguistic notation-Vn,V corresponds to the preceding vowel)(colloquial)
- Alternative form of-maan
- Example:ottaan = standardottamaan.
- Originally a Tavastian dialectal characteristic, but nowadays can be encountered in urban "non-dialectal" speech.
