Swintha Danielsen, Tania Granadillo,Agreement in two Arawak languages, inThe Typology of Semantic Alignment (edited by Mark Donohue, Søren Wichmann) (2008,→ISBN), page 398
FromProto-Finnic*-ni, fromProto-Uralic*-ne. Originally*-mi was the first-person singular possessive suffix used in the nominative singular, but-ni has replaced it, and it is now only found in dialects. CompareErzya-м(-m).
(possessive)First-person singularpossessive suffix used with or withoutminun (the genitive of the personal pronounminä), corresponding to the English possessive pronounmy
(possessive)Used in a participle structure replacing anettä clause, preceded by a verb expressing, e.g., telling, claiming, asserting, confirming, thinking, wish, desire, seeming, when the clauses have the same subject "I"; appended to the active present participle in genitive singular when the action is concurrent with the main clause
Sanointekeväni läksyjäni.(similar to the Latin structureaccusativus cum infinitivo, e.g.sedicitfacere)
I saidthat I was doing my homework.
(possessive)Used in a participle structure replacing anettä clause, preceded by a verb expressing, e.g., telling, claiming, asserting, confirming, thinking, wish, desire, seeming, when the clauses have the same subject "I"; appended to the active past participle in genitive singular when the said/alleged (etc.) action antedates the main clause.
Väitintehneeni läksyjäni.
I claimedto have been doing my homework.
(possessive)Used in a shortened sentence expressing concurrent actions when the clauses have the same subject "I", appended to the inessive of the active second infinitive.
(While) doing my homework, I heard a shot from outside.
(possessive)Used in a shortened sentence expressing subsequent actions when the clauses have the same subject "I", appended to the partitive of the passive past participle singular.
Tehtyäni läksyni (minä) kuulin laukauksen ulkoa.
(After) having done / After doing my homework, I heard a shot from outside.
(possessive)Used in a final shortened sentence expressing "in order to do" when the clauses have the same subject "I", appended tothe long first infinitive.
Tehdäkseni läksyni hyvin (minä) menin hiljaiseen huoneeseen.
(In order) to do my homework well, I went into a quiet room.
(possessive)Used in someadverbs, when the clause has the subject "I"
Olen hyvin pahoillani siitä.
I am verysorry about it.
(possessive)Always appended to a noun in the comitative case when the clause has the subject "I".
The possessive suffix-ni is compulsory in standard Finnish. In standard Finnish, when expressing ownership or before a postposition, the genitive form of the corresponding personal pronounminä before the main word can be omitted. In colloquial Finnish, the suffix-ni is very rare and only the genitive formminun (or its colloquial or dialectal variants) is used before the main word.
Appended to the (strong) vowel stem. The final-n of the genitive and illative singular and plural or the-t of the nominative plural are omitted, for example:talo(“house”) >taloon(“into a/the house”) >taloosi(“into your house”).
The shortened sentences — except for the participle structures — pertain mainly to formal/standard Finnish, not to informal/colloquial Finnish. It is also to be noticed that the shortened clauses are never separated from the main clauses with a comma.
Forms theconcessive sense: used to devalue the predicate of the sentence when repeated and followed by a clause that contrasts with or contradicts it. See also-nak/-nek.
Elindulni elindul, de rögtön le is áll. ―Itdoes start, but it turns off right away.
Emphatic suffixes are added to nouns modified by a possessive determiner to emphasize the possessor; to verbs, predicate adjectives, and predicate nouns to emphasize the subject; and to inflected prepositions to emphasize the object.
18th century, Abdallah bin Ali bin Nasir,Al-Inkishafi[1], translation fromR. Allen (1946), “Inkishafi—a translation from the Swahili”, inAfrican Studies, volume 5, number 4,→DOI, pages243–249, stanza 6:
(second-person plural) Used in conjunction with the direct imperative to form the plural. With native (Bantu)/nativized verbs in-a, vowel changes to-e:
(second-person plural) Used in conjunction with the class 1 (personal) object affix-wa- to disambiguate the second-person plural from thethird person plural; verbs in-a change this to-e before the affix:
Niliwasomeeni (I read toyou) vs.Niliwasomea (I read tothem)
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “-ni”, inGeiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
