(3) From the verb olla are found oo for ole; oisi for olisi; lie, liet for lienee, lienet; liekkö for lieneekö.
(4) The imperf. ends in ti where in ordinary Finnish it is softened to si: kynti, löyti, kaati, pyyti for kynsi, löysi, kaasi, pyysi.
XV. The syntax of the Kalevala is marked by extreme simplicity in its main features. This is natural in popular poetry, and, besides, the system of versification (short lines of eight syllables generally containing a complete sentence) and the tendency to parallelism and repetition, were all unfavourable to the growth of long and involved phrases. On the other hand, the sentences of the Kalevala are often difficult to understand on account of their irregularity. Not only are the boldest inversions and omissions permitted (e.g. Emo tuosta itkemähän for rupesi itkemähän), but words are frequently strung together in so loose a manner that, though the thought is plain, it is almost impossible to analyse the sentence grammatically. For instance, xl. 401, Anna luoja, suo Jumala, Anna onni ollaksemme, Hyvin ain’ eleäksemme, kunnialla kuollaksemme. This clearly means, grant that we may be prosperous, live well and die gloriously, but it is almost impossible to explain it grammatically. Such a tendency to be more careful of the general sense than of the separate words and their correct relation to one another, is very natural in a poem whose authors were ignorant of grammar and had probably no written literature before them. It is accompanied in the Kalevala by a habit of repeating the same idea under numerous synonyms for the sake of emphasis and of creating new words for the sake of parallelism or alliteration, which have sometimes a meaning and bear testimony to the flexibility and fecundity of the language, but sometimes are absolutely unmeaning. Thus in Kal. xi. 55 we have Enkä lähe Inkerelle, Penkerelle, pänkerelle. Here pänkerelle means nothing at all, but is simply a kind of repetition of penkerelle. Similarly Kal. xlviii. 100, Ihveniä, ahvenia, Tuimenia, taimenia. Ihveniä and Tuimenia are meaningless words.
SELECTIONS FROM FINNISH LITERATURE
N.B. When a rule is cited by a number, this refers to the numbered phonetic rules from [page 6 to page 18].