B. The other cases, with the exceptions below mentioned, simply add i to the root, which suffers the necessary phonetic changes, and then take the same suffixes as the sing. Maa, inessive sing. maassa, inessive plur. maissa ([3]); pata, illative sing. patahan or pataan, illative plur. patoihin ([7]); vieraha, translative sing. vierahaksi or vieraaksi, translative plur. vierahiksi or vieraiksi ([11]).
C. But the genitive plural is formed with the suffix -ite (apparently a combination of the two suffixes i and t(e) above mentioned), placed before the case suffix -n.
This suffix is found in three forms:—
(1) ite + n becomes regularly -iden, maiden.
(2) Monosyllabic roots and polysyllabic roots ending with a long vowel have a strengthened form, -itte-n, often found alternating with -ide-n, e.g. maitten, vierahitten.
(3) The t drops out and the suffix becomes simply -ie-n, e.g. jalka-iten becomes (rule [7]) jalko-iten, then jalko-ien, then (rule [21]) jalkojen; äiti-iten becomes äititen, and then äitien. Sometimes the i or j drops out between two vowels; e.g. kirkkoen.
Most of the cases above enumerated are common to nearly all the Finno-Ugric languages, though the same suffixes are used with rather different meanings.
The suffix -na, called here essive, is used in most other languages of the family as a locative, and a few traces of this use are preserved in Finnish, e.g. kotona, at home, ulkona, out of doors, (olla) läsnä, to be present, takana, behind, tänä pänä, tänään, to-day.
No accusative is usually given in Finnish grammars, because this case coincides with the genitive in the sing., and with the nominative in the plural. The accusative sing. is, however, etymologically a distinct formation, with the termination m or ma, as is proved by a comparison of the other languages of the family (Ostiak and Vogulian ma, me, or m; Tcheremissian and Syrjenian m). As m cannot be a final in Finnish, it becomes n, and the case is indistinguishable from the genitive.
There is also an accusative in -t, found in the pronominal declensions of Finnish, Ostiak, Syrjenian, and Mordvinian. It is supposed to represent the demonstrative pronoun ta suffixed to a word, and perhaps stands for -nt.