A Finnish Grammar

by Charles Eliot

This classification may be represented thus in a table:—

Finno-Ugrian Languages	A. Ugrian.	1. Ostiak.
		2. Vogul.
		3. Magyar.
	B. Finnish.	i. Permian	Syrjenians, Permians, Votiaks.
		ii. Volga Baltic	a. Volga group	Cheremissian, Mordvinian.
			b. West Finnish	1. Lappish.
				2. Esthonian, Livish, Votish, Vepsish.
				3. Finnish.

All these languages have a certain common vocabulary, and a common grammatical substratum, though many of them possess constructions unknown to the others. The pronouns, numerals, and in a less obvious degree the pronominal affixes of nouns and verbs are also identical. The Ugrian languages however, seem to have parted company with the rest before a system of declension had been fixed. Their nominal suffixes seem to be mostly later formations, though we find t, tl, or k for the plural, and traces of l as a local element. Corresponding phenomena appear in the conjugation of verbs, as noticed above.

The remaining languages—or Finnish group—have not developed any striking differences from the Ugric division, but they show greater resemblance to one another in details. They all have local cases characterised by the letter s (unknown in the Ugric group), others characterised by l, an abessive ending in ta or tak, and negative adjectives characterised by the syllable tem, or tom. They mostly agree in having a peculiar form for the negative conjugation. The present of the positive conjugation has p (or v) regularly or sporadically in certain persons, and the remaining verbal forms, though far from agreeing absolutely, show a sufficient resemblance to warrant us in regarding them as the results of a common development.

From the accounts given of Syrjenian and Votiak it would seem that they were the first to cease to participate in this common development. They appear to be characterised by few striking peculiarities, but to show a less degree of conformity to a common standard than the remaining languages. The phonetic system of Syrjenian seems to be much the same as that of Cheremissian or Mordvinian, except that it has a great fondness for the sound of i̱. The pronouns of both numbers, and the pronominal affixes of the singular, show much more resemblance to the Finnish than to the Ugrian, but the pronominal affixes of the plural (ni̱m, ni̱d, ni̱s) are curious, and obviously represent the singular affixes in combination with a syllable ni̱, which may perhaps be akin to the Finnish plural demonstrative ne. In the verb, the 1st person singular has no personal termination. In the plural we find m, ni̱d, ni̱s, as in nouns. Generally Syrjenian seems to be more thoroughly agglutinative, as opposed to inflected, than the Finnish language. In this it may be compared with Cheremissian, where the plural is formed by the syllable vlja (or vi̱lä) added between the stem and case termination, just like jas in Syrjenian. The Permian languages have some close analogies in detail with the Ugrian group. Thus twenty is ki̱s in Syrjenian, kōs or χūs in Ostiak, husz in Magyar; the reflexive pronoun is as or ats in Syrjenian and Votiak, at in Ostiak.

Of the remaining languages Mordvinian is in many ways the most remarkable. Though generally admitted to be nearly akin to Cheremissian, it has many constructions peculiar to itself. Thus it has a fully developed object conjugation and two forms of declension, the definite and indefinite. It has a great fondness for the letter f. On the other hand, such phenomena as the suffix n-za for the 3rd person, the word kemen, ten, the regular formation of the imperfect with i, infinitives in ma, and participles in f (Finn. va) show a near approach to Finnish. Cheremissian has also developed some new singular negative forms, by which the verbal root is negatived (in the preterite) by a suffix te + l, after which the personal suffixes are added.

The connection of the West Finnish languages is much more striking than that of those which have already been discussed. The resemblance of Lappish to Finnish and Esthonian is a little disguised owing to the elaborate phonetic system of this language, which has an extraordinary fondness for diphthongs, and also a very extensive provision of consonants, including some (e.g. γ, θ, δ) which do not occur in any of the cognate languages. The nominal declension is very similar to that of Finnish. Compare the singular forms tšalme, tšalmen, tšalmesn, tšalmest, tšalmetaka with silmä, silmänä, silmässä, silmästä, silmättä. In the singular the genitive and partitive have lost their termination (cf. the Esthonian forms, nom. silm, gen. and part. silma). The analogy in the plural is still closer; the nominative ends in h or k, but the other cases are characterised by the insertion of i, tšalmeh or tšalmek, tšalmiti, tšalmi, tšalmin, tšalmisne, tšalmist, tšalmitaγa corresponding to silmät, silmiä, sílmien, silminä, silmissä, silmistä, silmittä. There are also forms in l, le, lt, or ld. The partitive case appears to be peculiar to the West Finnish languages. The pronouns of Lappish point the other way, and are all but identical with those of Mordvinian, mon, ton or don, son, mi, ti or di, si; Mordvinian mon, son, ton, min, sin, tin. The singular affixes are m, d, s (Mordv. n, t, nza), but those of the plural take the characteristic k (mek, dek, sek). There are also dual forms. The verb is peculiar in using different affixes for the present and preterite. Otherwise it is much the same as the Finnish forms. We have b or p as a sign of the present, je or i for the preterite, ket, kus, etc. in the imperative; comparatives formed with fč-, kč-, č- (ksi), or le. The negative conjugation also shows close analogies. Lappish has thus a great resemblance to Finnish, but is much nearer than the remaining western languages to Cheremissian and Mordvinian, thus connecting these latter with Finnish and the Esthonian languages.

There is no need to insist on the close connection of Livish, Votish, Vepsish, and Esthonian with Finnish. The grammatical structure and vocabulary of these languages is so alike that the fact is obvious not only to a philologist, but to the most casual learner. Esthonian is now far the most important of these languages, and has a certain amount of literary culture. It has two chief dialects, that of Revel and that of Dorpat[3].

In a few cases Esthonian shows older forms than Finnish, but on the whole it is less primitive. Besides the Finnish consonants it possesses b, g, z, and ṅ. The accent is on the first syllable, and has led to weakening or loss of final syllables. The vowel harmony is known only in the Dorpat dialect, and there not perfectly. Consonants are weakened in much the same way as in Finnish, pp, tt, kk are reduced to single consonants; p, t, k, s become b, d, g, z; b becomes w or disappears, and d, g, z disappear. These changes, however, do not in the present state of the language take place only when syllables are closed, although the original form generally ended with a consonant. Thus tīb, urk, rind, toit, rid form the genitives tīwa, urga, rinna, toidu, riu; and the verbs pühkima, uskuma, prūkima, hoidma form pühin, uzun, prūgin, hoian. The noun has only eleven cases, the six local (exterior and interior) the genitive, partitive, abessive, and translative, all almost identical in form with Finnish, except that the genitive has lost the n of the termination, and the other cases the final vowel. The plural takes d in the nominative and i in the other cases. The pronouns resemble Finnish, but the 3rd person singular and plural is the demonstrative tema or nema in Esthonian, Livonian, and Votish, but Vepsish has hän, hö. Esthonian has almost lost the pronominal affixes, which are used only in adverbial forms, and replaced in most cases by the genitive of the personal pronoun.

The affirmative verb closely resembles Finnish, except that the concessive formed with ne has, except in the Dorpat dialect, been almost entirely lost. The 3rd person singular present ends regularly in b, and the 3rd plural in wad. The preterite is sometimes formed with simple i, but generally with si, and the conditional with ksi. The imperative 2nd singular has no termination, but as in Finnish the root is weakened. The other persons are characterised by gu or ge. The passive is formed by affixing ta + k + se in the present, and ta + i (ti) in the preterite. The negative verb for the imperative is ärä, ärgu, ärge, but in the other forms Esthonian does not affix personal endings to the negative, but uses ei with all persons. Similarly Livish has äb or ab for all persons except the second, where ad is sometimes used. Votish and Vepsish follow Finnish. It will thus be seen that Esthonian, closely allied as it is to Finnish, has lost many peculiarities which it once no doubt possessed, but occasionally (e.g. the passive present in takse and the conditional in kse) preserves forms which in Finnish have been weakened or disguised.