Finnish
(suomi)
 

Some Features of the Vernacular Finnish of Jyväskylä

In the text below, I look at some of the most important features of vernacular Finnish as it is spoken in Jyväskylä (heretofore referred to as VFJ). My claims are not based on careful linguistic studies, but on personal observations I have made during the 25 years I have lived in Jyväskylä. So, take anything you read below with a grain of salt. Nonetheless, many of my observations below also apply to the vernacular variants of Finnish spoken elsewhere in the country.


Demonstrative Pronouns

In VFJ, the following demonstrative pronouns are most often used:
Singular: tää, tuo, se
Plural: nää, nuo, ne

For tuo and nuo, the forms toi and noi are sometimes used, but these are more common in the Tampere area and in southern Finland. The demonstrative pronouns se and ne are also used as third person personal pronouns; see the next section for details. For tuo, the stem to- is used for all cases other than the nominative.
Consult the following table for the irregularities in declination:
 

Case Forms
Nominative tää, tuo, se, nää, nuo, ne
Genitive tän, ton, sen, näien or näitten, noien or noitten, niien or niitten
Partitive tätä, tota, sitä, näitä, noita, niitä
Essive tänä, tona, sinä, näinä, noina, niinä
Translative täks, toks, siks, näiks, noiks, niiks

As you can see, two different forms occur in the genitive plural. I find myself using either rather arbitrarily, and I believe this is quite common in VFJ. The final /n/ of the genitive is weak; see the section on possession for details. Notice also the weak final /i/ of the translative case.
 

Personal Pronouns

In VFJ, the following personal pronouns are most often used:
Singular: mää, sää, se
Plural: me, te, ne

The length of the vowel in mää and sää can vary. It is usually quite distinctly long when the pronoun is stressed. When it is unstressed, the length varies between short and half-long depending on the speaker. The 3rd person pronouns correspond to the demonstrative pronouns, and are declined similarly.
Unlike in some other vernacular variants of Finnish, the pronouns hän and he of the standard language are extremely rare. In my ears, they sound terribly pretentious when used in casual conversation. Generally speaking, the younger the person, the less likely the use of hän and he. On the other, my parents, for example, have probably never used them in casual situations. Their use is extremely rare even in semi-formal situations, such as talking to a complete stranger on the telephone.
The stems used for cases other than the nominative are the following:
Singular: mu-, su-, se-
Plural: mei-, tei-, nii-
The inflection of the personal pronouns is somewhat irregular. All the forms can be determined by consulting the following table:
 

Case Forms
Nominative mää, sää, se, me, te, ne
Accusative mut, sut, sen, meiät, teiät, ne
Genitive mun, sun, sen, meiän, teiän, niien or niitten
Partitive mua, sua, sitä, meitä, teitä, niitä
Essive muna, suna, sinä, meinä, teinä, niinä
Translative muks, suks, siks, meiks, teiks, niiks
Inessive mussa, sussa, siinä, meissä, teissä, niissä
Allative mulle, sulle, sille, meille, teille, niille
 
 
Possession and the Genitive Case

The following examples show what I believe to be the most common expressions of possession:
 

Person Noun with final vowel Noun with a final consonant
1st person sg. mu auto, 'my car' mun kirja, 'my book'
2nd person sg. su auto, or su autos, 'your car' sun kirja, or sun kirjas, 'your book'
3rd person sg. se auto, 'his/her car' sen kirja, 'his/her book'
1st person pl. meiä auto, 'our car' meiän kirja, 'our book'
2nd person pl. teiä auto, 'your car' teiän kirja, 'your book'
3rd person pl. niitte auto, 'their car' niitten kirja, 'their book'

When the following noun begins with a vowel, the final /n/ of the genitive case quite often becomes a long glottal stop [?:]; e.g. [mu?:auto]. This does not happen with all speakers, and even when it does, the /n/ may still occur in more careful speech. When the noun begins with a consonant, the /n/ is almost always preserved, although it assimiliates to the following vowel; e.g., mun kirja [muNkirja].
Possessive suffixes occur rather rarely, the -s of the second person singular being the most common of them.
For the 3rd person singular and plural, the possessive suffixes -nsa/nsä and -sa/sä are used, usually only without the 3rd person personal pronouns. I cannot say whether the n-less form is less or more common -- I use both forms quite arbitrarily. When it does occur, the 2nd person plural possessive suffix, -nne, is also most commonly used without the corresponding personal pronoun.
For example: Ne vei ne auto(n)sa pois. 'They took them cars of theirs away.' Käske sen tulla hakemaan auto(n)sa pois. 'Tell him/her to come and take his/her car(s) away.' Ottakaa ne suksenne ja painukaa helevettii! 'Take them skis of yours and get the hell outta here!'
The 1st person possessive suffixes -ni and -mme are much less common (especially -mme), but are occasionally used with a noun in the accusative or genitive case. When they are used, they are most often unaccompanied by the corresponding personal pronoun. I personally use -mme and -ni in writing only.
 

Verbs

Some verbs are inflected quite differently in VFJ. One of the most remarkable things is that the passive form is commonly used in first person plural. In fact, this is quite a common phenomenon in vernacular Finnish. So, instead of saying me menemme, 'we go', we say me mennään. The same applies to all the tenses: me mentiin (past), me ollaan menty (perfect), me oltiin menty (past perfect). Notice also the irregular conditional mood: me mentäis pro me menisimme (present), me oltais menty pro me olisimme menneet (past). The potential mood, of course, is extremely rare in vernacular Finnish.

In VFJ, some common verbs are inflected somewhat irregularly in the indicative and imperative present tense:
 
Literary Finnish minä olen sinä olet hän on me olemme te olette he ovat
VFJ mää oon sää oot (oo!) se on me ollaan te ootte ne on
Literary Finnish minä menen sinä menet hän menee me menemme te menette he menevät
VFJ mää meen sää meet (mee!) se menee me mennään te meette ne menee
Literary Finnish minä tulen sinä tulet hän tulee me tulemme te tulette he tulevat
VFJ mää tuun sää tuut (tuu!) se tulee me tullaan te tuutte ne tulee

The regular inflection in VFJ is given in the following table:
 
Literary Finnish minä istun sinä istut hän istuu me istumme te istutte he istuvat
VFJ mää istun sää istut se istuu me istutaan te istutte ne istuu

Notice that the third person plural form is exactly the same as the third person singular.
Verbs are mainly inflected normally in the past tense, except for the first person plural (e.g. me mentiin) and the third person plural (e.g. ne meni).
The final /i/ in the 3rd person singular of verbs in the conditional mood is very weak; e.g. hän istuisi > se istuis, hän söisi > se söis.
In the perfect tense, the finite component olla follows the vernacular inflection: mää oon menny, sää oot menny, se on menny, me ollaan menty, te ootte menny, ne on menny. If in these examples the active past participle of mennä seems odd to you, you're right: the final consonant /t/ of the active past participle has become the glottal stop, which causes gemination of a following consonant. E.g. se on menny kotiin [seommennykkotiin] pro hän on mennyt kotiin.
The auxiliar älä, älkää used for the negative imperative has the vernacular variants elä, elkää. E.g., älä mene sinne! > elä mee sinne! In fact, the initial vowel may vary quite a bit while remaining somewhere in the vicinity of /e/, /E/ and /&/. I my own pronunciation, the initial vowel is probably closest to /E/ most of the time.
 

The Interrogative Particle -ko, -kö

The interrogative particle is quite weak in VFJ when attached to verbs.
In the second person singular, it disappears completely, so that the prounoun immediately follows the person suffix of the verb. E.g. ootsää pro oletko sinä, meetsää pro menetkö sinä, tuutsää pro tuletko sinä, syötsää pro syötkö sinä, etc.
In the other persons, the particle becomes /ks/. E.g. oonksmää pro olenko minä, onkse pro onko se/hän, mennäänksme pro menemmekö me, kävittekste pro kävittekö te, tietääksne pro tietävätkö ne/he, etc.
 

Numerals

Various forms of the cardinal numerals occur in VFJ. In the following summary, the shortest forms are used for fast counting (i.e. yy kaa koo nee vii etc.)
The suffix -toista occasionally loses its final vowel. It can also be pronounced as -toi.
 

1 - yks, yy 26 - kakskuus, kaakuu
2 - kaks, kaa 27 - kakseit, kaasee
3 - kol, koo 28 - kakskasi, kaakasi
4 - nel, nee 29 - kaksysi, kaaysi
5 - viis, vii 30 - kolkyt
6 - kuus, kuu 31 - kolyks [kol?yks]
7 - seittemä(n), seit, see 32 - kolkaks
8 - kaheksa(n), kaa (rare), kasi 33 - kolkol
9 - yheksä(n), yy (rare), ysi 34 - kolnel
10 - kyy (rare), kymppi 35 - kolviis
11 - ykstoista, ykstoi, yytoo 36 - kolkuus
12 - kakstoista, kakstoi, kaatoo 37 - kolseit
13 - koltoi, kootoo 38 - kolkasi
14 - neltoi, neetoo 39 - kolysi [kol?ysi]
15 - viistoi, viitoo 40 - nelkyt
16 - kuustoi, kuutoo 41 - nelyks [nel?yks]
17 - seittoi, seetoo 50 - viiskyt
18 - kasitoi, kasitoo 60 - kuuskyt
19 - ysitoi, ysitoo 70 - seitkyt
20 - kakskytä, kakskyt 80 - kasikyt
21 - kaksyks, kaayy [kaa?yy] 90 - ysikyt
22 - kakskaks, kaakaa 91 - ysiyks [ysi?yks]
23 - kakskol, kaakoo 92 - ysikaks
24 - kaksnel, kaanee 101 - satayks, satayy [sata?yy]
25 - kaksviis, kaavii etc.
 
 
Miscellaneous Phonological Phenomena




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Last Updated: October 1, 2001.