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 |
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. |