the alphabet with a diacritic sign, viz., ä, ö.
It contains, however, but 19 genuine sounds,
viz., 8 vowels and 11 consonants. The
letters b, c, d, f, g occur only in a few foreign
words and in some dialects. K, p, h are the
most frequent initials, k, p, t the most
frequent consonants, and sound a little softer
than in other languages. The concurrence
of consonants is avoided, so that the foreign
words Francis, Stephen, school, stable become
Rantsi, Tehvan, koulu, tallis. There are many
diphthongs. Long vowels are written double.
The hiatus is not avoided. A few themes end
in consonants, but none in m. The rhythm of
the language is trochaic, and the root bears
the tone. Rask considers the Suomic to be
the most harmonious of tongues. The radical,
which precedes all other syllables, never
undergoes any change in its beginning and
middle. The theme is originally dissyllabic, and
often corresponds to monosyllabic Magyar
roots; thus: käsi, Magyar kéz, hand; sata,
száz, 100; vesi, víz, water; veri, vér, blood;
sana, szó, word; tyvi, tő, stem, &c. The various
relations of nouns to one another, which in
other languages are expressed both by cases
and prepositions, are indicated by post-positions
or suffixes, forming from the nominative,
which is sometimes the theme with a changed
final, 14 cases, of which 7 are simple, the
others more full. There are two declensions.
The object is indicated by the genitive, nominative,
or partitive, according to the shade of
meaning. Plurality is denoted for the nominative
by suffixing t, and for the other cases by
inserting i before their endings. In some
instances a euphonic e is inserted before the
endings. Vocal harmony is strictly observed
between the vowels of the theme (in nouns as
well as verbs), and for this purpose the vowels
are distinguished into three groups, viz.: a, o,
u; e, i; and ä, ö, y; those of the first and last
never occurring in one word together, but being
compatible with those of the middle one. Hence
the vowels of the first and last group are
converted reciprocally in the suffixes, in order to
suit the vowels of the theme; for instance,
maa-ta, land-part, but pää-tä, head-part. No
language of this family has grammatic genders,
but all indicate sexes either by distinct words or
by epithets. The Magyar alone uses an article.
The adjectives in Suomic are immutable, and
are rendered comparative by suffixing mpa,
mma, mlu, and superlative by inserting i before
that termination. Nouns and adverbs receive
an intenser meaning by inserting mpa and
impa. The numerals are: 1, yksi; 2, kaksi;
3, kolme; 4, neljä; 5, viisi; 6, kuusi; 7,
seit-semän; 8, kahdeksan; 9, yhdeksän; 10,
kymmenen; 11, yksi-to ista-kymmentä; 20,
kaksi-kymmentä; 30, kolmi-kymmentä; 100, sata;
1,000, tuhanen, tuhot. The personal pronouns
are: minä, I; sinä, thou; hän, he, she; me,
we; te, you; he, hevat, they. The possessive
is formed by a suffix, as isä, a father; isäni, my
father; isäs, thy father; isänsä, his father;
isämme,
our father; isänne, your father; isänänse,
their father. The verbs have but two simple
tenses, viz., the present and past, the others
being periphrastic. Their conjugation is more
complicated than in any other family of
languages, expressing by certain syllables inserted
between the theme and the personal suffixes all
voices, modes, species, and other nice shades of
meaning. The infinitive shares more than in
any other language in the nature of a noun;
it comprehends the Latin gerunds, supines, and
other shades of sense, and is declinable. The
Finnish language has no separable particles,
and even affirmation is expressed by means
of the auxiliary olen, I am, and negation by
means of the verb e. By connecting several
such significant syllables into one word, the
most complicated ideas may be very precisely
expressed, which often require many separate
words in other languages. Derived words
may be formed almost indefinitely. The
construction is extremely free, as in Magyar, without
endangering the clearness of the sense; as
for instance:
Katso
|
kylväjä
|
meni
|
kylvänään,
|
ja
|
kylväisänsä
|
Lo!
|
sower
|
went
|
sow-to,
|
and
|
sowing-while
|
lankesivat
|
muutamat
|
tien
|
oheen
|
ja
|
linnut
|
fell
|
some (seeds)
|
road's
|
edge-on,
|
and
|
birds
|
tulivat,
|
ja
|
söivät
|
ne.
|
came
|
and
|
picked-up
|
them.
|
The best grammars of the language are those
of Juden (Viborg, 1818) and Koskinen (Abo,
1865), in Swedish. Finnish dictionaries have
been published in Latin and Swedish by D.
Justenius in 1745, Renvall in Latin, Swedish, and
German (Abo, 1826), C. Helenius in Swedish
(Abo, 1838), and E. Lönnrot (Helsingfors, 1853).—The
national songs or runes of the Finns may
be divided into mythological and lyrical songs.
They are sung by Runolainen (song men), to the
sound of the favorite national instrument, the
kantele, a species of harp with five wire strings.
They have also magic songs (Luvut), which
are not sung but recited in a solemn measured
tone. The songs, scattered among the people
for generations past, and some of which had
been published since the beginning of this
century, were at length collected by Lönnrot and
published at Helsingfors in 1835 under the
title of Kalevala, which work is now regarded
as the great national epic of Finland. So great
was its success that the Finnish literary society
took immediate measures for a more
comprehensive collection, and the second edition,
which appeared in 1849, contains 50 songs,
with 22,790 verses, while the first edition
contained only about half as many. A Swedish
translation of the poem by Castrén (Helsingfors,
1844) was speedily followed by a French
translation by Léouzon le Duc (2 vols. 8vo, Paris,
1845), and by a German translation by A.
Schiefner (Helsingfors, 1852). Lönnrot has
further collected about 600 ancient lyrical
songs and 60 ballads (Kanteletar, Helsingfors,