Finnish
WALS coordinates: 62° N, 25° E
spoken in Finland
Find examples here.
Alternative Names
| Ethnologue: | |
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| Ruhlen: |
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| Routledge: |
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| Other: |
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| ISO 639-3: |
Features
| ID | Feature | Value | Area | References | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | Consonant Inventories | Moderately small | Phonology | comment | |
| 2A | Vowel Quality Inventories | Large (7-14) | Phonology | comment | |
| 3A | Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately low | Phonology | comment | |
| 4A | Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | In both plosives and fricatives | Phonology | comment | |
| 5A | Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | None missing in /p t k b d g/ | Phonology | comment | |
| 6A | Uvular Consonants | None | Phonology | comment | |
| 7A | Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | Phonology | comment | |
| 8A | Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | Phonology | comment | |
| 9A | The Velar Nasal | No initial velar nasal | Phonology | comment | |
| 10A | Vowel Nasalization | Contrast absent | Phonology | comment | |
| 11A | Front Rounded Vowels | High and mid | Phonology | comment | |
| 12A | Syllable Structure | Moderately complex | Phonology | comment | |
| 13A | Tone | No tones | Phonology | comment | |
| 14A | Fixed Stress Locations | Initial | Phonology | comment | |
| 15A | Weight-Sensitive Stress | Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity) | Phonology | comment | |
| 16A | Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems | No weight | Phonology | comment | |
| 17A | Rhythm Types | Trochaic | Phonology | comment | |
| 18A | Absence of Common Consonants | All present | Phonology | comment | |
| 19A | Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | Phonology | comment | |
| 20A | Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives | Exclusively concatenative | Morphology | comment | |
| 21A | Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives | Case + number | Morphology | comment | |
| 21B | Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection | monoexponential TAM | Morphology | comment | |
| 22A | Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 2-3 categories per word | Morphology | comment | |
| 23A | Locus of Marking in the Clause | Dependent marking | Morphology | comment | |
| 24A | Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Double marking | Morphology | comment | |
| 25A | Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Inconsistent or other | Morphology | comment | |
| 25B | Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | Morphology | comment | |
| 26A | Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Strongly suffixing | Morphology | comment | |
| 27A | Reduplication | No productive reduplication | Morphology | comment | |
| 28A | Case Syncretism | Core and non-core | Morphology |
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examples |
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| 29A | Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Not syncretic | Morphology | comment | |
| 30A | Number of Genders | None | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 31A | Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | No gender | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 32A | Systems of Gender Assignment | No gender | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 33A | Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 34A | Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | All nouns, always obligatory | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 35A | Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 36A | The Associative Plural | No associative plural | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 37A | Definite Articles | No definite or indefinite article | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 38A | Indefinite Articles | No definite or indefinite article | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 39A | Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive | Nominal Categories |
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| 40A | Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No inclusive/exclusive | Nominal Categories |
comment
examples |
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| 41A | Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Two-way contrast | Nominal Categories |
comment
examples |
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| 42A | Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Identical | Nominal Categories |
comment
examples |
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| 43A | Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Unrelated | Nominal Categories |
comment
examples |
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| 44A | Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 45A | Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Binary politeness distinction | Nominal Categories |
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| 46A | Indefinite Pronouns | Special | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 47A | Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Identical | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 48A | Person Marking on Adpositions | Pronouns only | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 49A | Number of Cases | 10 or more cases | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 50A | Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 51A | Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 52A | Comitatives and Instrumentals | Differentiation | Nominal Categories |
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examples |
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| 53A | Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 54A | Distributive Numerals | No distributive numerals | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 55A | Numeral Classifiers | Absent | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 56A | Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally similar, with interrogative | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 57A | Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive suffixes | Nominal Categories | comment | |
| 58A | Obligatory Possessive Inflection | Absent | Nominal Syntax | comment | |
| 58B | Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | Nominal Syntax | comment | |
| 59A | Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | Nominal Syntax | comment | |
| 60A | Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses | Highly differentiated | Nominal Syntax | comment | |
| 61A | Adjectives without Nouns | Without marking | Nominal Syntax | comment | |
| 62A | Action Nominal Constructions | Double-Possessive | Nominal Syntax |
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examples |
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| 63A | Noun Phrase Conjunction | 'And' different from 'with' | Nominal Syntax | comment | |
| 64A | Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Identity | Nominal Syntax | comment | |
| 65A | Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | No grammatical marking | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 66A | The Past Tense | Present, no remoteness distinctions | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 67A | The Future Tense | No inflectional future | Verbal Categories |
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examples |
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| 68A | The Perfect | Other perfect | Verbal Categories |
comment
examples |
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| 69A | Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 70A | The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 71A | The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + special negative | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 72A | Imperative-Hortative Systems | Maximal system | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 73A | The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 74A | Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 75A | Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 76A | Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 77A | Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Indirect only | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 78A | Coding of Evidentiality | Modal morpheme | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 79A | Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | None | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 79B | Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives | Imperative | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 80A | Verbal Number and Suppletion | None | Verbal Categories | comment | |
| 81A | Order of Subject, Object and Verb | SVO | Word Order | comment | |
| 82A | Order of Subject and Verb | SV | Word Order | comment | |
| 83A | Order of Object and Verb | VO | Word Order | comment | |
| 84A | Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | VOX | Word Order | comment | |
| 85A | Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Postpositions | Word Order | comment | |
| 86A | Order of Genitive and Noun | Genitive-Noun | Word Order |
comment
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| 87A | Order of Adjective and Noun | Adjective-Noun | Word Order | comment | |
| 88A | Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative-Noun | Word Order | comment | |
| 89A | Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral-Noun | Word Order | comment | |
| 90A | Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Noun-Relative clause | Word Order | comment | |
| 90C | Postnominal relative clauses | Noun-Relative clause (NRel) dominant | Word Order | comment | |
| 91A | Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word-Adjective | Word Order | comment | |
| 92A | Position of Polar Question Particles | Second position | Word Order | comment | |
| 93A | Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Initial interrogative phrase | Word Order | comment | |
| 94A | Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | Word Order | comment | |
| 95A | Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | VO and Postpositions | Word Order | comment | |
| 96A | Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun | VO and NRel | Word Order | comment | |
| 97A | Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun | VO and AdjN | Word Order | comment | |
| 98A | Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Nominative - accusative (standard) | Simple Clauses |
comment
examples |
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| 99A | Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Nominative - accusative (standard) | Simple Clauses |
comment
examples |
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| 100A | Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 101A | Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Mixed | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 102A | Verbal Person Marking | Only the A argument | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 103A | Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | Zero in all 3sg forms | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 104A | Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 105A | Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Indirect-object construction | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 106A | Reciprocal Constructions | Distinct from reflexive | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 107A | Passive Constructions | Present | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 108A | Antipassive Constructions | No antipassive | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 108B | Productivity of the Antipassive Construction | no antipassive | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 109A | Applicative Constructions | No applicative construction | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 109B | Other Roles of Applied Objects | No applicative construction | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 110A | Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Purposive but no sequential | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 111A | Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological but no compound | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 112A | Negative Morphemes | Negative auxiliary verb | Simple Clauses |
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examples |
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| 113A | Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Asymmetric | Simple Clauses |
comment
examples |
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| 114A | Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | A/Fin | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 115A | Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Predicate negation also present | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 116A | Polar Questions | Question particle | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 117A | Predicative Possession | Locational | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 118A | Predicative Adjectives | Nonverbal encoding | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 119A | Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 120A | Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Impossible | Simple Clauses |
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examples |
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| 121A | Comparative Constructions | Particle | Simple Clauses | comment | |
| 122A | Relativization on Subjects | Relative pronoun | Complex Sentences | comment | |
| 123A | Relativization on Obliques | Relative pronoun | Complex Sentences | comment | |
| 124A | 'Want' Complement Subjects | Subject is left implicit | Complex Sentences | comment | |
| 125A | Purpose Clauses | Balanced/deranked | Complex Sentences |
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| 126A | 'When' Clauses | Balanced/deranked | Complex Sentences | comment | |
| 127A | Reason Clauses | Balanced/deranked | Complex Sentences | comment | |
| 128A | Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced/deranked | Complex Sentences | comment | |
| 129A | Hand and Arm | Different | Lexicon |
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examples |
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| 130A | Finger and Hand | Different | Lexicon |
comment
examples |
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| 131A | Numeral Bases | Decimal | Lexicon |
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examples |
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| 136A | M-T Pronouns | M-T pronouns, paradigmatic | Lexicon | comment | |
| 136B | M in First Person Singular | m in first person singular | Lexicon | comment | |
| 137A | N-M Pronouns | No N-M pronouns | Lexicon | comment | |
| 137B | M in Second Person Singular | No m in second person singular | Lexicon | comment | |
| 138A | Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | Lexicon |
comment
examples |
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| 142A | Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Affective meanings | Other | comment | |
| 143A | Order of Negative Morpheme and Verb | NegV | Word Order | comment | |
| 143E | Preverbal Negative Morphemes | NegV | Word Order | comment | |
| 143F | Postverbal Negative Morphemes | None | Word Order | comment | |
| 143G | Minor morphological means of signaling negation | None | Word Order | comment | |
| 144A | Position of Negative Word With Respect to Subject, Object, and Verb | SNegVO | Word Order | comment | |
| 144B | Position of negative words relative to beginning and end of clause and with respect to adjacency to verb | Immed preverbal | Word Order | comment | |
| 144D | The Position of Negative Morphemes in SVO Languages | SNegVO | Word Order | comment | |
| 144H | NegSVO Order | No NegSVO | Word Order | comment | |
| 144I | SNegVO Order | Word&NoDoubleNeg | Word Order | comment | |
| 144J | SVNegO Order | No SVNegO | Word Order | comment | |
| 144K | SVONeg Order | No SVONeg | Word Order | comment |
