Like all students of the language, I learnt that in Finnish verbs come in 6 flavours which shape how they are conjugated. Much to my relief however, I also found out that at least the verb endings are the same for pretty much all verbs. So for example, the verb “puhua” (“to speak”) is conjugated as follows in the present tense (the pronoun is optional):
Pronoun | Verb | |
I: | (Minä) | puhun |
You: | (Sinä) | puhut |
He/She: | (Hän) | puhuu |
We: | (Me) | puhumme |
You: | (Te) | puhutte |
They: | (He) | puhuvat |
Quite straight forward and logical so far. However, when you want to build the negative form (“I don’t speak” etc.) by introducing the adverb “ei” (“no/not”), that's when things get a little weird:
| Pronoun | Adverb | Verb | |
I: | (Minä) | en | puhu |
You: | (Sinä) | et | puhu |
He/She: | (Hän) | ei | puhu |
We: | (Me) | emme | puhu |
You: | (Te) | ette | puhu |
They: | (He) | eivät | puhu |
Suddenly, the verb is no longer being conjugated, but the adverb “not” is! Who’s ever heard of a "not" conjugation?
It’s as if the verb has stopped being active, and the adverb has taken over. Admitedly, one could argue that in effect this is what is actually happening: the “not” is actively preventing the “speaking” action. But one would have to be a dedicated lateral thinker (or a Finn) to come up with such a construction.
Very odd.
Sure, it's weird, but the same mechanism is applied to other liguistic structures as well.
ReplyDeleteJust think of it as a verb so it'll hurt less. :) The same applies to Saami languages, which are the next closest to Finnish after Estonian.
ReplyDeleteActually, it also happens in Karelian which is the closet language to Finnish.
ReplyDelete1p. en ole, emmo ole
2p. et ole, etto ole
3p. ei ole, ei olla
Yes, it's something us Uralic peoples are very proud of: the unique negative verb! ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's by no means unique to Finnish! Just think about this:
ReplyDeleteI don't speak, you don't speak, he doesn't speak
In fact, English is even crazier in that respect -- it conjugates the negative verb in the past tense as well! (c.f. he didn't speak v.s. hän ei puhunut)
I am sure it's not unique to Finnish, but it's certainly not common in other languages.
DeleteI can't quite follow the connection with "don't/doesn't" though. These forms are merely contractions of the more formal "do not / does not", and certainly not examples of the negative pronoun being declined.