-itse
Finnish
Etymology
From Proto-Finnic *-ic'ëC, consisting of the suffix *-icci plus an additional consonant. The additional consonant is only found in Finnish; the other Finnic languages have forms deriving from the vowel-final form. Cognate with Estonian -itsi, Karelian -ičči, Veps -iči.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /-itseˣ/, [-its̠e̞(ʔ)]
Suffix
-itse
- by, through; the suffix of the prolative, determines the channel by which something takes place.
- meri (“sea”) + -itse → meritse (“by sea”)
- sähköposti (“email”) + -itse → sähköpostitse (“by email”)
Usage notes
Although commonly analysed synchronically as -tse added onto the plural stem of the word, in origin the suffix simply began with -i- (like -inen), and no plural stem was involved.
Most grammars treat the prolative not as a separate case because it seems not to occur in concorded form (an adjective in PROLATIVE + a noun in PROLATIVE); allegedly only with nouns in this form (e.g. postitse (“by post”); puhelimitse (“by phone”); etc.). However, there is one example which makes the prolative pass the concord test and therefore make the PROLATIVE a case:
- Hän hoiti asian pitkitse kirjeitse. ― He took care of the matter with a long letter.
Despite this, the prolative is widely held to be an adverbial case, not a proper case.