-itse

See also: itse and itse-

Finnish

Etymology

From , consisting of the suffix 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

1. by, through; the suffix of the prolative, determines the channel by which something takes place.

   meri (“sea”) → meritse (“by sea”)

   sähköposti (“email”) → 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.

Derived terms

Finnish terms suffixed with -itse

Anagrams

• esti, etsi, seit, ties