-itse

See also: itse and 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

1. 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 makes 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