# köyhällen



## Maabdreo

Here's a Christmas-themed question:

I could be wrong, but it looks like the original Finnish translation of _Varpunen jouluaamuna_ includes the line

_Siemenen pienoisen, jonka annoit köyhällen..._​
Is _köyhällen_ somehow grammatical, or was it at the time when the poem was written? 

Hyvää joulua kaikille.


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## DrWatson

That is indeed how the lyrics go. -_llen _is an archaic form of the allative case ending -_lle_.


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## Maabdreo

Did any other case endings have -n's that have disappeared?


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## StellaPolaris

DrWatson said:


> That is indeed how the lyrics go. -_llen _is an archaic form of the allative case ending -_lle_.



And the reason that the  translator chose the form _köyhällen _is, of course, the rhyming:_ pienois__en__ - köyhäll__en._
(In the original, Swedish text: _När du bjöd glad ditt bröd åt den fattige i nöd)_


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