# syllable division and consonant gradation



## Gordon Freeman

Hello, everyone!

I've been having difficulties grasping the concept of the finnish syllables until I met in one book what seems like a nice and simple rule of thumb. 

*It says that a syllable  starts with a SINGLE consonant.  *

So one can deduce from this rule that after that first consonant a stand-alone vowel, a long vowel, or a diphthong has to go, and a syllable may end with a consonant claster.  

1) Is this rule correct? And what about stand-alone vowels, which are not parts of diphthongs? Do they produce a one-letter syllables of their own? Like **-a-**.  What about paired consonants K,P,T which undergo consonant gradation? Do they split in different syllables in the same manner?



 2) Another question. I met this examle  of consonant gradation.  VILKAS --> VILKKAAT. 
I understand  why VIL|KAS is in the weak grade. That is because the last syllable KAS is a closed one.  But why VILKKAAT is in the strong grade.  Now we have a long A instead of the short. But it doesn't affect the syllable division much, so the last syllable still seems to be closed.  Can you split this word in syllables and explain why it is in the strong grade?


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## Marko55

Three consonants:
kart-*ta*, pank-*ki*
So, the rule helps you in the most cases. But if the word starts with three consonants, all the syllables can't start with a single consonant:
game *str*ategy = pe-li-stra-te-gi-a

1) Yes, stand-alone vowels produce one-letter syllables of their own, e.g.:
a-sun-to

Consonant gradation, e.g.:
kuk-ka, ku-kan
tip-pa, ti-pan
hat-tu, ha-tun

2) VILK-KAAT is originally VILK-*KA*-HAT, so actually the syllable is not closed, when we think of the language history. This form is still used in the dialect of South Ostrobothnia:
South Ostrobothnia - Wikipedia
Etelä-Pohjanmaan murre – Wikipedia

In the same way we say e.g.:
Menen *kotiin*. = I go home.
This illative case is said *ko-ti-hin* in the dialect of South Ostobothnia. Compare the genitive case:
koti: *ko-din*

These old forms with *h* can still be heard in songs and poems as well:
ko-ti-*h*in vs. kotiin:




reip-pa-*h*as-ti vs. reippaasti:




ta-lo-*h*on vs. taloon:


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## Gordon Freeman

Thank you, Marko55!

I think I'm going to stick to this simple rule at this point in my studies,  since it seems to apply to the majority of situations.

I met this reference to the  'relic' consonants, which are no longer written and pronounced in the modern Finnish, but the words still act as it they were there. Sadly, the grammar books and guides which I have been using are all addressed to entry-level lerners of Finnish, and so barely mention this topic. 

I've noticed that the illative always requieres a strong stem, like essive and partitive, as opposed to genitive an all the others. But I did not know that it had to do with a relic h between the paired vowels. In some way this h still seems to emerge when the stem ends in a diphthong.

This article says that there are certain classed of nominals which are different from all the others in that their basic form is weak, and all the inflected forms are strong.

It lists the following classes:


Words ending in -e: eg. _parveke, hylje, murre_
Words ending in _-in_: eg. _kahvinkeitin, tuuletin, soitin_
Words ending in _-as_: eg. _rakas, puhdas, hammas_
Words ending in _-ton_: eg. _työtön, arvoton, unohtumaton_
Words ending in _-tar_: eg. _ystävätär, kuningatar, opettajatar_

I know that there is a relic consonant when a word ends in -e, like perhe.  From what you wrote in your post I conclude that when we inflect rakas --> rakaan, a relic h emerges between the the two a.  The other classes do not seem to be connected with relic consonants.  Is that correct?

Is there something else  about relic consonants? Maybe some other cases where they emerge? I read somethere that k may sometimes emerge as a relic consonant.


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## Marko55

The word *rakas*:
rakas > rak-kaan (rak-ka-han)

You can find more information on the relic consonants on this site:
Loppukahdennus
So, we pronounce e.g. the word _hernekeitto_ like this: [herne*kk*eitto].

There are few exceptions in the words ending in -e:
helle - helteen
BUT: nalle - *nallen*
        pelle - *pellen*

nukke - *nuken*

But in the most cases all the words ending in *a consonant* or *-e*  are inflected like this:
saa*p*as - saa*pp*aan (saap-pa-han) [weak > strong]
ra*nn*e - ra*nt*een (ran-te-hen) [weak > strong]

These classes are also connected with the relic consonant *h*:
parveke: parvekkeen (par-vek-ke-*h*en)
soitin: soittimeen (soit-ti-me-*h*en)
iloton: ilottomaan (i-lot-to-ma-*h*an)
Of course all these forms are not important when we are talking about consonant gradation (e.g. _soi*t-t*i-me-hen_).


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## Gordon Freeman

Kiitos paljon, Marko55!


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