hän
Finnish edit
Etymology edit
From Proto-Finnic *hän, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *sän.[1] Cognates include Erzya сон (son).
In practically all dialects (except potentially Ingrian Finnish), se is the most common third-person pronoun for people, and this is also reflected in colloquial Finnish. hän was most often used in indirect speech (as a logophoric pronoun), although in northern and eastern dialects it was used more widely in subordinate clauses.[1] The use of hän as a general third-person pronoun may thus be a literary feature.
Pronunciation edit
- IPA(key): /ˈhæn/, [ˈhæn]
Audio: (file) Audio: (file) Audio: (file) - Rhymes: -æn
- Syllabification(key): hän
Pronoun edit
hän
- (personal) he, she, one, (singular) they (only of a human being; the pronoun does not determine the sex/gender of the person)
- he, she, one, they, it (in indirect speech: referring to the subject of the main clause, regardless of whether they are a human being or not, i.e. logophoric pronoun)
Usage notes edit
- In standard Finnish, hän is generally not omitted, despite the verb showing both the person and the number (compare the usage of he (“they pl”)). This is in contrast to the first and second person pronouns which may freely be omitted, with the person being implied by the verb form.
- In colloquial and dialectal Finnish, the inanimate (demonstrative) pronoun se is mostly used instead of hän, the latter being reserved for certain particular uses such as to indicate that another speaker is being paraphrased. Yet in some others (such as Kven), both pronouns are used in the same role.
Declension edit
- Irregular. The comitative and instructive forms don't exist; the abessive is hardly used. To be more precise: the singular stem is declined like type 32 (sisar) in the singular cases, except for the accusative singular form hänet (see following note).
- In addition to the standard set of cases, hän and the other personal pronouns have a specific accusative form, hänet. This form would have been the nominative plural form of the first stem, if the word were not a personal pronoun.
- The shorter forms hällä, hältä and hälle exist for the adessive, ablative and allative respectively, but these are dated or jocular except in poetic use and some set phrases.
Declension of hän
|
Synonyms edit
- se (colloquial)
Derived terms edit
compounds
Descendants edit
- Kven: hän
See also edit
Finnish personal pronouns
References edit
Further reading edit
- “hän”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish][2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02
Ingrian edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Ala-Laukaa) IPA(key): /ˈhæn/, [ˈhæn]
- (Soikkola) IPA(key): /ˈhæn/, [ˈhæn]
- Rhymes: -æn
- Hyphenation: hän
Pronoun edit
hän
- (dialectal) Alternative form of hää
- 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 46:
- Toisille hän lapsille esimerkin näyttää.
- He sets an example for the other children.
References edit
- Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 84
Kven edit
Etymology edit
From Finnish hän, from Proto-Finnic *hän.
Pronunciation edit
Pronoun edit
hän
Declension edit
Declension of hän
|
Synonyms edit
See also edit
Kven personal pronouns
References edit
- Eira Söderholm (2017) Kvensk grammatikk, Tromsø: Cappelen Damm Akademisk, →ISBN, page 276
Swedish edit
Etymology edit
From Old Norse héðan, with influence from Middle Low German hen (“away”), both ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this”).
Adverb edit
hän
- (often somewhat solemn) away, hence (and often by implication to somewhere else)
- Han gick hän
- He walked away/hence (also a euphemism for died)
- Vi åkte hän till Säffle
- We went away/hence to Säffle (redundant, somewhat poetic or jocular)
- Hän mot nya mål!
- Away towards new goals!
Synonyms edit
Related terms edit
See also edit
Further reading edit
- hän in Svensk ordbok.
Veps edit
Etymology edit
From Proto-Finnic *hän, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *sän. Cognate to Hungarian ő. False cognate with Swedish han.
Pronoun edit
hän (genitive hänen, partitive händast)
Inflection edit
| Inflection of hän | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative sing. | hän | ||
| genitive sing. | hänen | ||
| partitive sing. | händast | ||
| partitive plur. | heid | ||
| singular | plural | ||
| nominative | hän | hö | |
| accusative | hänen | hö | |
| genitive | hänen | heiden | |
| partitive | händast | heid | |
| essive-instructive | — | — | |
| translative | — | — | |
| inessive | hänes | heiš | |
| elative | hänespäi | heišpäi | |
| illative | hänehe | heihe | |
| adessive | hänel | heil | |
| ablative | hänelpäi | heilpäi | |
| allative | hänele | heile | |
| abessive | häneta | heita | |
| comitative | hänenke | heidenke | |
| prolative | — | — | |
| approximative I | — | — | |
| approximative II | — | — | |
| egressive | — | — | |
| terminative I | — | — | |
| terminative II | — | — | |
| terminative III | — | — | |
| additive I | — | — | |
| additive II | — | — | |