-hinen

Finnish

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *-hinën, a variant of -inen with a -h- (see the Proto-Finnic entry for more details).

Suffix

-hinen

1. Forms nouns or adjectives of belonging to or possessing a particular quality.

Usage notes

This suffix often loses the -h- in many dialects (including those that form the basis for the standard language), which can make it difficult to determine whether a suffix was originally -inen or -hinen. One sign is the form the word takes when attached to an e-stem nominal (i.e. a nominal ending in -i in the nominative form that turns into an -e- when inflected): käsi → kätinen (-inen), käteinen (-hinen). Another is the presence of a variant that retains the -h- in dialects.

Declension

See -inen.

Derived terms

Finnish terms suffixed with -hinen

References

• Hakulinen, Lauri. 1941–2000. Suomen kielen rakenne ja kehitys ('The Structure and Development of the Finnish Language'). Helsinki: Otava/Helsingin yliopisto.