-lainen

lainen -läinen Finnish Etymology 1 fi demonym From fi urj-fin-pro *-lainën; equivalent to fi -la toponym toponym suffix inen. Cognate with et -lane, vep -laine. Attested since at least the Bible translation of 1548, which uses it in Mark 7.26 (fi Grekilainen) and Luke 4.27 (fi Syrialainen), among other places. Pronunciation Does not automatically cause secondary stress Suffix adjective noun läinen laise Combined with a place name, forms the noun for the inhabitant of a place; or an adjective meaning "of or relating to (the place)". fi Viro Estonia virolainen Estonian fi Savo Savonia savolainen Savonian fi association Combined with a name, forms an adjective for a member of an organization or other defined group, a follower of philosophy etc. fi Hegel de -läinen hegeliläinen Hegelian fi kokoomus kokoomuslainen fi person Combined with a common noun, forms nouns for people characterized by this noun. fi eläke pension -läinen eläkeläinen pensioner fi vuokra rent vuokralainen tenant, lessee fi diminutive Forms various diminutives; also used in surnames. fi repo (dated) fox repolainen fox nickname, poetic Usage notes Usually appended to the genitive or nominative singular stem. Place names already ending in fi -la often do not duplicate the suffix (although the suffix can always be kept when talking about Finnish municipalities, resulting in words ending in fi -lalainen/fi -läläinenfi Tiina Manni-Lindqvist Kysyttyä: Karjalaiset ja pirkkalaiset https://kielikello.fi/karjalaiset-ja-pirkkalaiset Kielikello 3/2013 2026-05-14 https://web.archive.org/web/20260514020927/https://kielikello.fi/karjalaiset-ja-pirkkalaiset/ 14 May 2026), and their adjective forms may be formed with simply fi -inen. An example is fi Karjala Karelia Karelia → fi karjalainen Karelian, not ˣfi karjalalainen. However, there are some exceptions: fi Karjala municipality (a former municipality in Southwest Finland) + fi -lainen is indeed fi karjalalainen. Declension Noun: -lai a Adjective: adj -lai a Derived terms fi demonym fi association fi person fi diminutive References Etymology 2 fi similarity Derived from fi laji kind, sortlaji as fi laji kind, sort inen (compare fi lailla). The origin as a separate word can still be seen in the imperfect accommodation to vowel harmony. The suffix has been reinforced and influenced by the somewhat similar sounding fi -llinen (e.g. dialectal fi millinen for fi millainen). Pronunciation 1 automatically causes secondary stress, due to the fact that this suffix was originally a component in a compound Suffix adjective laise Combined with a pronoun, forms an adjective relating to the kind or nature of a person or an object. fi -moinen kaltainen fi eri erilainen different fi eräs eräänlainen kind of (a) fi mikä minkälainen / millainen what kind of? fi sama samanlainen similar, of the same kind fi se sellainen such, of that kind fi tämä tällainen / colloquial tälläinen of this kind fi viisi viiden five viidenlainen of five kinds usually used in the plural Combined with the genitive form of an adjective, forms an adjective indicating a smaller degree of the quality than that described by the original adjective. fi -hko fi heikko heikonlainen relatively weak fi oikea oikeanlainen of a right kind (but not the right one) fi viileä viileänlainen sort of cool Usage notes As this suffix is historically a compound, it is not subject to vowel harmony in the standard language; with the exception of the word fi yhtäläinen, it always has back vowel harmony. In colloquial use it may have a front vowel variant, if not the speaker has not been explicitly taught to avoid that, which proves the rule moot. The modifier is in the genitive case if it can be inflected as such. Declension adj -lai a Derived terms fi similarity References Anagrams fi aeilnn Anneli Linnea alinen