-uus

uus Uus UUs uus- Finnish Alternative forms fi -us quality see the usage notes Etymology From fi urj-fin-pro *-uc *-uc ~ *-uuc; traditionally it has been argued that the short vowel is original, and that the development of the suffix has been significantly influenced by analogy (see details below); however, a long vowel has also been proposed as primary. Analogical developments of the declension, based on SKRK The oblique plural forms originally declined like those of the fi käsi type, but were replaced by plurals in -ks- from the type 39 (fi vastaus) declension, formed on the analogy of the suffix fi -s nominal. Words that had acquired a nominal sense early on have crossed over entirely to type 39 (fi vastaus): e.g. fi sisarus sibling, originally a semantic extension from fi *sisarus > fi sisaruus siblinghood; fi vanhus old person, originally a semantic extension from *vanhus > fi vanhuus oldness. The long vowel appearing after consonants originates from a contraction *-ude- > *-ue- > -uu- in the genitive singular and nominative plural of bisyllabic stems, in which the third-syllable unstressed e was assimilated. This was generalized to other case forms of such words as well. In trisyllabic stems such as fi korkea → fi korkeus, fi rakas → fi rakkaus, the suffix would in all inflected forms gain secondary stress, preventing the loss of *-d-. From here *-d- was then reintroduced in the gen. sg. and nom. pl. of bisyllabic stems. Root-final consonants in trisyllabic stems were by contrast often lost (e.g. fi *korkeduden > fi korkeuden, fi *rakkahuden > fi rakkauden), leading to the regular retention of short -u- especially after vowels. The rare exceptions to this such as fi sisar → fi sisaruus have however also acquired the long-vowel allomorph. Pronunciation Suffix noun yys Forms nouns from adjectives or other nouns, expressing a quality of being that which is described: -ness, -hood, -ity, -th, -ship fi punainen red punaisuus redness -uus fi pyhä holy pyhyys holiness -yys fi jyrkkä steep jyrkkyys steepness -yys fi hauras brittle hauraus brittleness -us fi kaunis beautiful kauneus beauty -us fi komea handsome komeus handsomeness -us fi leveä wide leveys width -ys fi nerokas ingenious nerokkuus ingenuity -uus fi mestari champion mestaruus championship -uus Usage notes As a main rule, the suffix is added to the stem of the adjective, replacing any final vowel: fi kova hard kovuus hardness fi kylmä cold kylmyys coldness fi paksu thick paksuus thickness fi suuri big suuruus size fi sininen sinise- blue sinisyys blueness The stem usually remains in the strong grade, but some exceptions remain as evidence of the original short vowel. In particular, all derivatives based on comparatives show the weak grade, e.g. fi alempi lower → fi *alemmus > fi alemmuus lowerness, rather than fi **alempuus. As noted above, the suffix additionally appears shortened to fi -us quality whenever it is preceded by a second vowel. Note that this includes contracted long vowels, as in fi *harmaɣa > fi harmaa gray → fi harmaus grayness. Derivatives from adjectives ending in fi -is may in some cases show an unexpected alternation to fi -e-, as in the above-seen fi kauneus in place of expected fi **kaunius. Some exceptions to this overall scheme occur, e.g. fi äiti mother → fi äitiys motherhood, in place of expected fi **äityys. Very rarely, both allomorphs may even occur in parallel, e.g. fi lapsi child → fi lapsuus childhood; period of life, yet fi lapseus childhood; state of being a child. With past participles, the use of this suffix is somewhat more complicated. In the case of past active participles (fi -nut), the suffix is not directly attached to the stem. Instead, an intermediate fi -inen -is- is added, resulting in a suffix like fi -isuus -(e)isuus (e.g. fi kuollut > fi kuolleisuus, fi estynyt > fi estyneisyys, fi uupunut > fi uupuneisuus). With past passive participles (fi -ttu), the suffix is added directly to the stem (fi tunnettu > fi tunnettuus), but these can sound somewhat contrived even to native speakers, who may be inclined to avoid them. Declension -uu a Derived terms fi fi -isuus -uinen References Further reading 175 Ominaisuus käsitteenä: UUs-sanojen ominaisuuksia 176 Muita UUs-sanojen merkityksiä: heikkous, teollisuus 177 Pitkä vs. lyhyt U: korkeus ja ohuus 178 Mitä U:n edellä: kauneus, alttius, lapsuus, katoavaisuus Anagrams fi suu suu Ingrian Etymology From izh urj-fin-pro *-uc. Cognates include fi -uus and et -us. Pronunciation Suffix -yys Forms nouns from adjectives, expressing a quality; -ness izh syvä deep syvvyys depth Usage notes The suffix is always appended to the oblique stem. When following a short stressed syllable, the long form -uus is used. In all other cases, the alternative form -us is used instead: izh pitkä pitä- pittuus izh vanha vanh- vanhus Note that since the suffix izh -kas always carries secondary stress, the derivatives in -uus also always contain a long vowel: izh voimakas voimakka- voimakkuus Declension Derived terms izh References 58 Latin Alternative forms la -vus Etymology la -uus :inh itc-pro:*-wos 2 1 Pronunciation -uus stressed on the antepenult Suffix la suffix forms adjectives on verbal stems la contiguus, la succiduus, la vacuus Usage notes The form la -vus is used after vowels, l, and r, and -uus after all other other consonants, with the exception of qu. In this last case, the form la -us is used. Declension -uus Derived terms la