Karjalla

Karjalla is the adessive singular form of the Finnish noun karja, which means cattle or livestock in general. The base word karja is a collective noun that can function as a mass noun in many contexts, and it commonly refers to a herd of domesticated animals kept on a farm. In plural usage, karja can also be rendered as karjat, though many speakers treat it as a singular collective noun.

In Finnish grammar, the adessive case marked by -lla/-ällä (here karjalla) expresses location or accompaniment. Thus karjalla can indicate being at a location associated with cattle (for example a farm or pasture where cattle are present) or being with the cattle in a given context. The form is mainly found in agricultural, livestock, and farm-management discourse, and is less common outside farming-related topics.

Related forms include karjalle (to the cattle) and karjasta (from the cattle), which illustrate how the same stem is used across different cases to encode direction, origin, or spatial relation. The term karja also forms compounds such as karjatila (cattle farm) and karjatalous (cattle farming or cattle economy).

Usage note:

- Karja and its inflected forms are typically encountered in discussions about farming, grazing, breeding, and animal husbandry.

- While karja often functions as a unit referring to livestock as a whole, karjat can be used when referring to multiple herds or groups of cattle.

See also: karja, karjatila, karjatalous.