Puhuttavansa

Puhuttavansa is a Finnish linguistic term that describes a specific inflected form derived from the participle puhuttava (the one to be spoken to) combined with the third‑person possessive suffix -nsä. The resulting form is a noun phrase meaning “the person to be spoken to,” i.e., the addressee belonging to someone. In gloss, puhuttavansa can be understood as “his/her addressee,” or more literally, “the one to be spoken to of him/her.” The form is not common in everyday language and is primarily encountered in grammatical descriptions, historical texts, or dialectal usage.

Etymology and morphology: The base is the present active participle puhuttava, referring to someone who is to be spoken to. The possessive suffix -nsä (third person) attaches to indicate possession relative to a subject, yielding puhuttavansa. This illustrates Finnish’s ability to fuse participles with possessive morphology to express complex relative relations within a single word.

Usage notes: Because puhuttavansa is relatively rare outside linguistic analysis, contemporary Finnish typically conveys the same meaning with more explicit constructions such as henkilön, jolle puhutaan (the person to whom one is speaking) or puhuttava henkilö (the person to be spoken to). The form is therefore of interest mainly for understanding Finnish word-formation patterns and older or dialectal varieties.

See also: Finnish grammar, participles, possessive suffixes.