Sanankäänne

Sanankäänne is a term used in Finnish linguistics to describe deliberate alterations of a sentence’s word order to affect emphasis, tone, or rhythm. It covers various forms of rearrangement that move elements other than the canonical subject to prominent positions, often for rhetorical effect. The concept is closely related to, but broader than, inversion or fronting, and it can appear in both spoken language and literary texts.

Etymologically, sanankäänne combines sana, meaning “word,” and käänne, meaning “turn” or “reversal.” In academic usage, it is part of the study of Finnish word order variation, alongside more specific notions such as inversion (käänteinen sanajärjestys) and topic fronting.

Usage and function. Sanankäännöksiä are common in formal rhetoric, poetry, and everyday speech when a speaker wants to highlight a particular element or create a stylistic effect. Finnish allows relatively free word order because of its case marking, which makes such rearrangements grammatical without changing core meaning. The effect often depends on what is placed in focus, at the front of the clause, or in a contrasted position.

Examples. Inversion: Kirjaa luin minä eilen. (I read a book yesterday.) Ketään emme nähneet. (We did not see anyone.) In these cases, the fronted element gains emphasis or topical relevance, illustrating how sanankäänne shapes information structure rather than altering lexical content.

See also. Inverse word order, topicalization, and related concepts in Finnish syntax. The term is used across descriptive linguistics and stylistics, with emphasis on how word order contributes to meaning and emphasis.