Syntymänä

Syntymänä is the essive form of the Finnish noun syntymä, meaning birth. In Finnish grammar, the essive case expresses a temporary state or role, roughly corresponding to the English “as” or “in the capacity of.” The form syntymänä is formed from the stem syntymä by adding the essive suffix -na/-nä, producing a word that literally reads as “as a birth” or “in the capacity of birth.”

Usage and function in Finnish are governed by the general role of the essive case. The essive is commonly used to describe ongoing or temporary states, or to indicate a role or function in a given situation. For most everyday nouns, the essive forms are more frequent with adjectives or occupational roles (for example, actor, teacher, etc.). The specific usage of syntymänä is rare in contemporary Finnish and would typically appear in linguistic descriptions, historical texts, or stylistic/poetic contexts rather than in everyday speech.

In practice, syntymänä is mainly of interest to students and scholars of Finnish grammar as an example of the essive morphology. It illustrates how Finnish marks a state or role with the -na/-nä suffix, even for a noun as conceptually unusual as birth. Because the notion of “birth” as a temporary role is not a common everyday construction, syntymänä is not a common lexical item in ordinary prose.

See also: Finnish grammar, essive case, noun cases, syntymä.