Tilallisina

Tilallisina is a Finnish term used to refer to people who hold land as tenants. It is the plural translative form of tilallinen, a noun meaning “tenant” or “leaseholder” in historical agrarian contexts. The root tila means “farm” or “estate,” and the suffix -lainen denotes a person associated with or belonging to that thing. Thus tilallinen originally designated someone who occupied and leased a farm rather than owning it outright.

Tilallisina functions as a grammatical form rather than a standalone concept; it is used to express “as tenants” when describing a group. In modern Finnish, the word tilallinen is mainly encountered in historical or legal texts related to tenancy arrangements, and tilallisina appears in contexts describing multiple tenants acting in that capacity.

Historical context and usage. In Finland, tilalliset were tenant farmers who leased farmland from landowners under various tenancy arrangements. The tenancy system and its social implications were central to agrarian history and land reform debates in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, the term tilallinen is largely of historical interest, with everyday language favoring more common terms for tenancy such as vuokralainen (tenant) or vuokra-asukas (renter).

Related terms and concepts, such as torppari (a smallholder on a torppa) and the broader category of farm tenancy, appear in discussions of Finland’s rural history. Tilallisina, as a form, remains primarily a linguistic and historical usage rather than a term in contemporary everyday speech.