ceremoniassa

Ceremoniassa is often encountered as a form in Finnish writing, but it is not the standard inessive form for the noun meaning ceremony. The canonical Finnish inessive singular of the noun is seremoniassa, which translates to “in the ceremony” or “during the ceremony.” The form ceremoniassa is generally considered a misspelling or nonstandard variant. Finnish uses the inessive suffix -ssa/-ssä to indicate location or time within something, and in this case the correct stem is seremoni- from seremoni(a).

In usage, seremoniassa denotes being inside or participating in a ceremony, or referring to events occurring during a ceremony. It can appear in news reports, descriptions, or narratives, for example: Seremoniassa puhuttiin arvoista ja perinteistä, ja tilaisuuden järjestelyt olivat sujuvat. The form ceremoniassa might be found in deliberately nonstandard writing, typographical errors, or when the writer has mistaken the standard stem, but it is not accepted as correct Finnish in formal contexts.

Etymologically, seremoniassa derives from the noun seremonia, borrowed into Finnish from Latin ceremōnia via other European languages. The Finnish suffix -ssa marks the inessive case, and the form undergoes standard vowel harmony and assimilation rules typical for Finnish noun inflection. Related forms include seremoniassa (inessive singular), seremoniat (nominative plural), and seremonian (genitive singular).

See also: seremonia, inessive case, Finnish noun inflection, seremonia (etymology).