inessiivina

In Finnish grammar, inessiivina refers to the inessive case, the locative case used to indicate being inside or within something. The term is often encountered in linguistic descriptions or grammars as a way to discuss the function of the inessive, rather than in everyday speech. The inessive marks location in space or within a boundary and answers questions such as where something is.

Morphology of the inessive (inessiivina) is formed by adding specific suffixes to the noun stem. For singular nouns, the ending is -ssa or -ssä, depending on vowel harmony and word shape. For example, talo (house) becomes talossa (in the house). For plural, the ending is -issa or -issä, as in taloissa (in the houses). The endings apply to most Finnish nouns, including those ending in consonants, vowels, or varying stems, with adjustments for phonological harmony.

Usage and semantics: the inessive is used to express location inside a place or object. It can be literal, as in talossa (in the house), or more abstract, such as being within a period or domain. In sentences, the inessive typically follows the noun it marks and can interact with adjectives and possessives in the same case. It contrasts with other locative cases like elative (out of), illative (into), and adessive (on, at).

Relation to other cases: in Finnish, the inessive is one of several locative cases that provide spatial or figurative meaning. While inessiivina indicates the case’s function in descriptions or analyses, everyday usage usually presents the form directly on the noun (for example, talossa, taloissa) rather than the label itself.

See also: Finnish case system, inessive, locative cases.