juurien

Juurien is the genitive plural form of the Finnish noun juuri, which means "root." In Finnish grammar, many nouns that end in -i form their genitive plural with -ien, making juuren (singular) and juurien (plural) the common forms. Juurien is used when referring to more than one root or to relationships involving multiple roots.

The word juuri has several senses. In botany, it refers to the underground organ of a plant that anchors the plant and absorbs water and minerals. In linguistics and language study, juuri can denote the root or base morpheme of a word, from which related forms are derived. The plural form juurien can appear in phrases about multiple plant roots or about the roots of several words.

Examples of usage include phrases such as kasvien juurien kunto (the condition of the plants’ roots), juurien rakenne (the structure of the roots), and juurien kehitys (the development of the roots) in botanical contexts. In linguistic discussion, one might speak of sanojen juurien tutkimus or sanojen juurien etymologia (the study or etymology of word roots) to refer to multiple word roots.

Etymology-wise, juuri originates from Proto-Finnic and has cognates in other Finnic languages, such as Estonian juur. The form juurien represents the standard genitive plural for the noun juuri in modern Finnish and is routinely used in written and spoken language when referring to several roots or to root-related phenomena.