kiven

Kiven is the genitive singular form of the Finnish noun kivi, which means stone or rock. It is used to indicate possession or association, roughly corresponding to “of the stone” or “the stone’s” in English. In everyday Finnish, kiven appears in noun phrases that describe attributes of stones or relate stones to objects or places.

Etymology and morphology: The base kivi comes from the Finnic language family and is cognate with Estonian kivi. The genitive singular kiven is formed by adding the suffix -n to the stem kivi, following regular Finnish genitive patterns. The word inflects in other cases (for example, nominative singular kivi, partitive kiveä, plural nominative kivet, plural genitive kivien).

Usage and examples: Common phrases include kiven väri (the color of the stone), kiven koko (the size of the stone), and kiven muoto (the shape of the stone). The expression kiven päällä means on top of the stone, while kiven takana can be used to describe something behind the stone in a spatial context.

Notes: As a genitive form, kiven primarily functions to attribute qualities to a stone or indicate possession in noun phrases. It is not a separate word with a meaning beyond its grammatical role and does not stand alone as a separate semantic unit beyond the possessive sense.

See also: kivi; Aleksis Kivi.