äänua

Äänua is a Finnish verb that denotes the act of producing or emitting sound. It belongs to a class of Finnish verbs formed from the noun ääni (sound) with the verbal suffix -ua, producing an action verb related to sound production. In contemporary Finnish, äänua is relatively rare in everyday speech and is most often found in literary, historical, or descriptive contexts.

Semantically, äänua can describe a range of situations in which sound is created, from vocalization by people or animals to sounds produced by objects, machinery, or natural phenomena. Finnish has a number of specialized verbs for particular sounds—soida for ringing, ulvoa for howling, etc.—and äänua is typically used when the emphasis is on the act of emitting sound itself rather than on the source or type of sound.

Etymology and related forms: The root is the noun ääni (sound), and the suffix -ua marks a verbal action derived from a noun. The word is related to broader sound-related vocabulary such as ääni and äänetön (silent).

See also: ääni, soida, ulvoa, kaikuminen.