Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic/minä
Proto-Finnic
Etymology
From Proto-Uralic *minä.
The exact development of the nominative form *minA and the inflected stem *minu- is unclear. Traditionally, it has been thought that the *-u in oblique forms originates from a dual inflection, which has otherwise been lost (compare the Proto-Samic first-person dual pronoun *monōj). More recently, however, this has been questioned. Kallio (2021) points out that in South Estonian (including Võro), the nominative vowel is in fact a back vowel *a, unlike in most other Finnic languages where it is *ä, and the inflection stem vowel is *-o- instead of *-u-. He considers *-u- primary, but doesn't leave out the possibility that *a is primary, or that the original form may have even been *min.[1] This ties in to wider discussion about the exact form this pronoun had in Proto-Uralic as well.
Pronoun
*minä
Inflection
| Note: The Proto-Finnic declension system is yet to be reconstructed in detail. What is presented here is only one possibility. | |||
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | *minä | — | |
| accusative | *minun | — | |
| genitive | *minun | — | |
| partitive | *minuda | — | |
| inessive | *minussa *minuhna |
— | |
| elative | *minusta | — | |
| illative | *minuhën | — | |
| adessive | *minulla | — | |
| ablative | *minulta | — | |
| allative | *minulën *minulëk |
— | |
| essive | *minuna | — | |
| translative | *minuksi | — | |
| instructive | *minun | — | |
| comitative | *minunëk | — | |
| abessive | *minutta | — | |
Descendants
- Estonian: mina, ma
- Finnish: minä, (colloquial/dialectal) mä, mää, miä, mie, mnää
- Kven: mie
- Ingrian: miä
- Karelian:
- Livonian: minā, ma
- Livvi: minä
- Ludian: minä
- Veps: minä
- Võro: ma, maq
- Votic: miä
References
- ^ Petri Kallio (2021) “Kaksikko aina kaunihimpi? Itämerensuomalaisten possessiivisuffiksien taustaa”, in Taina Saarikivi, Janne Saarikivi, editors, Turhan tiedon kirja: Tutkimuksista pois jätettyjä sivuja (Kirjokansi; 291) (in Finnish), pages 157-173
- “mina”, in [ETY] Eesti etümoloogiasõnaraamat [Estonian Etymological Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2012
- Itkonen, Erkki, Kulonen, Ulla-Maija, editors (1992–2000), Suomen sanojen alkuperä [The Origin of Finnish Words][1] (in Finnish) (online version; note: also includes other etymological sources; this source is labeled "SSA 1992–2000"), Helsinki: Institute for the Languages of Finland/Finnish Literature Society, →ISBN
- Kallio, Petri (2020–) “*min-A”, in Yhteissuomalainen sanasto [Common Finnic Vocabulary][2] (in Finnish)