Friday, October 21, 2011

Estonian and Finnish cases

The noun cases are approximately the same, except that

Estonian has terminative, which in Finnish is expressed with non-suffix postposition
The Estonian comitative is not exactly the same as the Finnish comitative, and that makes me a bit confused...

Terminative is a case, with suffix replacing the preposition "until"
Comitative is a case, with suffix replacing the preposition "with"
In Finnish comitative is "with" + possessive suffix, and it's always in plural form, even when used as singular.

ikä - iga
iät - ead
iän - iga, ea
ikien - igade
ikää - iga, igat
ikiä - igasid
iässä - eas (igas)
iissä - igades
iästä - east (igast)
iistä - igadest
ikään - easse (igasse, ikka)
ikiin - igadesse
iällä - eal (igal)
iillä - igadel
iältä - ealt (igalt)
iiltä - igadelt
iälle - eale (igale)
iille - igadele
iäksi - eaks (igaks)
ijiksi - igadeks
ikään asti - eani (igani)
ikiin asti - igadeni
ikänä - eana (igana)
ikinä - igadena
iättä - eata (igata)
iittä - igadeta
(iän kaa) - eaga
ikineen - igadega

Anyway, I have put a couple of Estonian texts in "learning with texts" and added the words to Anki. I like LWT, but Anki... nope. I prefer my flashcards in paper.

Now, I am wondering if it is time to have folded flashcards... have "iga" (age) on one side, age (or ikä) on the other and that list above inside the folded card...
And also do the same with verbs...

Another thing is that I have problems with prepositions. Now, a lot of people have found the cases easier to learn if they are considered as just prepositions, but postpositions and written as one word. I wonder if seeing prepositions as case suffixes, but just written apart and before the word...
(Nope, doesn't work like that. I tried it out with my husband who speaks Danish, Swedish and English. You just have to learn the prepositions by ear. Dang!)

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