-nen

Originally a variant form of -inen. The -i- was dropped in certain dialects, particularly nouns with more than two syllables prior to the suffix. The distinction between using -nen for nouns (including nouns with two or fewer syllables in the root) and -inen for adjectives is a later literary invention, resulting in what were originally two variants of the same suffix being artificially separated in meaning.^[1]

-nen

1. Forms diminutive nouns or terms expressing affection.

   ‎lapsi (“child”) + ‎-nen → ‎lapsonen (“kid”)

   ‎pala (“piece”) + ‎-nen → ‎palanen (“small piece”)

   ‎kulta (“gold, dear”) + ‎-nen → ‎kultanen (“darling”)

   ‎tuuli (“wind”) + ‎-nen → ‎tuulonen (“gentle wind, breeze”)

   ‎Ukko (“the God of Thunder”) + ‎-nen → ‎ukkonen (“thunder”)

2. Forms surnames of association (surnames of w:Virtanen type), by now devoid of meaning.

   ‎virta (“river”) + ‎-nen → ‎Virtanen

3. (colloquial, dialectal) Alternative form of -inen.

• Surnames ending in -nen were first recorded in Savonia (and to a somewhat lessex extent Karelia) in the early 16th century, with -nen affixed to nicknames (Korhonen) and vernacular forms of given names (Heikkinen) after the ancestor or patriarch of a family. In the 19th century surnames were required of all Finns, and many new names were created by adding -nen to topographic terms (Ahonen) and to words describing natural phenomena (Aaltonen).
  • 38% of Finns had a surname ending in -nen in 1985.
• Should not be confused with -inen with which it may be conflated in colloquial speech and some dialects. For example, keltanen may appear to be kelta + -nen, but is actually a colloquial form of keltainen, itself kelta + -inen.
• As with -inen, -nen nominals have a combining form that replace the suffix with an -s-, which is used whenever they are followed by another part in a compound word: e.g. ukkonen (> ukkos-) + myrsky = ukkosmyrsky.

Back vowel harmony declension (includes vowels a, o, u)

Front vowel harmony declension (includes vowels ä, ö, y)

• -inen
• -lainen
• -llinen
• -mainen

• Sirkka Paikkala: Se tavallinen Virtanen, SKS 959 (2004), →ISBN

• -nne

-nen

1. Rōmaji transcription of ねん