hän

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Finnish

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *hän, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *sän. Cognates include Erzya сон (son).

In practically all dialects (except potentially Ingrian Finnish), se is the most common third-person pronoun for people, and this is also reflected in colloquial Finnish. hän was most often used in indirect speech (as a logophoric pronoun), although in northern and eastern dialects it was used more widely in subordinate clauses. The use of hän as a general third-person pronoun may thus be a literary feature.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈhæn/,
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -æn
  • Syllabification(key): hän

Pronoun

hän

  1. (personal) he, she, one, (singular) they (only of a human being; the pronoun does not determine the sex/gender of the person)
  2. he, she, one, they, it (in indirect speech: referring to the subject of the main clause, regardless of whether they are a human being or not, i.e. logophoric pronoun)

Usage notes

  • In standard Finnish, hän is generally not omitted, despite the verb showing both the person and the number (compare the usage of he (they pl)). This is in contrast to the first and second person pronouns which may freely be omitted, with the person being implied by the verb form.
  • In colloquial and dialectal Finnish, the inanimate (demonstrative) pronoun se is mostly used instead of hän, the latter being reserved for certain particular uses such as to indicate that another speaker is being paraphrased. Yet in some others (such as Kven), both pronouns are used in the same role.

Declension

  • Irregular. The comitative and instructive forms don't exist; the abessive is hardly used. To be more precise: the singular stem is declined like type 32 (sisar) in the singular cases, except for the accusative singular form hänet (see following note).
  • In addition to the standard set of cases, hän and the other personal pronouns have a specific accusative form, hänet. This form would have been the nominative plural form of the first stem, if the word were not a personal pronoun.
  • The shorter forms hällä, hältä and hälle exist for the adessive, ablative and allative respectively, but these are dated or jocular except in poetic use and some set phrases.

Synonyms

  • se (colloquial)

Descendants

  • Kven: hän

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Junttila, Santeri; Kallio, Petri; Holopainen, Sampsa; Kuokkala, Juha; Pystynen, Juho, editors (2020–), “hän”, in Suomen vanhimman sanaston etymologinen verkkosanakirja (in Finnish), retrieved 2024-01-01

Further reading

Ingrian

Pronunciation

Pronoun

hän

  1. (dialectal) Alternative form of hää
    • 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 46:
      Toisille hän lapsille esimerkin näyttää.
      He sets an example for the other children.

References

  • Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 84

Kven

Etymology

From Finnish hän, from Proto-Finnic *hän.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

hän

  1. he, she (animate)

Declension

Synonyms

See also

References

  • Eira Söderholm (2017) Kvensk grammatikk, Tromsø: Cappelen Damm Akademisk, →ISBN, page 276

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse héðan, with influence from Middle Low German hen (away), both ultimately related to Proto-Germanic *hiz (this).

Adverb

hän

  1. (often somewhat solemn) away, hence (and often by implication to somewhere else)
    Han gick hän
    He walked away/hence (also a euphemism for died)
    Vi åkte hän till Säffle
    We went away/hence to Säffle (redundant, somewhat poetic or jocular)
    Hän mot nya mål!
    Away towards new goals!

Synonyms

Related terms

See also

Further reading

Veps

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *hän, from Proto-Finno-Ugric *sän. Cognate to Hungarian ő. False cognate with Swedish han.

Pronoun

hän (genitive hänen, partitive händast)

  1. he, she

Inflection

Inflection of hän
nominative sing. hän
genitive sing. hänen
partitive sing. händast
partitive plur. heid
singular plural
nominative hän
accusative hänen
genitive hänen heiden
partitive händast heid
essive-instructive
translative
inessive hänes heiš
elative hänespäi heišpäi
illative hänehe heihe
adessive hänel heil
ablative hänelpäi heilpäi
allative hänele heile
abessive häneta heita
comitative hänenke heidenke
prolative
approximative I
approximative II
egressive
terminative I
terminative II
terminative III
additive I
additive II

References

  • Zajceva, N. G.; Mullonen, M. I. (2007), “он”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary], Petrozavodsk: Periodika