kieli

Finnish

Etymology 1

From Proto-Finnic *keeli, from Proto-Uralic *käle. Cognates include Karelian kieli, Estonian keel, Northern Sami giella, Moksha кяль (käľ), Erzya кель (keľ), Eastern Khanty кӧԓ (köł) and Nganasan сиәде.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkie̯li/,

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ieli
• Syllabification^(key): kie‧li

Noun

kieli

1. (anatomy) tongue (organ)
2. (by extension) tang, tongue, projecting part
   1. (music) string (tightly tensioned wire that produces a tone)
   2. (music) reed (vibrating part in the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument)
   3. clapper, clanger, tongue (in a bell)
   4. tongue (in a shoe)

      Synonym: iltti

3. language (form of communication)
   1. language, tongue (particular form of oral or spoken communication used by a community)

Usage notes

Can be used to distinguish meanings in terms for languages, such as islanti (“Icelandic”) being replaced with the more precise islannin kieli (literally “the language of Icelandic; Icelandic language”). In this case, the preceding word is in the genitive. This is used particularly when speaking where there is no discernible difference between Islanti (“Iceland”) and islanti (“Icelandic (language)”) without relying on context.

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• Kven: kieli
• Meänkieli: kieli

References

Further reading

• “kieli”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-01

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkie̯li/, (indicative)
• IPA^(key): /ˈkie̯liˣ/, (imperative, connegative)
• Rhymes: -ieli
• Syllabification^(key): kie‧li

Verb

kieli

1. inflection of kieliä:
   1. third-person singular past indicative
   2. present active indicative connegative
   3. second-person singular present imperative
   4. second-person singular present active imperative connegative

Anagrams

• keili, leiki, liike

Karelian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *keeli, from Proto-Uralic *käle. Cognates include Finnish kieli and Estonian keel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkie̯lʲi/
• Hyphenation: kie‧li

Noun

kieli (genitive kielen, partitive kieltä or kieldä)

1. tongue
2. language
3. clanger, clapper

Declension

References

• A. V. Punzhina (1994) “kiel'i”, in Словарь карельского языка (тверские говоры) [Dictionary of the Karelian language (Tver dialects)], →ISBN
• P. M. Zaykov et al. (2015) “язык”, in Venäjä-Viena Šanakirja [Russian-Viena Karelian Dictionary], →ISBN

Kven

Etymology

From Finnish kieli, from Proto-Finnic *keeli, from Proto-Uralic *käle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkie̯li/

Noun

kieli (genitive kielen, partitive kieltä)

1. tongue
2. language

References

• Eira Söderholm (2017) Kvensk grammatikk, Tromsø: Cappelen Damm Akademisk, →ISBN, page 293

Livvi

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *keeli. Cognates include Finnish kieli and Estonian keel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkie̯li/
• Hyphenation: kie‧li

Noun

kieli (genitive kielen, partitive kieldy)

1. tongue
2. language
3. clapper (of a bell)

Declension

Derived terms

(compounds):

References

• Olga Žarinova (2012) Pagizemmo Karjalakse [Let's speak Karelian], St Petersburg, →ISBN, page 10
• Tatjana Boiko (2019) Suuri Karjal-Venʹalaine Sanakniigu (livvin murreh) [The Big Karelian-Russian dictionary (Livvi dialect)], 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 105