Lesson 11 - Telling time 1

In the following lesson, you will learn how to say basic words related to time.

Case suffixes throughout the lesson will be marked in red to help you become more acquainted with them.

By adding -la/-lä to the end of the words that express times in a day.

Menen koulhuun aamla.

I go to school in the morning.

Matti oon aina vaipunu päivälä.

Matti is always tired during the day.

Hänelä oon kväänin tiima iltapäivälä.

He has Kven lesson in the afternoon.

Menen nukkuhan varhain yöllä.

I go to sleep early at night.

Is it "-la" or "-lä"? Is it "-ssa" or "-ssä"?

Probably you have noticed that case endings may have different end vowels. In Kven, this is called vowel harmony (vokaaliharmonii).

Vowel harmony is a phonological phenomenon where vowels within a word or a morpheme are required to belong to the same class of front or back vowels. Consider the following examples:

As we can see, the case suffix and preceding word stem are aligned. This means that words or morphemes are formed with either front vowels (ä, ö, y) or back vowels (a, o, u), maintaining consistency throughout the word.

The only two special cases are neutral vowels (e, i), which can either go with the front or back bowels in a word. Take a look at the following words:

As we can see in the examples, "i" is used with both front vowel "ä" and back vowel "u" in different words. If "e" or "i" is used in a word with front vowels (ä, ö, y), we use the suffix "-lä"; if it is used in a word with back vowels (a, o, u), we use the suffix "-la".

Pay closer attention to words that only use "e" or "i", as they are always followed by front vowels (ä, ö, y) when taking suffixes.

Here is a summary chart for vowel harmony:

There is also an interesting concept that means 24 hours. This word is a loanword from Sami:

Saatan oppiit 50 sannoi ulkomuistoo yhđessä janturissa.

I'm able to memorize 50 words in a day.