Finnish plural names (was: De (los) Estados Unidos)

From: Toni Keskitalo (tonique_at_jippii.invalid)
Date: 09/17/04 

Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 15:35:38 +0300

pkarjala@paju.oulu.fi (Pekka Karjalainen) writes:
> Some Finnish place names may be an exception to that rule of
> derivational suffixes always joining singular forms. For example, there is
> a place called "Virrat" (lit. rivers), that I am told is declined by the
> locals *not* as it were a plural ("menen Virrattiin"). Thus, they may very
> well say "Virratlainen", or not. I don't know. You have to look up these
> things to know...

Really? If so, it seems like a local phenomenon. On the other hand, a
guy from Virrat didn't correct me when I said "Virroilla" ('in Virrat'),
which is the standard plural allative form.

There are certain place and family names in Pohjanmaa that end in -t,
eg. Viirret and Kunit. The standard genitives would be "Viirretin" and
"Kunitin". I can't recall their background, nor I have any idea about
their old inflection.

Toni 

-- 
# NB!  You should replace ".invalid" with ".fi" when e-mailing me #
"Jos aivastan, koko seinä kaikuu."  (Tommi Liimatta)