Possessive suffix

In linguistics, a possessive suffix is a suffix attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives. Possessive suffixes do not exist in all languages; they do exist in some Uralic, Semitic, and Indo-European languages. Complicated systems are found in the Uralic languages; for example, the Nenets language has 27 (3×3×3) different forms for expressing the possessor (first, second, third person), the number of possessors (singular, dual, plural) and the number of objects (singular, dual, plural). This allows Nenets speakers to express the phrase "many houses of us two" in one wordref|Nenets-example.

Possessive suffixes in various languages

Finnish

Finnish is one language that uses possessive suffixes. The number of possessors and their person can be distinguished for the singular and plural, except for the third person. However, the construction hides the number of possessed objects when the singular objects are in nominative or genitive case and plural objects in nominative case; "käteni" may mean either "my hand" (subject or direct object), "of my hand" (genitive) or "my hands" (subject or direct object). For example, the following are the forms of "talo" ("house"), declined to show possession:

e.g. pedar"-am" my father; barâdar"-aš" his/her brother

Turkish

References

# fi_icon Johanna Laakso. "Uralilaiset kansat. Tietoa suomen sukukielistä ja niiden puhujista." WSOY 1991.

ee also

* Possessive apostrophe
* Possessive case