Editing Consonant gradation (section)

===Finnish===

{{main|Finnish consonant gradation}}

Finnish consonant gradation generally preserves the Proto-Finnic pattern fairly well. The conditioning of syllable structure is still visible in most cases, but it is no longer productive: gradation has become a grammatical feature.

====Historical sound changes affecting realization of weak grades====

* The weak grades *p̆p, *t̆t, *k̆k of geminates coincided with plain *p, *t, *k.
* The weak grades *mb, *nd, *ŋg of nasal+stop clusters were assimilated to geminate nasals {{IPA|/mm/}}, {{IPA|/nn/}}, {{IPA|/ŋŋ/}} (''ng'').
* The weak grades *lð, *rð of liquid+{{IPA|/t/}} clusters were similarly assimilated to geminate liquids {{IPA|/ll/}}, {{IPA|/rr/}}.
* *β merged with *ʋ (''v''). This may have been lost later. For example, the 3rd person singular suffix *-pi is represented by a [[chroneme]], i.e. a lengthening of the preceding vowel; e.g. *tule-βi 's/he comes' → Old Finnish ''tuleu'' → Modern Finnish ''tulee''.
* Between two unstressed short vowels (i.e. in the weak grade of suffixal gradation), *ð and *h were lost (but not after a diphthong, cf. illative plurals in ''-oihin'', verbs in ''-oida''); these may be preserved in a variety of dialects.
* After a stressed vowel, *ð remained up until the dissolution of the Finnish dialects. It was lost entirely in Eastern Finnish, while Western Finnish dialects have varying reflexes: {{IPA|/ɾ/}} or {{IPA|/r/}} in multiple western dialects, {{IPA|/l/}} in the old Tavastian dialects, {{IPA|/ð/}} in archaic Southwestern and Northwestern dialects. As the area of {{IPA|/ð/}} shrunk throughout the 17th—19th centuries, standard Finnish {{IPA|/d/}} developed as a [[spelling pronunciation]] of orthographical ''d'', modeled after other languages such as Swedish, German and Russian.
* *ɣ also remained until the dissolution of the Finnish dialects. It was generally lost, but in the western dialects it may have become {{IPA|/j/}} (most widely between a liquid and {{IPA|/e/}}, as in ''kylki'', ''järki'' below) or {{IPA|/ʋ/}} (between two close labial vowels, as in ''puku'' below).
* The geminate affricate *cc : *c̆c (found in e.g. *meccä 'forest') was fronted to a dental fricative *θθ : *θ. This sound has been lost in most dialects. Widely in Eastern dialects, both grades became {{IPA|/ht/}}, leading to loss of gradation. Standard Finnish was left with an unalternating {{IPA|/ts/}} (''metsä'' : ''metsän''), a spelling pronunciation similar to the case of {{IPA|/d/}}. Other patterns found include unalternating {{IPA|/tt/}}; alternating {{IPA|/tt/}} : {{IPA|/t/}} (coinciding with original *tt); alternating {{IPA|/ht/}} : {{IPA|/h/}} (in Eastern dialects, coinciding with original *ht); alternating {{IPA|/ht/}} : {{IPA|/t/}}; and alternating {{IPA|/ss/}} ~ {{IPA|/s/}}.

These changes have made qualitative gradation become more complex, especially in the case of ''k''. In standard Finnish, ''k'' is the phoneme with the most possible changes. It can disappear as in ''jalka'' 'foot' → ''jalan'' 'foot-Gen', or:<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.uta.fi/~km56049/finnish/diabk.html |title= The diabolical k |access-date=2009-01-24 |work= Finnish Grammar |author= Kimberli Mäkäräinen }}</ref> 
{| class="wikitable"  style="text-align:center; margin:auto;"
|- style="background:lightgrey; color:black; border-bottom: 2px solid black;"
! Environment !! Change !! Strong !! Weak 
|-
| ''-uku-'' <br /> ''-yky-'' || ''k''→''v'' || puku <br/> kyky || puvun <br/> kyvyn
|-
| ''-lki-'' <br /> ''-rki-'' || ''k''→''j'' || kylki <br /> järki || kyljen <br /> järjen
|-
| ''-nk-'' <br /> {{IPA|/ŋk/}} || /k/→{{IPA|/ŋ/}} || sänky <br /> {{IPA|/sæŋky/}} || sängyn <br /> {{IPA|/sæŋŋyn/}}
|}
/j/ has been lost in this position in Southeastern Tavastian, Northern Bothnian and Eastern dialects, resulting in ''kurki'' (crane) : ''kuren'' (crane's) instead of the standard form ''kurjen''.

Short ''t'' also has developed more complex gradation due to various assimilations. Patterns include ''t'' : ''d'' (tie'''t'''ää : tie'''d'''än), ''rt'' : ''rr'' (ke'''rt'''oa : ke'''rr'''on), ''lt'' : ''ll'' (pe'''lt'''o : pe'''ll'''on), and ''nt'' ~ ''nn'' (a'''nt'''aa ~ a'''nn'''an).

Alternation patterns for ''p'' include ''p'' : ''v'' (ta'''p'''a : ta'''v'''an) and ''mp'' : ''mm'' (la'''mp'''i : la'''mm'''en).

====Analogical extension of gradation====

The consonant clusters {{IPA|/ht/}} and {{IPA|/hk/}} were, comprising two obstruents, not originally subject to gradation (as is still the case for similar clusters such as {{IPA|/sp/}}, {{IPA|/st/}}, {{IPA|/tk/}}). However, gradation pairs ''ht : *hð'' and ''hk : *hɣ'' were at one point introduced. The first of these patterns remains common in modern Finnish, e.g. ''vahti : vahdit'' '{{Not a typo|guard(s)}}'. The second is only found in a limited number of words, e.g. ''pohje : pohkeet'' 'calf : calves', but ''rahka : rahkat'' '{{Not a typo|[[quark (cheese)|quark]](s)}}'. Usage varies for some words with {{IPA|/hk/}}, e.g. for the plural of ''nahka'' 'leather, hide', both ''nahat'' and ''nahkat'' are acceptable.

Quantitative consonant gradation has expanded to include in addition to the pairs ''kk : k'', ''pp : p'', ''tt : t'', also ''gg : g'' and ''bb : b'' (but not ''dd : d'') in a number of recent loanwords, such as {{lang|fi|blogata : bloggaan}} 'to blog'; {{lang|fi|lobata : lobbaan}} 'to lobby'.

====Historical sound changes affecting conditions of gradation====

One important change was the loss of word-final *-k and *-h early on in the history of Finnish. This resulted in many open syllables with weak grades. In particular, the majority of nouns ending in ''-e'' are affected by this, with a weak grade in the nominative form. The imperative form of verbs also ended in a now-lost ''-k''. For examples, ''side'' 'bandage', from *''siðe'', earlier *''siðek'' (cf. Veps ''sideg'', Eastern Votic ''sidõg''); {{lang|fi|hakea}} 'to get' → ''hae!'' 'get! (imp.)' from *''haɣe'', earlier *''haɣek''. Traces of the original syllable closure can be seen in [[sandhi]] effects: these classes of words can still be analyzed to contain the assimilative word-final 'consonant' ˣ, realized as lengthening of the next word's initial consonant. Therefore, ''hae side varastosta'' 'get a bandage from storage!' is pronounced {{IPA|[hɑe‿sːide‿ʋːɑrɑstostɑ]}}, where the weak grades indeed occur in closed syllables.

The loss of ''-k'' combined with loss of ''d'' gave rise to the modern Finnish infinitive ending, which was historically *''-tak/täk''. The final *''-k'' triggered gradation, so that the ending normally became *''-dak/däk''. In turn, following the loss of ''d'' between unstressed vowels, and the loss of final *''-k'' only *''-aˣ/äˣ'' remained. Thus, {{lang|fi|hakea}} (originally *{{lang|fi|hakedak}}) has only ''-a'' as the ''d'' was lost. But in verbs like ''juo-da'' 'to drink' the /d/ remained since it followed a stressed syllable. In the case of verbs like ''tulla'' 'to come', the earlier form was *''tul-ðak'', but the ''*ð'' was assimilated to the /l/ according to the patterns described above. The original strong grade was preserved in verbs like ''hais-ta'' 'to stink' since gradation did not take place when a consonant followed /s/.

The situation appears differently in the many verbs ending in ''-ata/ätä''. These verbs seem to have preserved the strong grade in the infinitive ending, going counter to the rules of gradation. However, historically it is in fact a weak grade: the stem of the verb itself ended in *''-at/ät-'', and this is still visible in the 3rd person imperative ending ''-atkoon/ätköön''. Thus, when combined with the infinitive ending, the verb ended in *''-attak/ättäk'' (similar to the origin of the ''-ton/tön'' suffix described above). The ''-k'' then weakened the consonant from a geminate *''-tt-'' to a single *''-t-'', and later loss of ''-k'' resulted in the final form ''-ata/ätä''. However, even though this is now a single consonant, it was originally a geminate and therefore triggers the weak grade on the syllable before it. So whereas the infinitive may be for example ''hypätä'' 'to jump', its original stem was *''hyppät-'', as can be seen in the first-person singular form ''hyppään'' 'I jump', from earlier *''hyppäðen'' with loss of ''*-ð-''.

An opposite effect was caused by the loss of *''h'' and *''ð'' between unstressed vowels. Loss of ''h'' affected nouns and adjectives ending in *''-s'' or *''-h'', such as ''kuningas'' 'king'. In the nominative, this ''-s'' appeared as usual, and as the preceding syllable was closed, the weak grade ''ng'' appeared. But when a case ending such as the genitive {{Not a typo|''-(e)n''}} was added, the result was originally *''kuninkasen'', which was then weakened to *''kuninkahen'', and the loss of ''-h-'' then resulted in the modern form ''kuninkaan''. The intermediate steps are seen in ''mies'' 'man'. Here, following a stressed syllable, the ''-h-'' was not lost, so that its genitive is ''miehen''.

Similar changes affected the illative ending, which was ''-hVn'' where V was the same as the vowel preceding the ending. The ''h'' is preserved after stressed syllables, as in ''maahan'' 'into the land' (from ''maa''), but lost otherwise as in ''kotiin'' 'into the home' (from earlier *''kotihin'', from ''koti''). This explains why ''kotiin'' retains a strong grade even though a closed syllable follows it. The Pohjanmaa dialect of Finnish retains the ''-h-'', however.

Words that now end in ''-e'' are in fact very similar to those ending in ''-s''. These originally ended with ''-k'' or ''-h'' so that the nominative ended in a consonant just as ''kuningas'' and therefore the preceding syllable was in the weak grade. But after an ending was added, the weak grade ''g'' appeared, which eventually disappeared just as ''h'' did.

====Analogical limitation of gradation====
{{expand section|date=February 2012}}

While syllabic gradation remains generally productive, the distortions of its original phonetic conditions have left it essentially a morphologically conditioned process. This is particularly visible in forms that display a strong grade where a weak would be historically expected, or vice versa. [[Possessive suffix]]es, in particular, are always preceded by the strong grade, even if the suffix may cause the syllable to be closed. For example, 'our bed' is ''sänkymme'', not ''ˣsängymme''.

Strong grades may also be found in closed syllables in contractions such as ''jotta en'' → ''jotten''.

Several recent loans and coinages with simple {{IPA|/p, t, k/}} are also left entirely outside of gradation, e.g. ''auto'' (: ''auton'') 'car', ''eka'' (: ''ekan'') 'first', ''muki'' (: ''mukin'') 'mug', ''peti'' (: ''petin'', sometimes ''pedin'' ) 'bed', ''söpö'' (: ''söpön'') 'cute'. A number of proper names such as [[Alepa]], [[Arto (disambiguation)|Arto]], [[Malta]], [[Marko (given name)|Marko]] belong in this class as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kaino.kotus.fi/visk/sisallys.php?p=44 |title=VISK - § 44 Astevaihtelun ulkopuolelle jääviä sanoja |publisher=Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus |access-date=2016-10-24}}</ref>

Suffixal gradation has been largely lost, usually in favor of the weak grade. While the partitive plurals of ''kana'' 'hen' and ''lakana'' 'bedsheet' still show distinct treatment of the original ''*-ta'' (''kanoja'', ''lakanoi'''t'''a''), the partitive singulars in modern Finnish both have the weak grade (''kanaa'', ''lakanaa''), although in several dialects of older Finnish the form ''lakanata'' occurred for the latter. Similarly the participle ending ''*-pa'' is now uniformly ''-va'', even after stressed syllables; e.g. ''syö-vä'' 'eating', ''voi-va'' 'being able'. (The original forms may remain in diverged sense or fossilized derivatives: ''syöpä'' 'cancer', ''kaikki-voipa'' 'almighty'.)