-ttain

A variant of earlier and still dialectal -ttaen, probably from *-ttaden (possibly related to Estonian -ti, -te and Votic -ttaa), re-extracted from the second infinitive instructive forms of verbs ending in -ttaa. The instructive case has distributive meanings in dialects, with such uses attested in Kalevala.

-ttain (front vowel harmony variant -ttäin, linguistic notation -ttAin)

1. Forms distributive adverbs.

   ‎aste (“grade”) + ‎-ttain → ‎asteittain (“gradually”)

   ‎päivä (“day”) + ‎-ttain → ‎päivittäin (“daily, every day”)

   ‎tusina (“dozen”) + ‎-ttain → ‎tusinoittain (“dozens of”)

   Me myymme ostereita tusinoittain.

   We sell oysters by the dozen.

   Aukiolle kokoontui tuhansittain ihmisiä.

   People gathered on the square in their thousands.

2. Forms adverbs expressing manner.

   ‎kiinalainen (“Chinese”) + ‎-ttain → ‎kiinalaisittain (“in a Chinese way”)

   ‎tusina (“dozen”) + ‎-ttain → ‎tusinoittain (“by the dozen”)

   ‎sivu (“page”) + ‎-ttain → ‎sivuittain (“page by page”)

   Hän äänsi nimensä ruotsalaisittain.

   He pronounced his name in a Swedish way.

   Suomalaisittain Vancouverin olympialaiset menivät surkeasti.

   The Vancouver Olympics went really badly for Finns.

3. Forms adverbs that express position.

   ‎pitkä (“long”) + ‎-ttain → ‎pitkittäin (“lengthwise”)

   ‎loma (“gap, space in between”) + ‎-ttain → ‎lomittain (“interlocked”)

   ‎sivu (“side”) + ‎-ttain → ‎sivuttain (“sideways”)

• This suffix is usually appended to the weak plural stem; see examples above.

• Antti, tatin, tinat