Lapsenkielen uudissanat

Neologisms in Finnish children’s language

This book examines innovative derived words and compounds used by Finnish-speaking children.
The first derivational type of verbs has the productive and transparent TTA-suffix (e.g. kaatua ‘fall over’ => kaaduttaa ‘overturn’), and most early adjectives have the inen-suffix (e.g. kasvi ‘plant’ => kasvinen ‘with many plants’). As for the nouns, children produce such derivational innovations as instruments derived with the in-suffix (e.g. paistaa ‘to roast’ => paistin ‘grill’, pelastaa ‘rescue’ => pelastin ‘rescue tool’), local nouns derived with the lA-suffix (e.g. Timo => Timola ‘Timo’s home’), and mUs-derivatives (e.g. piirtää ‘draw’ => piirtämys ‘drawing’).

The first compound neologisms are based on the transparent models of the caregivers. Later innovative compounds are diversified but mostly so transparent that they are easily understood, such as isosormi ‘big finger’ in the meaning of ‘thumb’, kalatelevisio ‘fish television’ in the meaning of ‘aquarium’, takanimi ‘back name’ in the meaning of ‘family name’, takaruoka ‘back food’ in the meaning of ‘dessert’, and yöaurinko ‘night sun’ in the meaning of ‘(full) moon’.