Editing Genitive case (section)

==Finnic genitives and accusatives==
[[Finnic languages]] ([[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]], etc.) have genitive cases.

In Finnish, prototypically the genitive is marked with ''-n'', e.g. ''maa&nbsp;– maan'' "country&nbsp;– of the country". The stem may change, however, with [[consonant gradation]] and other reasons. For example, in certain words ending in consonants, ''-e-'' is added, e.g. ''mies&nbsp;– miehen'' "man&nbsp;– of the man", and in some, but not all words ending in ''-i'', the ''-i'' is changed to an ''-e-'', to give ''-en'', e.g.  ''lumi&nbsp;– lumen'' "snow&nbsp;– of the snow". The genitive is used extensively, with animate and inanimate possessors. In addition to the genitive, there is also a [[partitive case]] (marked ''-ta/-tä'' or ''-a/-ä'') used for expressing that something is a part of a larger mass, e.g. ''joukko miehiä'' "a group of men".

In Estonian, the genitive marker ''-n'' has elided with respect to Finnish. Thus, the genitive always ends with a vowel, and the singular genitive is sometimes (in a subset of words ending with a vocal in nominative) identical in form to nominative. However, there are multiple strategies to form genitives from nominative forms ending in consonants, including addition of an addition vowel, [[syncope (phonology)|syncope]], or even [[disfix]]ation.<ref>[http://www.eki.ee/dict/qs2018/muuttyybid.html Muuttüübid]</ref>

In Finnish, in addition to the uses mentioned above, there is a construct where the genitive is used to mark a surname. For example, ''Juhani Virtanen'' can be also expressed ''Virtasen Juhani'' ("Juhani of the Virtanens").

A complication in Finnic languages is that the [[accusative case]] ''-(e)n'' is homophonic to the genitive case. This case does not indicate possession, but is a syntactic marker for the object, additionally indicating that the action is [[Telicity|telic]] (completed). In [[Estonian language|Estonian]], it is often said that only a "genitive" exists. However, the cases have completely different functions, and the form of the accusative has developed from *''-(e)m''. (The same sound change has developed into a synchronic mutation of a final ''m'' into ''n'' in Finnish, e.g. genitive ''sydämen'' vs. nominative ''sydän''.) This homophony has exceptions in [[Finnish language|Finnish]], where a separate accusative ''-(e)t'' is found in pronouns, e.g. ''kenet'' "who (telic object)", vs. ''kenen'' "whose".

A difference is also observed in some of the related [[Sami languages|Sámi languages]], where the pronouns and the plural of nouns in the genitive and accusative are easily distinguishable from each other, e.g., ''kuä'cǩǩmi'' "eagles' (genitive plural)" and ''kuä'cǩǩmid'' "eagles (accusative plural)" in [[Skolt Sami language|Skolt Sami]].