The distributive case (
abbreviated
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
) is used on nouns for the meanings of ''per'' or ''each.''
In
Hungarian it is ''-nként'' and expresses the manner when something happens to each member of a set one by one (e.g., ''fejenként'' "per head", ''esetenként'' "in some case"), or the frequency in time (''hetenként'' "once a week", ''tízpercenként'' "every ten minutes").
In the
Finnish language
Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedis ...
, this
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
type is rare, even rarer in the singular. Its ending is ''-ttain/-ttäin''.
The basic meaning is "separately for each". For example, ''maa'' ("country") becomes ''maittain'' for an expression like ''Laki ratifioidaan maittain'' ("The law is ratified separately in each country"). It can be used to distribute the action to frequent points in time, e.g., ''päivä'' (day) has the plural distributive ''päivittäin'' (each day).
It can mean also "in (or with) regard to the (cultural) perspective" when combined with a word referring to an inhabitant (''-lais-''). Frequently Finns (''suomalaiset'') say that '' suomalaisittain tuntuu oudolta, että ...'', or "in the Finnish perspective, it feels strange that ...".
Further reading
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Distributive Case
Hungarian language
Grammatical cases