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<P align="justify"> Early Proto-Finn … <P align="justify"> Early Proto-Finnic was the immediate common [[Proto-language|proto-language]] of the [[Modern Saami languages|Saami]] and [[Finnic languages|Baltic-Finnic languages]]. It is believed to have been spoken around the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga about 3000 years ago, The sound system of Early Proto-Finnic can be completely reconstructed from the Baltic-Finnic and Saami languages. The morphological features can also be ascertained to a great extent on the basis of these common sources. There are about 600 words with extant cognates (words descended from a common ancestor). </P>
<P align="justify"> In terms of its sound system, Early Proto-Finnic is very close to Proto- Finno-Ugric and its ancestor, Proto-Uralic. The most significant innovation is the appearance of <i>a</i> round <i>o</i> vowel in non-initial syllables in addition to the back <i>a</i>, front <i>ä</i> and <i>i</i> of the ancestor language, which is reflected for example in the North Saani word <i>buoððu</i> dam). Those grammatical features that are found in both language groups can be reconstructed: for example cases such as the nominative (singular <i>Ø</i> (= no ending), plural <i>-t</i>), accusative (singular <i>-m</i>) and genitive (singular <i>-n</i>, plural <i>-j</i>). One of the innovations of Early Proto-Finnic was the accusative plural ending, which began to be formed out of the genitive plural and partitive singular (originally an ablative case <i>-ta</i>). Locative cases included both general (lative <i>-n, -k, -s,</i> locative-essive <i>-na</i> and partitive <i>-ta</i>) and specialized (internal locatives: <i>-sin</i> (illative) <i>-sna</i> (inessive) <i>-sta</i> (elative), translative <i>-ksi</i>, and prolative <i>-ko</i>) forms as well as other adverbial cases: comitative (<i>-jna</i>) and abessive (<i>-ptak</i>). A series of possessive suffixes separately for one or more possessed entities (or separately for the nominative and genitive) can be reconstructed from the modern Saami and Baltic-Finnic languages as well as other related languages. In verb conjugation the innovations of Early Proto-Finnic possibly include the infinitive suffix <i>-tak</i> and two conditional forms created out of affixes, one of which is represented in the conditional mood of North Saami and the other in the potential. The imperative also adopted new forms in Early Proto-Finnic.</P>
<P align="justify"> The lexicon of Early Proto-Finnic borrowed words from both the Baltic languages and [[Proto-Germa|Proto-Germanic]]. It is not always easy to distinguish a common inheritance from Early Proto-Finnic from horizontal borrowing between the Saami and Baltic-Finnnic languages as they have lived in continuous close proximity to one another, and words that been adopted by one language from another may have been adapted to conform with the phonological structure of the borrowing language. In the case of Baltic loan words, it is not certain whether they were borrowed at all into Early Proto-Finnic or whether they possibly passed into [[Proto-Saami|Proto-Saami]] through Proto-Finnic. It is easier to distinguish more recent borrowings from the older inherited vocabulary.</P> the older inherited vocabulary.</P> +
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