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''Nykysuomen sanakirja'' (''The Dictionary of Modern Finnish'' or ''The Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish'') is a
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 ...
dictionary published between 1951 and 1961 in six separate volumes. The dictionary was edited by the
Finnish Literature Society
The Finnish Literature Society ( fi, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura ry or fi, SKS) was founded in 1831 to promote literature written in Finnish. Among its first publications was the ''Kalevala
The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th ...
and published by
WSOY. It is the first monolingual Finnish dictionary and has over 201,000 headwords. It is the most comprehensive Finnish language dictionary. Throughout the years, it has enjoyed major academic significance. The dictionary has never been updated: all later editions contain the same content, which reflects the language as it was before the mid-20th century. The need for a modern dictionary has led to the publication of ''
The New Dictionary of Modern Finnish
''Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish'' ( fi, Kielitoimiston sanakirja, previously known as the ''New Dictionary of Modern Finnish'') is the most recent dictionary of the modern Finnish language. It is edited by the Institute for the Languages ...
''.
History
The dictionary was initiated on 17 November 1927 by the decision of
Eduskunta
The Parliament of Finland ( ; ) is the unicameral and supreme legislature of Finland, founded on 9 May 1906. In accordance with the Constitution of Finland, sovereignty belongs to the people, and that power is vested in the Parliament. The ...
because, reportedly, there had been problems with word
ambiguity and clarity in law-making. The initial roadmap was drafted in 1927 and 1928 and the Finnish Literature Society was given a grant for the development of the book. The first editor-in-chief was professor Martti Airila, who was followed in 1939 by professor Matti Sadeniemi.
The
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
almost completely stalled the editorial work. In 1945 the dictionary had reached the letter
L. The first volume was published in 1951, followed by five more volumes. The last volume was printed in 1961. An abbreviated "people's edition" was published in 1967, consisting of three volumes.
The original version remains unchanged—the dictionary only reflects the language as it was no later than 1961. There have been numerous reprintings: 15th edition was published in 2002.
Because the dictionary only reflects relatively dated language, and because the
colloquial language
Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conversa ...
in particular has greatly changed, it has been partly replaced by
KOTUS's dictionaries during the 1990s, especially in regards to today's modern language. They include: ''The Basic Dictionary of the Finnish Language'' (''Suomen kielen perussanakirja''), published between 1990 and 1994, and its revised version ''
The New Dictionary of Modern Finnish
''Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish'' ( fi, Kielitoimiston sanakirja, previously known as the ''New Dictionary of Modern Finnish'') is the most recent dictionary of the modern Finnish language. It is edited by the Institute for the Languages ...
'' (''Kielitoimiston sanakirja''), published in 2006. However, ''Nykysuomen sanakirja'' remains the most comprehensive Finnish language dictionary as it contains over 201,000 headwords, far more comprehensive than the under 100,000 headwords of the ''Research Institute for the Languages of Finland'' dictionaries.
Style
''Nykysuomen sanakirja'' is normative-descriptive dictionary: in addition to definitions of the words it also contains recommendations for proper use of the words. Each headword has a number, which gives its index in the word inflection table as presented in the beginning of the book. Words are defined by compact descriptions, and with the use of
synonyms, followed by example phrases and
compound word
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when ...
examples.
See also
* ''
The New Dictionary of Modern Finnish
''Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish'' ( fi, Kielitoimiston sanakirja, previously known as the ''New Dictionary of Modern Finnish'') is the most recent dictionary of the modern Finnish language. It is edited by the Institute for the Languages ...
''
External links
Nykysuomen sanakirja in pdf format
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nykysuomen Sanakirja
Finnish dictionaries
1951 non-fiction books