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Consonant gradation is the term used for a set of alternations which are widespread in Finnish grammar. They also occur in other Finnic and Uralic languages, see Consonant gradation for a more general overview. ==Grades== Consonant gradation involves an alternation in consonants, between a "strong grade" in some forms of a word and a "weak grade" in others. The strong grade usually appears in the nominative singular of nominals, and the infinitive of verbs, but there are some special types of words where these forms have the weak grade. Whether the strong or the weak grade appears is determined by grammatical rules. Each suffix or inflectional ending triggers either the strong grade or weak grade, and this inherent in that particular suffix or ending. The weak grade originally appeared when a consonant stood at the start of a closed syllable (a syllable ending in a consonant), but the loss of consonants in certain cases has created exceptions to this so that the process is no longer predictable. The consonants subject to this change are the plosives (''p'', ''t'', ''k'') when preceded by a vowel, sonorant (''m'', ''n'', ''l'', ''r'') or ''h''. Plosives that are preceded by any other obstruent do not display gradation. Gradation is the simplest for geminated (long) plosives. These are simply reduced to their short versions in the weak grade. This type of gradation is called ''quantitative gradation''. Gradation patterns for single plosives are more varied and unpredictable. As a general rule, voiceless plosives become voiced sounds, but there are several special types. This kind of gradation is called ''qualitative gradation''. In some cases, the weak grade of a single plosive becomes a copy of the preceding consonant. This is ''assimilative gradation''. Some words have exceptional gradation patterns that don't precisely fit into the general scheme explained above. For example, the plural (weak grade) of ''poika'' is ''pojat'', not ''poiat''. The ''k'':''j'' gradation pattern is particularly unpredictable, as it does not always apply. In some words, ''k'' disappears altogether where it might be expected to become ''j'', such as ''selkä'' : ''selät'' (''seljät'' also occurs, rarely), or ''pyyhkeet : ''pyyhe''. The gradation of loanwords may include new gradation patterns that are not native to Finnish: 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Finnish consonant gradation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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