mikä

mikä

See also: mika and Mika

Finnish

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *mi, from Proto-Uralic *mi. The nominative and genitive singular forms, which would have otherwise been monosyllabic, have been extended with -kä (as with joka and kuka), possibly even in Proto-Finnic (*mikä), as reflected in Ingrian mikä and Voro miä. Other cognates include Estonian mis, Veps mi, Erzya мезе (meze), мень (menʹ), Hungarian mi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmikæ]
• Rhymes: -ikæ
• Syllabification^(key): mi‧kä

Pronoun

mikä (stem mi-)

1. (interrogative) which, what.
2. (indefinite) whatever.
3. (relative) which, that, what.

Usage notes

• (relative) Mikä is used to refer to a whole sentence (1), a superlative or a noun modified by a superlative (2) or a pronoun not referring to a person (3):

• (1) Kaikki menikin lopulta hyvin, mikä oli suuri helpotus.

  Ultimately, everything went well which was a great relief.

• (2) Se on parasta, mitä minulle on koskaan tapahtunut.

  It/That is the best that has ever happened to me.

• (2) Se on paras elokuva, minkä (~jonka) olen koskaan nähnyt.

  It/That is the best film that I have ever seen.

• (3) Hän todisti sen, mikä oli todistettavissa.

  He proved what was provable.

• (3) Hän todisti kaiken, mikä oli todistettavissa.

  He proved everything that was provable.

Determiner

mikä

1. (interrogative) what, which

Inflection

• Irregular. Some cases are never used.

Declension of mikä noun case singular plural adverbial form singular plural nominative mikä mitkä superessive – – genitive minkä minkä delative – – partitive mitä mitä sublative minne – accusative mikä, minkä mitkä lative – – inessive missä missä temporal milloin – elative mistä mistä causative miten – illative mihin mihin multiplicative – – adessive millä millä distributive – – ablative miltä miltä temp. dist. – – allative mille mille prolative – – essive minä minä situative – – translative miksi miksi oppositive – – instructive – – abessive – – comitative – –

Synonyms

• (relative): mi (archaic, poetic)

Derived terms

• kuin mikä
• millainen
• minkälainen

Further reading

• "mikä" in Kielitoimiston sanakirja (Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish).

Anagrams

• Mäki, mäki

---

Ingrian

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *mikä, from Proto-Uralic *mi. Cognates include Estonian mis and Finnish mikä.

Pronunciation

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmikæ]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmiɡ̊æ]
• Rhymes: -ikæ
• Hyphenation: mi‧kä

Pronoun

mikä

1. (interrogative) what?
   • 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 42:

     Mikä ono, arvatkaa?

     What is it, guess?

2. (indefinite) whatever
3. (relative) which, that, what
   • 1936, N. A. Iljin and V. I. Junus, Bukvari iƶoroin șkouluja vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 52:

     Möö määmmä sitä teetä, minen näytti meille Lenin.

     We follow this way, which Lenin showed us.

Declension

Declension of mikä
	singular	plural
nominative	mikä	mit
genitive	minen
partitive	mitä
illative	mihe
inessive	mis
elative	mist
allative	mille
adessive	mil
ablative	milt
translative	miks
essive	minennä
*) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl)

Derived terms

• mikkää
• miks
• mikälee
• millain

 

References

• V. I. Junus (1936) Iƶoran Keelen Grammatikka‎, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 100
• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 309
• Olga I. Konkova; Nikita A. Dyachkov (2014) Inkeroin Keel: Пособие по Ижорскому Языку‎, →ISBN, page 73

---

Votic

Alternative forms

• mi

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *mikä, from Proto-Uralic *mi.

Pronunciation

• (Luuditsa, Liivtšülä) IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmikæ]
• Rhymes: -ikæ
• Hyphenation: mi‧kä

Pronoun

mikä

1. (interrogative) what
2. (relative) which, that, what
3. (indefinite) something, whatever

Determiner

mikä

1. Synonym of milläin (“what kind of, which”)

Inflection

Inflection of mikä
	singular	plural
nominative	mikä	migäd
genitive	migä	—
accusative	migä	—
partitive	mitä	—
illative	migäse	—
inessive	migäz	—
elative	migässe	—
allative	migäle migälle	—
adessive	migälle migäll	—
ablative	migälte	—
translative	migässi	—
**) the terminative is formed by adding the suffix -ssaa to the short illative or the genitive. ***) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka to the genitive.