mikä

See also: Appendix:Variations of "mika"

Finnish

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *mi (compare Estonian mis, Veps mi), from Proto-Uralic *mi (compare Erzya мезе (meze), мее (meje), Komi-Zyrian мый (myj), Hungarian 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 Votic mikä.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmik̟æ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ikæ
• Syllabification^(key): mi‧kä
• Hyphenation^(key): mi‧kä

Pronoun

mikä

1. (interrogative) what, which

   Mikä tuo on?

   What is that?

   Mitä teet?

   What are you doing?

   Minkä annoksen tilasit?

   Which dish did you order?

2. (relative) which, that, what (see usage notes)

Usage notes

• (relative) As a relative pronoun, mikä is used as follows:

Use of mikä as a relative pronoun

1. the previous clause or sentence (joka is used instead with individual words or phrases)

   Kaikki menikin lopulta hyvin, mikä oli suuri helpotus.

   Ultimately, everything went well which was a great relief.

2. superlative or a noun modified by a superlative

   Se on parasta, mitä minulle on koskaan tapahtunut.

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

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

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

3. a pronoun not referring to a person (for a person, joka is used), when referring to a broadly abstract or undefined concept (as opposed to joka for concrete, well-defined concepts)

   Hän todisti sen, mikä oli todistettavissa.

   He proved what was provable.

   Hän sai sen, mitä halusi.

   He got what he wanted.

   Hän todisti kaiken, mikä oli todistettavissa.

   He proved everything that was provable.

4. when used as a kind of independent relative pronoun which has no referent in the previous clause: kuka is used for persons in this case

   Hän sai mitä halusi.

   He got what he wanted.

   En tiedä mitä hän haluaa.

   I don't know what he wants.

5. sometimes in the locative cases even when referring to the previous word when used to signify location or direction (in free variation with joka)

   paikka, jossa kävimme / paikka, missä kävimme ― the place (that) we visited

• mikä may behave as an indefinite pronoun with an additional word like ikinä, hyvänsä, tahansa (after mikä), or vaikka (before mikä). Some relative uses may also be indefinite:

  Oli mikä oli. (dismissive nuance)

  Whatever it was.

  (literally, “[It] was what [it] was.”)

• Informally, in questions, the partitive mitä might also be used to mean “why, what for”. The usage depends on the context, and generally includes something that makes the intended meaning (fairly) unambiguous, e.g. some other object in the sentence.

  Mitä sinä minua tähän sotket?

  What are you dragging me into this for?

  Mitä sinä siinä tuijotat?

  Why are you just staring there?

  (literally, “What are you staring at there?”)

  [Here, both interpretations are possible.]

Determiner

mikä

1. (interrogative) what, which

   Minkä takia teit noin?

   Why did you do that? / What did you do that for?

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 – – abessive – – instructive – – comitative – –

Synonyms

• (relative): mi (archaic, poetic)

Derived terms

• kuin mikä
• mihinkään
• mikin
• mikyys
• mikäkin
• mikäli
• mikään
• millainen
• milloin
• milloin mikäkin
• miltei
• mimmoinen
• minkälainen
• minne
• mistäpäin
• miten
• mitätön

compounds

• mihinpäin
• mikälie
• minkähintainen
• minkäikäinen
• minkäkokoinen
• minkäluonteinen
• minkämaalainen
• minkämakuinen
• minkämerkkinen
• minkäniminen
• minkänäköinen
• minkävärinen
• minkäänarvoinen
• minkäännäköinen

Further reading

• “mikä”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 1 July 2023

Anagrams

• Mäki, mäki

Ingrian

Alternative forms

• mi (rare)

Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *mikä. Cognates include Estonian mis and Finnish mikä.

Pronunciation

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmikæˑ]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmiɡ̊æˑ]
• 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
• mikäli
• millain
• milliin

References

• V. I. Junus (1936), Iƶoran Keelen Grammatikka‎^[2], 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^[3], →ISBN, page 73

Votic

Alternative forms

• mi

Etymology

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

The -k- being retained before the front vowel -ä (instead of mičä, attested in Kattila but possibly a hypercorrection) is irregular for an inherited word, and has not been fully explained. Its broad distribution makes it unlikely that it would (solely) represent influence from Ingrian or Finnish, although some degree of influence is likely.

Pronunciation

• (Luutsa, Liivčülä) IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmʲikʲæ]
• (Jõgõperä) IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmʲikʲæ]
• (Central Votic) IPA^(key): /ˈmikæ/, [ˈmikæ]
• (Eastern Votic) 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 mine	—
accusative	migä mine	—
partitive	mitä	—
illative	migäse minese	—
inessive	migäz minez	—
elative	migäss miness	—
allative	migälle minelle	—
adessive	migäll minell	—
ablative	migält minelt	—
translative	migässi minessi	—
'Standardized' inflection based on the Vaipooli dialects; see WT:AVOT. For dialectal differences between case endings, see Appendix:Votic dialects. **) the terminative is formed by adding the suffix -ssaa to the short illative (sg) or the genitive. ***) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka to the genitive.

References

• Hallap, V.; Adler, E.; Grünberg, S.; Leppik, M. (2012), “mikä”, in Vadja keele sõnaraamat [A dictionary of the Votic language]‎^[4], 2nd edition, Tallinn