maaliskuu

maalis- +‎ kuu (“month”). There are two theories regarding the origin of the name. The first posits that the first word is derived from maallinen (“earthly, earthen”), as in "March, the month the snow begins to melt to show the first spots of bare earth". The other states that, while there has been influence from maa, it actually derives from mahla (“(tree) sap”) (compare Võro mahlakuu (“April”)). Neither of these theories is certain, however, as both have their own phonetic problems.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑːlisˌkuː/, [ˈmɑ̝ːlis̠ˌkuː]

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -uː
• Syllabification^(key): maa‧lis‧kuu
• Hyphenation^(key): maalis‧kuu

maaliskuu

1. March (month)

• “in March” is expressed with the inessive case (maaliskuussa). When the day is specified, the partitive case is used (e.g. 1. maaliskuuta), but the genitive is also possible in a structure like maaliskuun 1. päivä.

• “maaliskuu”, 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 3 July 2023