Sample derivations

To illustrate word derivation in Finnish, the following list contains direct and indirect derivations of the word äly (brains, intellect, intelligence). The list is not exhaustive. It contains the direct derivations in alphabetic order and then, under each of them, indirect derivations based on it, etc. Normal dictionaries do not contain all of these derivations, but they are all in actual use, though perhaps rare.

• älykkö intellectual person
  • älykkömäinen that looks/is like an intellectual person, intellectual-like
    • älykkömäisyys property of looking/being like an intellectual person
• älykäs intelligent
  • älykkyys intelligence
  • älykkäästi intelligently
• älyllinen intellectual
  • älyllisyys intellectuality
  • älyllistää to intellectualize
    • älyllistyä to be intellectualized
      • älyllistyminen act/process of being intellectualized
    • älyllistäjä a person who intellectualizes
    • älyllistäminen intellectualization
    • älyllistämätön not intellectualized; not intellectualizing
  • älymystö intelligentsia, the highbrown
  • älytä to grasp, to realize, to understand
    • älyäminen act/process of grasping
    • älyämätön that does not grasp
      • älyämättömyys the fact that someone does not grasp
    • älytön senseless, foolish
      • älyttömyys senselessness, foolishness
      • älyttömästi senselessly, foolishly

The word äly has got new meanings in modern times, referring to “intellect” in computers and systems. Thus, e.g. älypuhelin is often used to mean “smart phone”. Such changes have also affected the meanings of derivations. For example, in modern language, one may refer to liikenteen älyllistyminen to express how traffic has been “intellectualized”, made “smarter”, in the sense of being monitored and controlled by more and more advanced automatic systems.