Minuksi

[AldenG]

If the object is merely to use -ksi with a name or personal pronoun, then here's a setup:

--Katso hei, onko tuo Jussi?
--Ei, emmä usko, kun se/toi/tuo on liian pitkä Jussiksi.
Alternatively, and less preferably
--Ei, emmä usko, kun se/toi/tuo on liian pitkä häneksi.

Of course that's a semantically different situation from the ones originally presented, a simpler, more literal one.

It would be interesting to know the order in which various translative idioms developed, such as liian A ollakseen B and liian A B:ksi. In English, there would undoubtedly be people who had studied that. With Finnish it becomes more of an issue of how best to use scarce resources, I imagine.

[Rob A.]

It would be interesting to know the order in which various translative idioms developed, such as liian A ollakseen B and liian A B:ksi. In English, there would undoubtedly be people who had studied that. With Finnish it becomes more of an issue of how best to use scarce resources, I imagine.

I'm in no position to offer any meaningful insights into the use of such idioms....however I'm sure that all of this will be "buried" somewhere in various Finnish academic papers, treatises and what not. I do know that there is a long...very long, history of "grammatical analysis", if I can put it that way....by Finnish, and other, grammarians....longer, I believe ...but am not sure ...even than for languages such as English and German....though probably not French....

Of course, all this "analysis" would have been done in the rarefied atmosphere occupied by the relatively few learned people of the distant past...And, perhaps, an example of good ol' Finnish tetrapyloctomy....

Finnish literacy at close to 100% goes back a long, long time....spurred by the Swedish kyrkolagen of 1686, which required people to be able to read....[writing ability, though took a bit longer].... The law seems to have been intended to make sure the peasants could read the Bible... The "state" must have derived some benefit from this...as nothing ever really is done for the "benefit" of the peasants....

[Edit: Oh ...and the cynic in me demands I state the obvious....as to how the peasants "rewarded" the Kingdom for bestowing this "benefit"... Well...they also now had the ability to read "subversive" material as well... The result of this rising literacy in Europe in general was more startlingly obvious in France...the Enlightment lead to the Revolution which, of course, resulted in modern Europe...but between then and now, France endured a long period of turmoil ...well over one hundred years..... I think any "rational" person would have stepped back from the brink if they could have foreseen what was coming....]

[Pursuivant]

Well in the merry old England you coul avoid the noose being able to read - "benefit of clergy".