Finnish locative system
Encyclopedia
The Finnish language
has eight locative cases, and some Eastern dialects symmetrify the system with the exessive case. These can be classified according to a three-way contrast of entering, residing and exiting a state, and there are three different systems of these cases.
(The symbol "V" in the illative case denotes an epenthetic vowel, which is the preceding vowel in Finnish, e.g. tie → tiehen, and the -h- elides between two short vowels, e.g. ryhmä → ryhmähän → ryhmään.)
It is immediately noticeable from the table that the "exiting" forms (sta/lta/nta) have the same consonant as the "residing" forms (ssa/lla/na) added with the Finnish partitive case
ending -ta. This may be traced into a Proto-Uralic ablative ending, which is preserved in what is now the partitive case
. Also, the Finnish system is somewhat simpler than in the Hungarian language
, where there is a separate system for "to the top", "on top", and "off from the top".
The exessive case is not used in standard Finnish, but it is found in Savo Finnish
and Karelian
.
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
has eight locative cases, and some Eastern dialects symmetrify the system with the exessive case. These can be classified according to a three-way contrast of entering, residing and exiting a state, and there are three different systems of these cases.
| System | Entering | Residing | Exiting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inner | -(h)Vn "into" (illative Illative case Illative is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "into ". An example from Hungarian is "a házba"... ) |
-ssa "in" (inessive Inessive case Inessive case is a locative grammatical case. This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is "talo·ssa" in Finnish, "maja·s" in Estonian, "etxea·n" in Basque, "nam·e" in Lithuanian and "ház·ban" in Hungarian.In Finnish the inessive case is typically formed by adding... ) |
-sta "from (in)" (elative Elative case See Elative for disambiguation.Elative is a locative case with the basic meaning "out of".... ) |
| Outer | -lle "onto" (allative Allative case Allative case is a type of the locative cases used in several languages. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages which do not make finer distinctions.-Finnish language:In the Finnish language, the allative is the fifth of the locative cases, with the... ) |
-lla "on" (adessive Adessive case In Uralic languages, such as Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, the adessive case is the fourth of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "on". For example, Estonian laud and laual , Hungarian asztal and asztalnál... ) |
-lta "from (at/on)" (ablative Ablative case In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ... ) |
| State | -ksi "into as" (translative Translative case The translative case is a grammatical case that indicates a change in state of a noun, with the general sense of "becoming X" or "change to X".... ) |
-na "as" (essive Essive case The essive or similaris case carries the meaning of a temporary location or state of being, often equivalent to the English "as a ".In the Finnish language, this case is marked by adding "-na/-nä" to the stem of the noun.... ) |
-nta "from being as" (exessive) |
(The symbol "V" in the illative case denotes an epenthetic vowel, which is the preceding vowel in Finnish, e.g. tie → tiehen, and the -h- elides between two short vowels, e.g. ryhmä → ryhmähän → ryhmään.)
It is immediately noticeable from the table that the "exiting" forms (sta/lta/nta) have the same consonant as the "residing" forms (ssa/lla/na) added with the Finnish partitive case
Partitive case
The partitive case is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with numbers....
ending -ta. This may be traced into a Proto-Uralic ablative ending, which is preserved in what is now the partitive case
Partitive case
The partitive case is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with numbers....
. Also, the Finnish system is somewhat simpler than in the Hungarian language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, where there is a separate system for "to the top", "on top", and "off from the top".
The exessive case is not used in standard Finnish, but it is found in Savo Finnish
Savo Finnish
The Savonian dialects are forms of Finnish language spoken in Savonia and other parts of Eastern Finland. It belongs to the eastern Finnish dialects and it is divided to more specific dialect groups....
and Karelian
Karelian language
Karelian language is a Finnic language spoken mainly in the Russian Republic of Karelia. Linguistically Karelian is closely related to the Finnish dialects spoken in eastern Finland and some Finnish linguists even classified Karelian as a dialect of Finnish...
.