grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

, an adessive case (

abbreviated An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...

; from Latin '' adesse'' "to be present (at)": ''ad'' "at" + ''esse'' "to be") is a

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In vari ...

generally denoting location at, upon, or adjacent to the

referent A referent () is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of, ...

of the noun; the term is most frequently used in

Uralic The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...

studies. In Uralic languages, such as

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, Estonian and Hungarian, it is the fourth of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "on"—for example, Estonian ' (table) and ' (on the table), Hungarian ' and ' (at the table). It is also used as an

instrumental case In grammar, the instrumental case (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the ''instrument'' or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or an ...

in Finnish. In

, the suffix is ''/'', e.g. ' (table) and ' (on the table). In addition, it can specify "being around the place", as in ' (at the school including the schoolyard), as contrasted with the inessive ' (in the school, inside the building). In Estonian, the ending ''-l'' is added to the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

, e.g. ' (table) - ' (on the table). Besides the meaning "on", this case is also used to indicate ownership. For example, "mehe''l'' on auto" means "the man owns a car". As the Uralic languages don't possess the verb "to have", it is the subject in the adessive case + ''on'' (for example, ', "I have", literally "at me is"). The other locative cases in Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian are: *

Inessive case In grammar, the inessive case ( abbreviated ; from la, inesse "to be in or at") is a locative grammatical case. This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is in Finnish, in Estonian, () in Moksha, in Basque, i ...

("in") *

Elative case In grammar, the elative case ( abbreviated ; from la, efferre "to bring or carry out") is a locative grammatical case with the basic meaning "out of". Usage Uralic languages In Finnish, the elative is typically formed by adding ", in Estonian b ...

("out of") *

Illative case In grammar, the illative case (; abbreviated ; from la, illatus "brought in") is a grammatical case used in the Finnish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Hungarian languages. It is one of the locative cases, and has the basic meaning of "int ...

("into") *

Allative case In grammar, the allative case (; abbreviated ; from Latin ''allāt-'', ''afferre'' "to bring to") is a type of locative grammatical case. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages that do not make fine ...

("onto") *

Ablative case In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...

("off") *

Superessive case In grammar, the superessive case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case indicating location on top of, or on the surface of something. Its name comes from Latin ''supersum, superesse'': to be over and above. While most languages communicate this conce ...

("on top of, or on the surface of")

Finnish

The Finnish adessive has the word ending or (according to the rules of

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...

). It is usually added to nouns and associated adjectives. It is used in the following ways. * Expressing the static state of being on the surface of something. :Possible English meanings of ''on, on top of, atop'' :: ''the pen is on the table'' *As an

existential clause An existential clause is a clause that refers to the existence or presence of something, such as "There is a God" and "There are boys in the yard". The use of such clauses can be considered analogous to existential quantification in predicate l ...

with the verb ''olla'' (to be) to express possession :This is the Finnish way to express the English verb ''to have'' :: ''we have a dog ('on our (possession, responsibility, etc.) is dog')'' * Expressing the instrumental use of something :Possible English meanings of ''with, by, using'' ::'' he went to Helsinki by train'' ::'' he bought it for a euro'' * In certain time expressions expressing the time at which things take place :Possible English meanings of ''during'' in over ::'' in the morning ' in the spring'' * Expressing the general proximity in space or time at which something takes place (where the more specific proximity case would be the inessive) :Possible English meaning of ''at'' :: ''my son is at school'' (c.f. inessive case: ''my son is inside the school'') :: ''he is at lunch'' - literally on the lunch hour :::(Although not strictly a use of the adessive this proximity difference is mirrored in adverbial forms such as - around here and - right here)

Non-Uralic

Other languages which employ an adessive case or case function include archaic varieties of Lithuanian, some

Northeast Caucasian languages The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or ''Vainakh-Daghestani'', is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as in ...

such as Lezgian and Hunzib, and the Ossetic languages,* Kim, Ronald
"On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic."
''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 123, No. 1. (Jan.-Mar.,2003), p. 44. both ancient and modern.

Finnish

Non-Uralic

Further reading