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 va ...

generally denoting location at, upon, or adjacent to the referent 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 ...

studies. In Uralic languages, such as Finnish, 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 Finnish. In Finnish, 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 ...

, 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 ("out of") * Illative case ("into") * Allative case ("onto") * Ablative case ("off") * Superessive case ("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 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 typically long distance, me ...

). 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 lo ...

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 Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

, 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 ...

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