The
Estonian language
Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language, written in the Latin script. It is the official language of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken natively by about 1.1 million people; 922,000 people in Estonia and 160, ...
has six
locative cases, descended from the
locative cases of Proto-Finnic. They can be classified according to a three-way contrast of entering, residing in, and exiting a state, with two sets of cases: inner and outer.
For some nouns, there are two forms of the illative: the regular suffix ''-sse'' (e.g. ), added to the
genitive stem, and an alternative, short form, which is either consists of a different suffix ( > ) lengthening (e.g. > , ''
o:l>
o::li'), and/or other change in the word. The always regular ''-sse'' illative ending is a newer innovation, and can sometimes have a slightly different meaning than the old "short form" illative, the latter having the concrete locative meaning (e.g.: 'into the room'), and the former being used in other structures that require the illative ( 'concerning the room...').
See also
*
Proto-Finnic locative system
Proto-Finnic or Proto-Baltic-Finnic is the common ancestor of the Finnic languages, which include the national languages Finnish and Estonian. Proto-Finnic is not attested in any texts, but has been reconstructed by linguists. Proto-Finnic is i ...
*
Finnish locative system
Finnish nominals, which include pronouns, adjectives, and numerals, are declined in a large number of grammatical cases, whose uses and meanings are detailed here. See also Finnish grammar.
Many meanings expressed by case markings in Finnis ...
References
* Moseley, C. (1994). ''Colloquial Estonian: A Complete Language Course''. London: Routledge.
* Oinas, Felix J (1966). ''Basic Course in Estonian''. Bloomington: Indiana University.
Estonian Language - Estonian InstituteEesti keele käsiraamat - Käändsõna
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Estonian Locative System
Estonian language
Languages of Estonia
Finnic languages
Grammatical cases