Talk:Finnish language noun cases

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Re-Locative cases

Although grammatically correct, the english phrase "Can I try on those pants in the window?" is ambiguous (it can refer to the LOCATION OF THE PANTS or the LOCATION OF THE TRYING ON). Because of the latter, it is also potentially ourtrageous, because in British English the word PANTS is always an abbreviation for UNDERPANTS. US english "PANTS" in British English are always known as "TROUSERS". The mind reels! So even in english construction one needs to be careful about such constructions. The proper english construction that avoids the ambiguity is exactly as per the finnish construction, with the use of a sub-clause, appropriately located.

[edit] -nne

Does anybody know if the form -nne was once a formal noun case in the history of Finnish and whether this form has a particular case name?

I mean the -nne form as it exists in words like jonnekin, minne and sinne which often have parallel standard case forms like jossakin, missa and sillä.

Also, I'd be grateful to know of other common words that carry this form.

Tom 08:41, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Ah.. answered it myself after a more careful dig on the net... its all explained [http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suomi/sijat/sijatadverbi.html

here].

[edit] The Latin model for case names

The cases are named after the Latin model.

The names of the locative cases continue on this model. That is a Latin preposition and either the verb to be, esse or the feminine past participle of the verb carry/bring, lata.

The cases names that contain -essive suggest stationary position, while the case names that contain -lative suggest motion. For example the inessive case can be thought of as in + being, talossa - in the house, while the illative case can be thought of as in + carried, taloon - into the house. In the same way, abessive, ab - away + to be, talotta - without a house, and ablative, away + carried, talosta - from the house.