Locative case
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Locative (also called the seventh case) is a case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases together with the lative and separative case.
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[edit] The locative case in various languages
The locative case exists in many languages, e.g. the Altaic, Indo-European, and Uralic languages.
Locative can pertain to the action of going home or being located. Also related to locative media.
[edit] Indo-European languages
The locative case is found in:
- in modern Balto-Slavic languages (see however prepositional case)
- some classical Indo-European languages, particularly Sanskrit and Old Latin
- in uncommon, archaic or literary use in certain modern Indian languages (such as Marathi in which a separate ablative case has however disappeared)
[edit] Turkish
The locative case exists in Turkish. For instance, in Turkish, elim means: my hand, and elimde means in my hand, so using -de and -da suffixes, the locative case is marked.
[edit] Inari Sami
In Inari Sami, the locative suffix is -st.
- kyeleest 'in the language'
- kieđast 'in the hand'.
[edit] Hungarian
In the Hungarian language, nine such cases exist, yet the name locative case refers to a form (-t/-tt) used only in a few city/town names along with the inessive case or superessive case. It can also be observed in a few local adverbs and postpositions. It is no longer productive.
Examples:
- Győrött (also Győrben), Pécsett (also Pécsen), Vácott (also Vácon), Kaposvárt and Kaposvárott (also Kaposváron), Vásárhelyt (also Vásárhelyen)
- itt (here), ott (there), imitt, amott (there yonder), alatt (under), fölött (over), között (between/among), mögött (behind) etc.
The town/city name suffixes -ban/-ben are the inessive ones, and the -on/-en/-ön are the superessive ones.
[edit] Russian
In the Russian language, the locative case is often and recently called the prepositional case. This is because the case is only used after a preposition and not always used for locations. Statements such as "в библиотеке" v biblioteke ("in library") or "на Аляске" na Aljaske ("in Alaska") show the usage for location. However, this case is also used after the preposition "о" ("about") as in "о студенте" o studente ("about the student").
Nevertheless a few words preserve a distinctive form of locative case: "лежать в снегу́" lezhatʲ v snegu (to lie in the snow), but "думать о снеге" dumatʲ o snege (to think about snow). Other examples are дом dom (house) - "на дому" na domu, дым dɨm (smoke) - "в дыму́" v dɨmú, бок bok (side) - "на боку́" na boku. The stress marks here signify that the stress is made on the last syllable, unlike the dative case that has the same spelling.
