Finnish locative system
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The Finnish language has eight locative cases, and some Eastern dialects symmetrify the system with the excessive case. These can be classified according to a three-way contrast of entering, residing and exiting a state, and there are three different systems of these cases.
| System | Entering | Residing | Exiting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inner | -(h)Vn "into" (illative) | -ssa "in" (inessive) | -sta "from (in)" (elative) |
| Outer | -lle "onto" (allative) | -lla "on" (adessive) | -lta "from (at/on)" (ablative) |
| State | -ksi "into as" (translative) | -na "as" (essive) | -nta "from being as" (excessive) |
(The symbol "V" in the illative case denotes an epenthetic vowel, which is the preceding vowel in Finnish, e.g. tie → tiehen, and the -h- elides whenever a long vowel can be used instead, e.g. ryhmä → ryhmään.)
It is immediately noticeable from the table that the "exiting" forms (sta/lta/nta) have the same consonant as the "residing" forms (ssa/lla/na) added with the Finnish partitive case ending -ta. This may be traced into a Proto-Uralic ablative ending. Also, the Finnish system is somewhat simpler than in the Hungarian language, where there is a separate system for "to the top", "on top", and "off from the top".
