Estonian locative system


The Estonian language 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. Though they are not traditionally considered as such, the essive and translative cases also can be considered locative, for a system of eight cases.
SystemEnteringResiding inExiting
Inner-sse "into" -s "in" -st "from "
Outer-le "to" -l "on / at" -lt "from "
State-ks "into " -na "as" '

The only Estonian semantic cases not included in this system are the terminative, and the pair of abessive and comitative.
For some nouns, there are two forms of the illative: the regular suffix -sse, added to the genitive stem, and an alternative, short form, which is either consists of a different suffix lengthening, 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 later having the concrete locative meaning, and the former being used in other structures that require the illative.