Locative case


The locative case is a grammatical 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.
The locative case exists in many language groups.

Indo-European languages

The Proto-Indo-European language had a locative case expressing "place where", an adverbial function. The endings are reconstructed as follows:
SingularPlural
Athematic,
Thematic,

In most later Indo-European languages, the locative case merged into other cases in form and/or function, but some daughter languages retained it as a distinct case. It is found in:
still had a functioning locative singular, which descended from the Proto-Indo-European form. The locative plural was already identical to the dative and ablative plural. In Classical Latin, changes to the Old Latin diphthongs caused the originally-distinctive ending of the locative singular to become indistinguishable from the endings of some other cases.
DeclensionOld LatinClassical LatinMerger
1st-āi-aeMerged with dative/genitive.
2nd-ei-īMerged with genitive.
3rd-ei, -e-ī, -eOriginally like the dative, but gradually replaced with the ablative.

Because the locative was already identical to the ablative in the plural, the loss of distinction between the endings eventually caused the functions of the locative case to be absorbed by the ablative case in Classical Latin. The original locative singular ending, descended from the Old Latin form, remained in use for a few words. For first and second declension, it was identical to the genitive singular form. In archaic times, the locative singular of third declension nouns was still interchangeable between ablative and dative forms, but in the Augustan Period the use of the ablative form became fixed. Therefore, both forms "rūrī" and "rūre" may be encountered.
The Latin locative case was only used for the names of cities, "small" islands and a few other isolated words. The Romans considered all Mediterranean islands to be small except for Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, and Cyprus. Britannia was also considered to be a "large island". There are a few nouns that use the locative instead of a preposition: domus becomes domī, rūs becomes rūrī, humus becomes humī, militia becomes militiae, and focus becomes focī.
The first declension locative is by far the most common, because so many Roman place names were first declension, such as Roma, Rome, and therefore use the same form as the genitive and dative: Romae, at Rome, and Hiberniae, in Ireland. A few place-names were inherently plural, even though they are a single city, e.g. Athenae, Athens and Cumae, Cuma. These plural names also use the form similar to the dative and ablative: Athenis, at Athens, and Cumis, at Cumae. There are also a number of second declension names that could have locatives, e.g. Brundisium, Brindisi; Eboracum, York; with locatives Brundisiī, at Brindisi; Eboraci, at York. The locative cannot express being located at multiple locations; plural forms only exist because certain proper names such as Athenae happen to be plural. "He is at home" can be expressed by " domi est" using the locative, but "They are at their homes" cannot be expressed by the locative.

Greek

In Ancient Greek, the locative merged with the Proto-Indo-European dative, so that the Greek dative represents the Proto-Indo-European dative, instrumental, and locative. The dative with the preposition ἐν en "in" and the dative of time are examples of locative datives. Some early texts, in particular Homer, retain the locative in some words.

Germanic languages

The locative case had merged with the dative in early Germanic times and was no longer distinct in Proto-Germanic or in any of its descendants. The dative, however, contrasts with the accusative case, which is used to indicate motion toward a place. The difference in meaning between dative and accusative exists in all of the old Germanic languages and survives in all Germanic languages that retain a distinction between the two cases.

Slavic languages

Among Slavic languages, the locative is mostly used after a fixed set of commonly used prepositions. Besides location, Slavic languages also employ locative as a way of expressing the method of doing an action, time when the action is to take place, as well as the topic or theme that something describes in more detail; as such it is subordinate to other cases. Locative is becoming increasingly obsolete in East Slavic languages, especially Russian, while it remains in other branches, West Slavic and South Slavic languages. The ending depends on whether the word is a noun or an adjective.

Old Slavic

In Old Church Slavonic, the locative is mostly used with preposition. Some uses of independent locatives remain, mostly in expressions of time, such as zimě "in winter", polu nošti "at midnight". The locative also occurs as the complement of a handful of verbs, such as kŭto prikosnǫ sę rizaxŭ moixŭ? "who touched my garments?". In Old East Slavic, moreover, place names are regularly used in the locative without a preposition.

Czech

The Czech language uses the locative case to denote location, but as in the Russian language, the locative case may be used after certain prepositions with meanings other than location. Cases other than the locative may be used to denote location in Czech as well.
The locative case is the only one of the 7 Czech cases which cannot be used without a preposition. It is used with these prepositions:
The locative form of substantives in the singular is mostly identical with the dative case. The locative form in the plural typically has the ending "ch".
See Czech declension for declension patterns for all Czech grammatical cases, including the locative.

Polish

There are several different locative endings in Polish:
For a complete list, see.
In plural:
In the Russian language, the locative case has largely lost its use as an independent case and became the prepositional case, which is used only after a preposition. The latter is not always used to indicate location, while other cases may also be used to specify location. Statements such as "в библиотеке" v biblioteke or "на Аляске", na Aljaske, demonstrate the use of the prepositional case to indicate location. However, this case is also used after the preposition "о" as in "о студенте", o studente.
Nevertheless, approximately retain a distinct form for the locative case, used only after "в" and "на". These forms end in "-у́" or "-ю́": "лежать в снегу́", ležať v snegú, but "думать о сне́ге", dumať o snége. Other examples are рай, raj ; "в раю́", дым dym ; and "в дыму́", v dymú. As indicated by the accent marks, the stress is always on the last syllable, which is unlike the dative-case forms with the same spelling. A few feminine nouns that end with the soft sign, such as дверь and пыль, also have a locative form that differs from the prepositional in that the stress shifts to the final syllable: "на двери́", na dverí, but "при две́ри", pri dvéri. These distinct feminine forms are sometimes referenced as "second locative" or "new locative", because they developed independently from the true locative case, which existed in the Old Russian.
With some words, such as дом, dom, the second locative form is used only in certain idiomatic expressions, while the prepositional is used elsewhere. For example, "на дому́", na domu would be used to describe activity that is performed at home, while "на до́ме" would be used to specify the location of the roof.

Slovak

The Slovak language uses the locative case to denote location, but as in the Russian language, the locative case may be used after certain prepositions with meanings other than location. Cases other than the locative may be used to denote location in Slovak as well. A preposition must always be used with this case.
There are several different locative endings in Slovak:
See also Slovak declension for declension patterns for all Slovak grammatical cases, including locative.

Armenian

In the Eastern standard of the Armenian language non-animate nouns take -ում for the locative. Animate nouns do not take the locative.
The Proto-Turkic language had a locative. As a result, most Turkic languages continue its locative.

Turkish

The locative case exists in Turkish, as the suffix generally specified by "-DA". For instance, in Turkish, okul means the school, and okulda means in the school. The morpheme may exist in four different forms, depending on the preceding consonant and vowel. The first phoneme of the locative, "D", changes according to the previous consonant: it is "t" after voiceless consonants, but "d" elsewhere. The vowel changes depending on the phonetic characteristics of the previous vowel: it is "a" after a preceding back vowel, and "e" after a preceding front vowel, congruent with the vowel harmony of the language. This gives four different versions of the morpheme:
The locative case also exists in Azerbaijani. Similarly to Turkish, Azerbaijani employs a system of vowel harmony throughout the language. There are two simple Locative case endings:
-da, as in "kitabda", "in the book".
-də, as in "şəhərdə", "in the city".

Kazakh

The locative case also exists in Kazakh. Similarly to Turkish, Kazakh employs a system of vowel harmony throughout the language. There are four simple locative case endings:
Furthermore, Kazakh nouns frequently utilize a possessive affix to indicate a relationship between the object and its owner. When forming the locative case of a noun in the presence of a possessive affix, there are two possible endings:
The locative case exists in Uyghur, similarly to Turkish. This gives four different versions of the morpheme:
The locative case exists also in Uzbek. For example, in Uzbek, shahar means city, and shaharda means in the city, so using -da suffix, the locative case is marked.

Uralic languages

has been reconstructed with a single "state" or "stationary" locative case, with the ending *-na or *-nä in accordance with vowel harmony. In many of its descendants, additional locative cases were created by combining these endings with others.

Inari Sami

In Inari Sami, the locative suffix is -st.
In the Hungarian language, nine such cases exist, yet the name 'locative case' refers to a form ' 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:
The town/city name suffixes -ban/-ben are the inessive ones, and the -on/-en/-ön'' are the superessive ones.

Finnic languages

In the Finnic languages, the original Proto-Uralic locative became the essive case, but is still found with a locative meaning in some fossilised expressions such as Finnish kotona "at home". Two new locative cases were created from the old locative:
These endings still survive as such in several Finnic languages including Finnish, but have been reduced to -s and -l in Estonian and some others.
The Finnic languages, like some Indo-European languages, do not normally use the verb to have to show possession. The adessive case and the verb to be is used instead, so that the combination literally means "on/at me is...". For example, I have a house in Estonian would be Mul on maja in which mul is in the adessive case, on is the third singular of to be, and maja is in nominative, not accusative. So maja is the subject, on is the verb and mul is the indirect object. This could be translated to English as At me is a house or A house is at me or There is a house at me.

Etruscan

The Etruscan language has a locative ending in -thi. E.g. velsnalthi, "at Velznani", with reference to Volsinii.

Algonquian languages

have a locative.

Cree

In Cree, the locative suffix is -ihk.
In Innu-aimun, the locative suffix is -t.