Illative Case in The Finnish Language
In Finnish, the case is formed by adding -hVn, where 'V' represents the last vowel, and then removing the 'h' if a simple long vowel would result. For example, talo + hVn becomes talohon, where the 'h' elides and produces taloon with a simple long 'oo'; cf. maa + hVn becomes maahan, without the elision of 'h'. This unusually complex way of adding a suffix can be explained by its reconstructed origin: a voiced palatal fricative. (Modern Finnish has lost palatalization and fricatives other than 'h' or 's'.) In the dialect of Pohjanmaa, the 'h' is not removed; one does say talohon.
The other locative cases in Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are:
- Inessive case ("in")
- Elative case ("out of")
- Adessive case ("on")
- Allative case ("onto")
- Ablative case ("from off")
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