allative

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Allative case (abbreviated ALL, from Latin allāt-, afferre "to bring to") is a type of the locative cases used in several languages. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages which do not make finer distinctions.

Finnish language

In the Finnish language, the allative is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of "onto". Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). In addition, it is the logical complement of the adessive case for referring to "being around the place". For example, koululle means "to the vicinity of the school". With time, the use is the same: ruokatunti (lunch break) and ... lähti ruokatunnille ("... left to the lunch break"). Some actions require the case, e.g. kävely - mennä kävelylle "a walk - go for a walk".

See also Inessive case.

The other locative cases in Finnish and Estonian are:

• Inessive case ("in")
• Elative case ("out of")
• Illative case ("into")
• Adessive case ("on")
• Ablative case ("from off of")

Baltic languages

In the Lithuanian and Latvian languages the allative had been used dialectally as an innovation since the Proto-Indo-European, but it is almost out of use in modern times. Its ending in Lithuanian is -op which was shortened from -opi, whereas its ending in Latvian is -up. In the modern languages the remains of the allative can be found in certain fixed expressions that have become adverbs, such as Lit. išėjo Dievop ("gone to God", i.e. died), velniop! ("to hell!"), nuteisti myriop ("sentence to death"), rudeniop ("towards autumn"), vakarop ("towards the evening") , Lat. mājup ("towards home"), kalnup ("uphill"), lejup ("downhill").

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