This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007) Locative (abbreviated loc) 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. Contents 1 Indo-European languages 1.1 Latin 1.2 Greek 1.3 Slavic languages 1.3.1 Czech 1.3.2 Polish 1.3.3 Russian 1.4 Armenian 2 Turkic languages 2.1 Turkish 2.2 Uzbek 3 Finno-Ugric languages 3.1 Inari Sami 3.2 Hungarian 3.3 Estonian 4 Etruscan 5 Algonquian languages 5.1 Cree 5.2 Innu-aimun 6 Notes 7 Bibliography 8 External links Indo-European languages The Proto-Indo-European language had a locative case expressing "place where", an adverbial function. The ending depended on the last vowel of the stem (consonant, a-, o-, i-, u-stems) and the number (singular or plural). Subsequently the locative case tended to merge with other cases: the genitive or dative.1 Some daughter languages retained it as a distinct case. The locative case is found in: modern Balto-Slavic languages (see however prepositional case) some classical Indo-European languages, particularly Sanskrit and Old Latin uncommon, archaic or literary use in certain modern Indian languages (such as Marathi in which a separate ablative case has however disappeared) Latin

In Latin, the functions of the locative case were mostly absorbed by the ablative, but a separate locative is found in a few words. The Latin locative case applies only to the names of cities and small islands and to a few other isolated words. The Romans considered all islands to be small except for Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, and Cyprus. There are a few nouns that use the locative instead of a preposition: domus becomes domī (at home), rūs becomes rūrī (in the country), humus becomes humī (on the ground), militia becomes militiae (in military service, in the field), and focus becomes focī (at the hearth; at the center of the community). For singular first and second declension, the locative is identical to the genitive singular form, and for the singular third declension the locative is identical to the ablative singular form. For plural nouns of all declensions, the locative is also identical to the ablative form. The few fourth and fifth declension place-name words would also use the ablative form for locative case. In archaic times, the locative singular of third declension nouns was actually 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 first declension locative is by far the most common, because so many Roman place names were first declension: mostly singular (Roma, Rome; Hibernia, Ireland; etc., and therefore Romae, at Rome; Hiberniae, at Ireland), but some plural (Athenae, Athens; Cumae, Cuma etc., with Athenis, at Athens; Cumis, at Cumae). But there are a number of second declension names that would have locatives, too (Brundisium, Brindisi; Eboracum, York; with locatives Brundisiī, at Brindisi; Eboraci, at York, etc.) 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 (e.g., τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ tēî trítēi hēmérāi "on the third day") are examples of locative datives. Slavic languages Unusual in other Indo-European branches but common among Slavic languages, the ending depends on whether the word is a noun or an adjective (among other factors). Czech The Czech language uses the locative case to denote location (v České Republice/in the Czech Republic), but as in the Russian language, the locative case may be used after certain prepositions with meanings other than location (o Praze/about Prague, po revoluci/after the revolution). Cases other than the locative may be used to denote location in Czech as well (U Roberta/at Robert's house -genitive, or nad stolem/above the table -instrumental). See Czech declension for declension patterns for all Czech grammatical cases, including locative. Polish There are several different locative endings in Polish: -ie Used for singular nouns of all genders, e.g. niebo → niebie. In a few cases, the softening indicated by i has led to consonant alternations: brat → bracie rzeka → rzece noga → nodze rower → rowerze piekło → piekle For a complete list, see Polish hard and soft consonants. -u Used for: Some masculine singular nouns, e.g. syn → synu, dom → domu, bok → boku, brzuch → brzuchu, worek → worku*, nastrój → nastroju*, deszcz → deszczu, miś → misiu, koń → koniu, Poznań → Poznaniu, Wrocław → Wrocławiu, Bytom → Bytomiu** [* In a few cases, a vowel change may occur, e.g. ó → o, or a vowel may be dropped. ** Final consonants in Wrocław and Bytom used to be soft, which is still reflected in suffixed forms, hence -i-.] All neuter singular nouns ending in -e, e.g. miejsce → miejscu, życie → życiu Some neuter singular nouns ending in -o, e.g. mleko → mleku, łóżko → łóżku, ucho → uchu -i Used for: Feminine nouns ending in -ia, e.g. Kasia ("Katie") → o Kasi ("about Katie"), Austria → w Austrii ("in Austria") Feminine nouns ending in -ść, e.g. miłość ("love") → o miłości ("about love") -ach Used for plural nouns of all genders, e.g. kobiety ("women") → o kobietach ("about women") -ich / -ych Used for plural adjectives of all genders, e.g. małe sklepy ("small shops") → w małych sklepach ("in small shops") -im / -ym Used for masculine and neuter singular adjectives, e.g. polski język ("Polish language") → w polskim języku ("in the Polish language") -ej Used for feminine singular adjectives, e.g. duża krowa ("big cow") → o dużej krowie ("about a big cow") Russian

In the Russian language, the locative case has been largely superseded by the prepositional case. This case is used only after a preposition and not always to indicate location, while other cases can also be used to specify a location, e.g. the genitive case as in у окна́ ("by the window"). Statements such as "в библиотеке" v biblioteke ("in the library") or "на Аляске" na Alyaske ("in Alaska") demonstrate the usage of the prepositional case to indicate location. However, this case is also used after the preposition "о" ("about") as in "о студенте" o studente ("about the student"). Nevertheless a number of masculine nouns (150 or so) exist a distinct form for the locative case, used only after "в" and "на". These forms end in "-у́" or "-ю́": "лежать в снегу́" lezhat v snegu (to lie in the snow), but "думать о снеге" dumat o snege (to think about snow). Other examples are рай ray (paradise) - "в раю́", дым dym (smoke) - "в дыму́" v dymú. (As indicated here by the accent marks, the stress is always on the last syllable, unlike the dative case forms with the same spelling.) A few feminine nouns ending in the soft sign, such as дверь and пыль, also have a locative form differing from the prepositional in that the stress shifts to the final syllable, thus "на двери́" na dverí ("on the door") but "при две́ри" pri dvéri ("by the door"). These distinct forms are sometimes referred to as "second locative" or "new locative" because it developed independently of the true locative case which existed in the Old Russian.23

With some words, such as дом dom (house), the second locative form is used only in certain idiomatic expressions while the prepositional is used elsewhere. For example, "на дому́" na domu ("at the house" or "at home") would be used to describe activity performed at home, while "на до́ме" ("on the house") would be used to specify the location of the roof. Armenian In the Armenian language nouns take -ում (-um) for the locative form. համալսարանը (hamalsaranə, the university) → համալսարանումը (hamalsaranumə, in/at the university) ճաշարան (chasharan, a restaurant) → ճաշարանում (chasharanum, in/at a restaurant) Turkic languages Some Turkic languages have a 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: -ta, as in "kitapta", "in the book". -te, as in "kentte", "in the city". -da, as in "odada", "in the room". -de, as in "evde", "in the house". Uzbek

The locative case exists also in Uzbek. For example, in Uzbek, shakhar means city, and shakharda means in the city, so using -da suffix, the locative case is marked. Finno-Ugric languages Some Finno-Ugric languages have a locative. Inari Sami In Inari Sami, the locative suffix is -st. kyeleest 'in the language' kieđast 'in the hand'. Hungarian In the Hungarian language, nine such cases exist, yet the name locative case refers to a form (-t/-tt) 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: Győrött (also Győrben), Pécsett (also Pécsen), Vácott (also Vácon), Kaposvárt and Kaposvárott (also Kaposváron), Vásárhelyt (also Vásárhelyen) itt (here), ott (there), imitt, amott (there yonder), alatt (under), fölött (over), között (between/among), mögött (behind) etc. The town/city name suffixes -ban/-ben are the inessive ones, and the -on/-en/-ön are the superessive ones. Estonian The Estonian language has a set of 6 locative cases, 3 interior and 3 exterior ones. They are formed by adding a suffix to the genitive form of the noun. The interior locative cases are: Illative - majasse 'into a/the house', or the irregular short form majja which is used mostly Inessive - majas 'in a/the house' Elative - majast 'from inside a/the house' The exterior locative cases are: Allative - majale '(on)to a/the house' Adessive - majal 'on (top of) a/the house' or 'at a/the house' Ablative - majalt 'from a/the house'

(http://www.einst.ee/publications/language/cases.html) All nouns have a regular version of all these 6 cases, but many words have a more commonly used irregular short version for the illative case which, instead of adding a sse suffix to the genitive, change their stress/phoneme length without adding an extra syllable for the suffix. Estonian, like some Indo-European languages (Latin, Russian, Irish), does not normally use the verb to have to show possession. The adessive case and the verb to be is used instead. 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 (is), 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. For this reason, it has been argued that the Estonian adessive case is really a dative one. Statistically, the majority of the occurrences of the exterior locative cases show possession, not location (also Ta andis mulle maja 'He gave (to) me a house', Ta võttis minult mu maja 'He took from me my house'). (http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/bitstream/10108/21802/1/jaas046011.pdf) Etruscan The Etruscan language has a locative ending in -thi: velsnalthi, "at Velznani", with reference to Volsinii.citation needed Algonquian languages Algonquian languages have a locative. Cree In Cree, the locative suffix is -ihk. misâskwatômin (Saskatoon berry) → misâskwatôminihk (at the Saskatoon berry) = "[in] Saskatoon, SK" misâskwatôminiskâ- (be many Saskatoon berries) → misâskwatôminiskâhk (at the place of many Saskatoon berries) = "[in] Saskatoon, SK" mînis (berry) → mînisihk (at the berry) = "[in] Saskatoon, SK" Innu-aimun

In Innu-aimun, the locative suffix is -(i)t. shipu (river) → shipit (at the river) katshishkutamatsheutshuap (school) → katshishkutamatsheutshuapit (at school) nuitsheuakan (my friend) → nuitsheuakanit (at my friend's house) nipi (water) → nipit (in the water) utenau (town) → utenat (in town) Notes ^ Buck, page 172 ^ The Locative Case ^ Everything you always wanted to know about Russian grammar but were afraid to ask, AATSEEL Newsletter, October 2007, pp. 7-8. Bibliography Buck, Carl Darling (1933). Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.  External links Locative in the Russian language (in Russian) v · d · eGrammatical cases List of cases · Declension · Morphosyntactic alignment  Cases Core Absolutive · Accusative · Direct · Ergative · Intransitive · Nominative · Oblique Adpositional Ablative · Antessive · Dative · Distributive (–temporal) · Essive (–formal · –modal) · Formal · Genitive · Instructive · Instrumental (–comitative) · Ornative · Possessed · Possessive · Postpositional · Prepositional · Pertingent · Prolative · Prosecutive · Proximative · Sociative · Temporal · Vialis Locative Ablative · Adessive · Allative · Apudessive · Associative · Comitative · Delative · Elative · Exessive · Illative · Inelative · Inessive · Intrative · Lative · Locative · Perlative · Subessive · Sublative · Superessive · Superlative · Terminative · Translative Comparative Comparative · Equative Evaluative Aversive · Benefactive · Evitative Other Abessive · Addirective · Adelative · Adverbial · Caritive · Causal (–final) · Final · Modal · Multiplicative · Partitive · Pegative · Privative · Postelative · Postdirective · Postessive · Separative · Subdirective · Vocative  Declensions Czech · English (Old English, Middle English) · Finnish · German · Gothic · Irish · Latin · Latvian · Lithuanian · Serbo-Croatian · Slovak