Anadessive case (abbreviatedADE; from Latinadesse "to be present (at)":ad "at" +esse "to be") is agrammatical case generally denoting location at, upon, or adjacent to thereferent of the noun; the term is used most frequently forUralic studies. For Uralic languages, such asFinnish,Estonian andHungarian, it is the fourth of the locativecases, with the basic meaning of "on"—for example, Estonianlaud (table) andlaual (on the table), Hungarianasztal andasztalnál (at the table).[1] It is also used as aninstrumental case in Finnish.
ForFinnish, the suffix is-lla/-llä, e.g.pöytä (table) andpöydällä (on the table). In addition, it can specify "being around the place", as inkoululla (at the school including the schoolyard), as contrasted with the inessivekoulussa (in the school, inside the building).
In Estonian, the ending-l is added to thegenitive case, e.g.laud (table) -laual (on the table). Besides the meaning "on", this case is also used to indicate ownership. For example, "mehel on auto" means "the man owns a car".
As the Uralic languages don't possess the verb "to have", the concept is expressed as a subject in the adessive case +on (for example,minulla on, "I have", literally "at me is").
The other locative cases in Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian are:
The Finnish adessive case has the word ending-lla or-llä (according to the rules ofvowel harmony). It is usually added to nouns and associated adjectives.
It is used in the following ways.
though they are not strictly a use of the adessive case).
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Other languages which employ an adessive case or case function include archaic varieties ofLithuanian (which likely developed by the influence of Uralic), someNortheast Caucasian languages such asLezgian[2] andHunzib,[3] and theOssetic languages,[4] both ancient and modern.