Ingrammar, thelative (/ˈleɪtɪv/LAY-tiv;abbreviatedLAT) is agrammatical case which indicates motion to a location.^[1] It corresponds to the English prepositions "to" and "into". The lative case belongs to the group of the general local cases together with thelocative andseparative case. The term derives from the Latinlat-, the supine stem offerre, "to bring, carry".

The lative case is typical of theUralic languages and it was one of theProto-Uralic cases. It still exists in many Uralic languages, such asFinnish,Erzya,Moksha, andMeadow Mari.

It is also found in theDido languages, such asTsez,Bezhta, andKhwarshi, as well as in theSouth Caucasian languages, such as Laz or Lazuri (seeLaz grammar).

In Finnish, the lative case is largely obsolete. It still occurs in variousadverbs:alas, alemmas, "down, further down",kauas,kauemmas "(moving) far away, farther away",pois "(going) away", andrannemmas "towards and closer to the shore" (derives from 'ranta' [shore]). The lative suffix is usually-s.^[1]

In modern Finnish, it has been superseded by a more complicated system of locative cases andenclitics, and the original -s has merged with another lative orlocative suffix and turned into the moderninessive,elative,illative andtranslative suffixes.

InMeadow Mari, the usage of the lative is restricted compared to that of theillative case. Whereas the illative can be used freely in connection with verbs indicating motion into/to/towards something, the lative occurs typically with only a smaller number of such verbs. Some examples of these are: кодашkodaš "to remain, to stay", шинчашšinčaš "to sit down", шочашšočaš "to be born", сакашsakaš "to hang up, to hang on", пышташpõštaš "to put, to place", кушкашkuškaš "to grow (intransitive)". In many cases, both the illative and the lative cases can be used with a verb. Note that some of the verbs, such as шочаш or кушкаш, do not indicate motion towards a place.^[2]

The lative case in Meadow Mari can also fulfill a few auxiliary functions. It can indicate the cause for an action or under what circumstances the action takes place:^[2]

A noun in the lative can express a period of time in which something (repeatedly) takes place:[2]

A noun in the lative can be used to indicate how someone or something is regarded, for what they are held:[2]

A noun in the lative can express by what means something is transferred, relocated, or undergoes a change.[2]

In the Northeast Caucasian languages, such asTsez, the lative also takes up the functions of thedative case in marking the recipient or beneficent of an action. By some linguists, they are still regarded as two separate cases in those languages although the suffixes are exactly the same for both cases. Other linguists list them separately only for the purpose of separating syntactic cases from locative cases. An example with the ditransitive verb "show" (literally: "make see") is given below:

The dative/lative is also used to indicate possession, as in the example below; there is no such verb for "to have":

The dative/lative case usually occurs, as in the examples above, in combination with another suffix as poss-lative case; it should not be regarded as a separate case, as many of the locative cases in Tsez are constructed analytically. They are actually a combination of two case suffixes. SeeTsez language#Locative case suffixes for further details.

Verbs of perception or emotion (like "see", "know", "love", "want") also require the logical subject to stand in the dative/lative case, note that in this example the "pure" dative/lative without its POSS-suffix is used.

• Anhava, Jaakko (2015)."Criteria For Case Forms in Finnish and Hungarian Grammars".journal.fi. Helsinki: Finnish Scholarly Journals Online.

• Grammatical cases

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