Theexessive case (abbreviatedEXESS) is agrammatical case that denotes a transition away from a state. It is a rare case found in certain dialects ofBaltic-Finnic languages. It completes the series of "to/in/from a state" series consisting of thetranslative case, theessive case and the exessive case.
The exessive case has been described inEstonian,South Estonian,Livonian,Votic,Ingrian,Ludic,Karelian, andFinnish.[1][2]
In the general pattern of the loss of a final vowel when compared toFinnish, theEstonian exessive ending is-nt.
Exessive case is unproductive in contemporaryEstonian. It appears in words such askodunt 'away from home' andtagant 'from behind', orSouth Estonianmant 'away from the vicinity of something'. The exessive is more common in the language of Estonian folk songs.[3]
The exessive is found only inSavo and southeastern dialects. Its ending is-nta/ntä.[4] For example,tärähtäneentä terveeksi = "from loony to healthy", or a state change from mental illness to mental health.
There are some word forms in Finnish dialects in which the exessive appears in alocative sense. These are somewhat common, though nonstandard, for exampletakaanta/takanta (from behind, standard Finnishtakaa),siintä (from that/it or thence, standard Finnishsiitä).[5]
Sometimes a case,exessive, with an endingntA (combined from the endingnA of essive andtA of partitive) is suggested, meaning "from the role of", thus making the system of locational cases more orthogonal. It is used in a few dialects, though often in a few words only, e.g. usingluonta instead of ...
A rare case form attested in some dialects of Finnish is theexessive,-nta/-ntä; it has developed on the basis of the historical separative case-ta/-tä (which is also the origin of the contemporary Finnish partitive case, which has changed from its historical local meaning into a grammatical case) and has been used in roughly the same meaning:luonta "from the vicinity of",takanta "from behind". The form is relatively young, which can be seen from the fact that it does not take part in Finnish consonantal gradation of stops (takanta, never*taanta – althoughtaakse "(to) behind" where the gradation does take place). In contrast to the Estonian terminative, neither the exessive nor the above-mentioned prolative have become productive case endings in any Finnic language.