Elatiivvormina

Elatiivvormina refers to the elative form of a word, the grammatical form used to express origin or source in languages that have a case system, such as Finnish and Estonian. The elative answers questions like “from where?” or “out of what?” and can denote origin, starting point of movement, or material from which something is made.

In Finnish, the elative case is typically marked with the suffix -sta or -stä, with the form chosen according to vowel harmony. Examples include talosta (from the house), vedestä (from the water) and minusta (from me). The elative can indicate physical origin, a source of material, or a point of departure in motion. It can also appear with pronouns and isimilies to express general origins, as in minusta or sinusta.

The elative is one of several local cases in Finnish and is closely related to other spatial cases such as inessive (in), illative (into), and ablative (from). Its usage is context-dependent and it often appears with verbs of movement or change of state, forming phrases such as “talosta ulos” (out of the house) or “kaivosta tuleva vesi” (water coming from the well).

Cross-linguistically, the concept of an elative form exists in related Finnic languages, like Estonian, where a corresponding elative case marks similar senses of origin or source, though the exact morphology differs between languages.

See also: Finnish grammar, Estonian grammar, case systems, elative.