Elativen

Elativen, often referred to as the elative in linguistic literature, is a grammatical case used to mark origin, source, or movement away from a reference point. It is part of the local or spatial case system found in several language families, notably Uralic and Turkic, and is typically realized through suffixes or postpositions.

In Finnish, elative forms attach to nouns to express origin from a place. Examples include talosta meaning from the house and taloista meaning from the houses. In Estonian, the elative is similarly used to indicate origin, as in majast “from the house.” In Turkish and other Turkic languages, the elative is expressed with suffixes such as -den/-dan (with vowel harmony), as in evden “from the house.”

Semantically, the elative primarily conveys motion originating at or away from a location, but it can also indicate source in more abstract contexts, such as information or influence. It often appears with verbs of motion or transfer and interacts with other local cases to specify precise spatial or figurative relationships.

Distinctions from related cases vary by language. The elative is commonly contrasted with the inessive (inside) and illative (into) as part of a system of interior-to-exterior locality. In some languages, the elative overlaps with or is treated as a subtype of the broader ablative or separative meanings.

See also: ablative case, inessive case, illative case, postpositional/ suffixal marking in local cases.