adessivi

Adessivi refers to the adessive case, a locative grammatical case used in Finnic languages such as Finnish. Its core meaning is to indicate a location on a surface or at a place, equivalent to the English on or at. It is part of a system of locative cases that also includes the inessive (in), elative (out of), and allative (onto/at), among others.

In Finnish, the adessive is expressed with the suffix -lla or -llä attached to the noun. The choice between -lla and -llä follows vowel harmony and stem ending: for example, talo becomes talolla (on the house), pöytä becomes pöydällä (on the table), and kissa becomes kissalla (on the cat). When the stem ends in a consonant, the suffix still appears as -lla/-llä after the appropriate consonant cluster. The adessive can combine with other elements to form phrases that denote static location, such as Olen koululla (I am at school) or Kirja on pöydällä (The book is on the table).

Function and usage: The adessive marks a static location on a surface or at a place. It is typically used with inanimate or animate referents and can express everyday spatial relations as well as idiomatic locative meanings in combination with other grammatical particles or possessive forms in Finnish.

Cross-linguistic perspective: Similar locative expressions exist in Estonian and other Finnic languages, often with a related suffixal or periphrastic strategy that conveys the sense of “on/at.”

Etymology: The term adessivi is part of the standard European grammar nomenclature for locative cases, derived through Latin-based terminology and adopted in Finnish and related languages.