Noun Cases

Modern Livonian is recognized as having eight productive noun cases (nominative, genitive, dative, partitive, instrumental, illative, inessive, elative), in that all nouns are declinable in each of these eight cases. In addition there exist three other cases, known as the external locatives (allative, adessive, ablative), that can be formed for certain placenames. There is also the instructive case, which is given by linguist and Livonian specialist Eduard Vääri as a form possible for a limited amount of words. One other case, the abessive, appears in the grammatical survey of the language given by Lauri Kettunen in his Livisches Wörterbuch mit grammatischer Einleitung.

Compared to the case systems of its close relatives among the Balto-Finnic languages, the Livonian case system appears somewhat reduced. In her article, "Latviesu un libiesu valodas savstarpeja ietekme" (Mutual Influence between Latvian and Livonian), linguist Marta Rudzite largely attributes this simplification to the influence of Latvian on Livonian. This is especially noticeable in the simplification of locative expressions, as well as, the combination of the once independent translative and comitative cases into a single case, the instrumental. Below is a short description of the general function of each case in Livonian. For examples of fully declined nouns, see the section on nouns.

Nominative

This case answers the question "who?" or "what?". The subject of a sentence will generally appear in this case.

Genitive

This case answers the question "whose?" or "of what?". It expresses possession and is also used with a number of prepositions and postpositions. For many, but not all, nouns, the nominative and genitive forms are the same.

Dative

This case answers the question "(to/for) whom?" or "(to/for) what?". The dative is the indirect object case.

Partitive

The partitive is used as the direct object case in Livonian, as well as with a number of prepositions.

Instrumental

This case answers the question "with whom?" or "with what?". Until recently, the instrumental was referred to as the translative-comitative.

Illative

This case answers the question "to where?". The illative refers to movement to or into something or somewhere.

Inessive

This case answers the question "where?". The inessive refers to the state of being inside of something or somewhere.

Elative

This case answers the question "from where?". The elative refers to movement from or out of something or somewhere.

Allative, Adessive, Ablative

The three external locative cases, answer the questions, "to where?", "where?", and "from where?", respectively. Nowadays these three cases only appear in a limited number of forms, largely placenames. In my own experience of hearing spoken Livonian, I found that sometimes the internal locative cases (illative, inessive, elative) would be used instead of the external locatives, even for placenames and other situations that would seem to suggest the use of an external locative.

Linguist Marta Rudzite characterizes these changes as part of a larger collapse of this intricate system of locatives. This is attributed by her largely to the influence of Latvian, which, unlike Livonian, has only one productive locative case. Rudzite gives the following example of the full six case system in Estonian, where the distinction between the internal and external locative forms is still intact. The distinction in Estonian, just as once in Livonian, is that the internal locatives refer to location in enclosed spaces, and the external locatives to location in open spaces (Rudzite 307). Thus,

Instructive

This case answers the question "how?". The instructive is not a case that appears in any of the more recent publications intended for studying or learning Livonian. In addition, according to both Vääri and Kettunen, this case is not productive, in that it can only be formed for a limited amount of words.

Abessive

This case answers the question "without whom?" or "without what?". The abessive appears in Kettunen's description of the Livonian noun and case system. In every example, this case is formed with the preposition bäz (without) followed by the partitive form of the noun or pronoun being modified. Just as the instructive, the abessive does not appear in any recently published materials intended to be used for learning the language.