In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; abbreviated abl) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the of various languages. It is used to indicate motion away from something. In different languages it can additionally serve various other purposes, i.e. make comparisons (in Armenian). The word "ablative" derives from the Latin ablatus, the (Suppletion) perfect, passive participle of auferre "to carry away".
The ablative case is found in several language families, such as Indo-European (e.g. Sanskrit, Latin, Albanian, Armenian, Punjabi language), Turkic languages (e.g. Turkish language, Turkmen language, Azerbaijani, Uzbek language, Kazakh language, Kyrgyz language, Tatar language), Tungusic (e.g. Manchu language, Evenki language), Uralic languages (e.g. Hungarian), and the Dravidian languages. There is no ablative case in modern Germanic languages such as German language and English language. There was an ablative case in the early stages of Ancient Greek, but it quickly fell into disuse by the Classical Greece.
Indo-European languages
Latin
The ablative case in
Latin (cāsus ablātīvus) appears in various grammatical constructions, including following various prepositions, in an ablative absolute clause, and adverbially. The Latin ablative case was derived
from three Proto-Indo-European cases: ablative (from), instrumental (with), and locative (in/at).
Greek
In
Ancient Greek, there was an ablative case (ἀφαιρετικὴ πτῶσις ) which was used in the Homeric, pre-Mycenaean, and Mycenean periods. It fell into disuse during the
Classical Greece and thereafter with some of its functions taken by the
genitive case and others by the
Dative case.
The genitive case with the prepositions ἀπό and ἐκ/ἐξ is an example.
German
German language does not have an ablative case but, exceptionally, Latin ablative case-forms were used from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century after some prepositions, for example after von in von dem Nomine: ablative of the Latin loanword nomen. Grammarians at that time, Justus Georg Schottel, Kaspar von Stieler, Johann Balthasar von Antesperg and Johann Christoph Gottsched, listed an ablative case (as the sixth case after nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative) for German words. They considered the dative case after some prepositions to be an ablative, as in von dem Manne and mit dem Manne , while they considered the dative case after other prepositions or without a preposition, as in dem Manne, to be a dative.
Albanian
The ablative case is found in Albanian; it is the fifth case, rasa rrjedhore.
Sanskrit
In
Sanskrit, the ablative case is the fifth case () and has a similar function to that in Latin. Sanskrit nouns in the ablative often refer to a subject "out of" which or "from" whom something (an action, an object) has arisen or occurred: . It is also used for nouns in several other senses, as for actions occurring "because of" or "without" a certain noun, indicating distance or direction. When it appears with a comparative adjective, ( ), the ablative is used to refer to what the adjective is comparing: .
Armenian
The modern Armenian ablative has different markers for each main dialect, both originating from Classical Armenian. The
Western Armenian affix -է (definite -էն ) derives from the classical singular; the
Eastern Armenian affix -ից (both indefinite and definite) derives from the classical plural. For both dialects, those affixes are singular, with the corresponding plurals being -(ն)երէ(ն) and -(ն)երից .
|
|
| | | from (a) man |
| | | from the man |
| | | from a house/from home |
| | | from the house |
The ablative case has several uses. Its principal function is to show "motion away" from a location, point in space or time:
|
|
| | | I came from the city |
| | | I used to live far from here |
It also shows the agent when it is used with the passive voice of the verb:
|
|
| | | You were always loved by me. |
| | | We were freed by the liberators. |
It is also used for comparative statements in colloquial Armenian (including infinitives and participles):
|
|
| | | "What is sweeter than honey?" (proverb) |
| | | Mary is younger (lit. smaller) than her brother |
| | | Figs are better to taste than to see |
Finally, it governs certain postpositions:
|
|
| | | below me |
| | | above you |
| | | after them |
| | | before us |
Uralic languages
Finnish
In
Finnish language, the ablative case is the sixth of the locative cases with the meaning "from, off, of":
pöytä – pöydältä "table – off from the table". It is an outer locative case, used like the
adessive and
allative cases, to denote both being on top of something and "being around the place" (as opposed to the inner locative case, the
elative case, which means "from out of" or "from the inside of"). With the locative, the receding object was near the other place or object, not inside it.
The Finnish ablative is also used in time expressions to indicate times of something happening ( kymmeneltä "at ten") as well as with verbs expressing feelings or emotions.
The Finnish ablative has the ending -lta or -ltä, depending on vowel harmony.
Usage
- away from a place
-
katolta: off the roof
-
pöydältä: off the table
-
rannalta: from the beach
-
maalta: from the land
-
mereltä: from the sea
- from a person, object or other entity
-
häneltä: from him/her/them
- with the verb lähteä (stop)
-
lähteä tupakalta: stop smoking (in the sense of putting out the cigarette one is smoking now, lit. 'leave from the tobacco')
-
lähteä hippasilta: stop playing tag ( hippa=tag, olla hippasilla=playing tag)
- to smell/taste/feel/look/sound like something
-
haisee pahalta: smells bad
-
maistuu hyvältä: tastes good
-
tuntuu kamalalta: feels awful
-
näyttää tyhmältä: looks stupid
-
kuulostaa mukavalta: sounds nice
Estonian
The ablative case in Estonian is the ninth case and has a similar function to that in Hungarian.
Hungarian
The ablative case in Hungarian is used to describe movement away from, as well as a concept, object, act or event originating from an object, person, location or entity. For example, one walking away from a friend who gave him a gift could say the following:
- a barátom tól jövök (I am coming (away) from my friend).
- a barátom tól kaptam egy ajándékot (I got a gift from my friend).
When used to describe movement away from a location, the case may only refer to movement from the general vicinity of the location and not from inside of it. Thus, a postától jövök would mean one had been standing next to the post office before, not inside the building.
When the case is used to refer to the origin of a possible act or event, the act/event may be implied while not explicitly stated, such as Meg foglak védeni a rabló tól: I will defend you from the robber.
The application of vowel harmony gives two different suffixes: -tól and -től. These are applied to back-vowel and front-vowel words, respectively.
Hungarian has a narrower delative case, similar to ablative, but more specific: movement off/from a surface of something, with suffixes -ról and -ről.
Turkic languages
Azerbaijani
The ablative in Azerbaijani (çıxışlıq hal) is expressed through the suffixes -dan or -dən:
Tatar
The ablative in
Tatar language (чыгыш килеше) is expressed through the suffixes -дан,-дән, -тан, -тән, -нан, or -нән:
Turkish
The ablative in
Turkish language (-den hali or ayrılma hali) is expressed through the suffix -den (which changes to -dan, -ten, or -tan to accommodate the
Vowel harmony and voicing harmony):
In some situations simple ablative can have a "because of" meaning; in these situations, ablative can be optionally followed by the postposition dolayı .
Tungusic languages
Manchu
The ablative in
Manchu language is expressed through the suffix -ci and can also be used to express comparisons. It is usually not directly attached to its parent word.
Evenki
The ablative in
Evenki language is expressed with the suffix -duk.
See also
Further reading
