Illative is, in the Finnish language, the Estonian language, the Lithuanian language, and the Hungarian language, one of the locativecases with the basic meaning of "into ". An example from Hungarian is "a házba". An example from Estonian is "majasse" and "majja", formed from "maja". An example from Finnish is "taloon", formed from "talo". An example from Lithuanian is "laivan" formed from "laivas".
In Finnish
The case is formed by adding -hVn, where 'V' represents the last vowel, and then removing the 'h' if a simple long vowel would result. For example, talo + Vn becomes taloon with a simple long 'oo'; cf. maa + hVn becomes maahan, without the elision of 'h'. This unusually complex way of adding a suffix can be explained by its reconstructed origin: a voiced palatal fricative. In the dialect of Pohjanmaa, the 'h' is not removed; one says talohon. The other locative cases in Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are:
Inessive case
Elative case
Adessive case
Allative case
Ablative case
In Lithuanian
The illative case, denoting direction of movement, is now less common in the standard language but is common in the spoken language, especially in certain dialects. Its singular form, heard more often than the plural, appears in books, newspapers, etc. Most Lithuanian nouns can take the illative ending, indicating that from the descriptivepoint of view the illative still can be treated as a case in Lithuanian. Since the beginning of the 20th century it isn't included in the lists of standard Lithuanian cases in most grammar books and textbooks, and the prepositional construction į+accusative is more frequently used today to denote direction. The illative case was used extensively in older Lithuanian; the first Lithuanian grammar book, by Daniel Klein, mentions both illative and į+accusative but calls the usage of the illative "more elegant". Later, it has often appeared in the written texts of the authors who grew up in Dzukija or Eastern Aukštaitija, such as Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius. The illative case in Lithuanian has its own endings, which are different for each declension paradigm, although quite regular, compared with some other Lithuanian cases. An ending of the illative always ends with n in the singular, and sna is the final part of an ending of the illative in the plural. Certain fixed phrases in the standard language are illatives, such as patraukti atsakomybėn, dešinėn!. Examples:
