3.2. Gramatik / Grammar

Ä’bproduktīvizt nõtkūd formõd / Unproductive case forms

The illative, inessive, and elative are related to the corresponding Estonian internal local cases (s-cases). However, their use does not completely overlap. Sometimes they are also used in situations where Estonian would use an external case. For example, in Kõrd ikš vanā kuo’ig vanād põeldkõks puŗtõn mie’rsõ. ‘Once upon a time an old ship with old sails sailed on the sea.’, Estonian would use the external local (adessive) form merel, while Livonian uses the internal local (inessive) mie’rsõ.

Livonian also has a series of so-called external local cases (l-cases), but they are not productive and are used for certain nouns. e.g., pȭrandõl ‘on the floor, onto the floor’. Mostly, there are only traces of them in certain adverbs such as sīel āigal ‘at that time’, aʼbbõl ‘(to) help’.

The instructive (-īņ -iņ) can express the manner of action, e.g., jālgiņ ‘on foot, by foot’, although most often it expresses measurement and other units by which something occurs, moves, or is measured such as sumāriņ ‘bit by bit’, stūndiņ ‘by the hour’, sadīņ ‘by the hundred’, etc. The instructive is attached to the plural form.

There are also lexicalized essive forms (-n) or phrases with an essive head word, especially temporal adverbs, e.g., ȭ’dõn ‘in the evening’, tu’lbiz āigastõn ‘next year’, rarely also adverbs of place, e.g., ku’onnõ ‘at home’, and adverbs of state, e.g., opātijizõn ‘as a teacher’.