Illative case

Illative (abbreviated ILL; from Latin illatus "brought in") is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of "into (the inside of)". An example from Hungarian is "a házba" (into the house, with "a ház" meaning "the house"). An example from Estonian is "majasse" and "majja" (into the house), formed from "maja" (a house). An example from Finnish is "taloon" (into the house), formed from "talo" (a house).

Illative case in the Finnish language

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 + hVn becomes talohon, where the 'h' elides and produces 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. (Modern Finnish has lost palatalization and fricatives other than 'h' or 's'.) In the dialect of Pohjanmaa, the 'h' is not removed; one does say talohon.