Illative Case - Illative Case in The Lithuanian Language

Illative Case in The Lithuanian Language

The illative case, denoting direction of movement, occurs rarely in modern standard Lithuanian, although used in the common 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 descriptive point of view the illative still can be treated as a case in Lithuanian, although since the beginning of the 20th century it isn't included in the lists of standard Lithuanian cases in most grammars 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, that mentions both illative and į+accusative, calls the usage of the illative "more elegant". In later times, it often appeared in written texts of the authors who grew in Dzukija or Eastern Aukštaitija, such as Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius.

The illative case in Lithuanian has its own endings, that 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 ("to arraign"), dešinėn! ("turn right").

Examples:

• Masculine gender words (singular, singular illative, plural, plural illative, English translation)
  • karas, karan, karai, karuosna, war(s)
  • lokys, lokin, lokiai, lokiuosna, bear(s)
  • akmuo, akmenin, akmenys, akmenysna, stone(s)

• Feminine gender words (the same cases as above):
  • upė, upėn, upės, upėsna, river(s)
  • jūra, jūron, jūros, jūrosna, sea(s)
  • obelis, obelin, obelys, obelysna, appletree(s)