What is "allative"

Usage examples of "allative".

The remaining cases, in addition to the nominative, are the genitive, the possessive, the dative, the allative, the ablative, the locative, and the instrumental.

As the allative forms of cirya "ship" and lassë "leaf", the Plotz Letter points to ciryanna "to a ship" and lassenna "to a leaf".

But if the day ever comes when Columbus lendë Americanna can be translated "Columbus went Americawards", people thinking this is acceptable English, the language shall have acquired a living allative case.

NOTE: Besides -nna, there are also traces of an older allative ending in Quenya.

Actually "into" can also be minna with the normal, "modern" allative ending -nna.

Both the ablative and the allative cases are exemplified in the phrase telmello talmanna "from hood [telmë] to base [talma]", that is, "from top to bottom".

Just like the suffix -nna for allative turns into -nnar in the plural, the ablative ending -llo may have a plural equivalent -llor: In the Markirya poem, Tolkien used elenillor as the plural ablative of elen "star", hence "from stars".

Dual allative/ablative: The dual forms of the allative and ablative endings include the already-familiar dual element -t, which replaces one of the consonants of the suffixes -nna and -llo to produce -nta and -lto instead.

Thus the nominative ciryat "two ships, a couple of ships" corresponds to an allative form ciryanta "to(wards) a couple of ships" and an ablative form ciryalto "from a couple of ships".

This use of the allative may typically occur in connection with the verb caita- "lie", as in this sentence from the prose Namárië: Mornië caita i falmalinnar, "darkness lies on the foaming waves" (falma "foaming wave", here not only with the plural allative ending -nnar but also the "partitive plural" marker -li, in this context possibly implying a great number of waves: In his interlinear translation in RGEO:67, Tolkien analyzed falma-li-nnar as "foaming waves-many-upon").

Further examples of allative forms implying "on, upon" are found in the Markirya poem.

However, the student should also notice that while the allative and ablative cases may not always imply physical motion to or from something, their basic meanings of "to, towards" and "from" may also be strengthened.

Instead of just indicating motion "towards" something, the allative may also suggest motion "into" it: Attested examples include ëari lantier cilyanna "seas fell into a chasm" (LR:56) and mannar Valion "into the hands of the Vali [Valar]" (Fíriel's Song).

These additional uses of the allative and ablative cases may lead to some ambiguities: Is lenden i coanna to be interpreted "I went to the house" or "I went into the house"?

Adding the allative and ablative endings to nouns ending in a consonant: Suffixes like -nna and -llo and their dual/plural variants can never be added directly to a noun ending in a consonant without creating impossible consonant clusters.