What is "locative"

Usage examples of "locative".

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

It seems that the final -n of the four directions Formen, Hyarmen, Rómen, Númen "North, South, East, West" quite regularly drops out before the case endings for allative, ablative and locative (the locative case will be discussed in the next lesson).

In some contexts, it would perhaps be permissible to use either the locative or the allative, resulting in pretty much the same meaning (caitan caimanyassë = "I lie in my bed" / caitan caimanyanna "I lie on my bed").

The directions Formen, Hyarmen, Númen, Rómen = North, South, West, East would almost certainly surrender their final -n in the locative, just as they are seen to do in the allative and ablative cases.

Presumably we can also have allative ninna "to(wards) me", allative nillo "from me", locative nissë "in me" and perhaps even instrumental ninen "by me".

In the locative, allative and ablative, it is optional whether one uses the simplest endings -ssë, -nna, -llo or their plural forms -ssen, -nnar or -llon (alternatively -llor).

Hence locative ciryalissë = ciryalissen, allative ciryalinna = ciryalinnar, ablative ciryalillo = ciryalillon (or ciryalillor).

In the Plotz Letter, Tolkien listed various case endings also including the dual element -t-: genitive -to, dative -nt, allative -nta, ablative -lto, locative -tsë, instrumental -nten.

Thus, starting from the simple nominative ciryat "two ships, a couple of ships": ciryat + -o for genitive = ciryato ciryat + -n for dative = ciryatn ciryat + -nna for allative = ciryatnna, simplified to ciryatna ciryat + -llo for ablative = ciryatllo, simplified to ciryatlo ciryat + -ssë for locative = ciryatssë, simplified to ciryatsë ciryat + -nen for instrumental = ciryatnen However, the group tn came to be disliked, so the consonants underwent metathesis.

If this is so, we have every reason to assume that the same case endings were suffixed to dual forms in -u as well, for instance like this (using Aldu "Two Trees" as our standard example): Aldu + -o for genitive = Alduo Aldu + -n for dative = Aldun Aldu + -nna for allative = Aldunna Aldu + -llo for ablative = Aldullo Aldu + -ssë for locative = Aldussë Aldu + -nen for instrumental = Aldunen These forms would undergo no further changes, since they are all acceptable Quenya as far as phonology goes.

For the sake of clarity, the locative form of a noun like Ambar should probably be Ambaressë rather than (Ambar-së >) Ambassë, which could just as well be formed from a noun **Amba.

Yet Tolkien sometimes translated a Quenya locative form using the English preposition "upon".