Locative case

In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the lative and separative case.
The locative case exists in many language groups.
Indo-European languages.
The Proto-Indo-European language had a locative case expressing "place where", an adverbial function. The endings are reconstructed as follows:
In most later Indo-European languages, the locative case merged into other cases (often genitive or dative) in form and/or function, but some daughter languages retained it as a distinct case. It is found in:
Latin.
Old Latin still had a functioning locative singular, which descended from the Proto-Indo-European form. The locative plural was already identical to the dative and ablative plural. In Classical Latin, changes to the Old Latin diphthongs caused the originally-distinctive ending of the locative singular to become indistinguishable from the endings of some other cases.
Because the locative was already identical to the ablative (which had a "location" meaning as well) in the plural, the loss of distinction between the endings eventually caused the functions of the locative case to be absorbed by the ablative case in Classical Latin. The original locative singular ending, descended from the Old Latin form, remained in use for a few words. For first and second declension, it was identical to the genitive singular form. In archaic times, the locative singular of third declension nouns was still interchangeable between ablative and dative forms, but in the Augustan Period the use of the ablative form became fixed. Therefore, both forms "rūrī" and "rūre" may be encountered.
The Latin locative case was only used for the names of cities, "small" islands and a few other isolated words. The Romans considered all Mediterranean islands to be small except for Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Crete, and Cyprus. Britannia was also considered to be a "large island". There are a few nouns that use the locative instead of a preposition: "domus" becomes "domī" (at home), "rūs" becomes "rūrī" (in the country), "humus" becomes "humī" (on the ground), "militia" becomes "militiae" (in military service, in the field), and "focus" becomes "focī" (at the hearth; at the center of the community).
The first declension locative is by far the most common, because so many Roman place names were first declension, such as "Roma", Rome, and therefore use the same form as the genitive and dative: "Romae", at Rome, and "Hiberniae", in Ireland. A few place-names were inherently plural, even though they are a single city, e.g. "Athēnae", Athens and "Cūmae", Cuma. These plural names also use the form similar to the dative and ablative: "Athēnīs", at Athens, and "Cūmīs", at Cumae. There are also a number of second declension names that could have locatives, e.g. "Brundisium", Brindisi; "Eborācum", York; with locatives "Brundisiī", at Brindisi; "Eborācī", at York. The locative cannot express being located at multiple locations; plural forms only exist because certain proper names such as "Athēnae" happen to be plural. "He is at home" can be expressed by "(is) domi est" using the locative, but "They are at their (individual and separate) homes" cannot be expressed by the locative.
Greek.
In Ancient Greek, the locative merged with the Proto-Indo-European dative, so that the Greek dative represents the Proto-Indo-European dative, instrumental, and locative. The dative with the preposition ἐν "en" "in" and the dative of time (e.g., τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ or "tēî trítēi hēmérāi", which means "on the third day") are examples of locative datives. Some early texts, in particular Homer, retain the locative in some words (for example ἠῶθεν – at dawn, "Iliad" 24.401).
Germanic languages.
The locative case had merged with the dative in early Germanic times and was no longer distinct in Proto-Germanic or in any of its descendants. The dative, however, contrasts with the accusative case, which is used to indicate motion toward a place (it has an allative meaning). The difference in meaning between dative and accusative exists in all of the old Germanic languages and survives in all Germanic languages that retain a distinction between the two cases.
Slavic languages.
Among Slavic languages, the locative is mostly used after a fixed set of commonly used prepositions. Besides location, Slavic languages also employ locative as a way of expressing the method of doing an action, time when the action is to take place, as well as the topic or theme that something describes in more detail; as such it is subordinate to other cases. Locative is kept in all Slavic languages (except for Bulgarian and Macedonian), although Russian split it (in the singular of a group of masculine nouns) into locative and prepositional, and Serbo-Croatian uses almost the same set of endings (sometimes with different intonation) as for dative. The ending depends on whether the word is a noun or an adjective (among other factors).
Old Slavic.
In Old Church Slavonic, the locative is mostly used with preposition. Some uses of independent locatives remain, mostly in expressions of time, such as "zimě" "in winter", "polu nošti" "at midnight". The locative also occurs as the complement of a handful of verbs, such as "kŭto prikosnǫ sę rizaxŭ moixŭ?" "who touched my garments?". In Old East Slavic, moreover, place names are regularly used in the locative without a preposition.
Czech.
The Czech language uses the locative case to denote location ("v České republice/in the Czech Republic"), but as in the Russian language, the locative case may be used after certain prepositions with meanings other than location ("o Praze/about Prague, po revoluci/after the revolution"). Cases other than the locative may be used to denote location in Czech as well ("U Roberta/at Robert's house" -genitive, or "nad stolem/above the table" -instrumental).
The locative case (commonly called the 6th case) is the only one of the 7 Czech cases which cannot be used without a preposition. It is used with these prepositions: 
The locative form of substantives in the singular is mostly identical with the dative case (3rd case). The locative form in the plural typically has the ending "ch" (o mladých ženách).
See Czech declension for declension patterns for all Czech grammatical cases, including the locative.
Polish.
There are several different locative endings in Polish:
For a complete list, see .
In plural: 
Russian.
In the Russian language, the locative case has largely lost its use as an independent case and became the prepositional case, which is used only after a preposition. The latter is not always used to indicate location, while other cases may also be used to specify location (e.g. the genitive case, as in "у окна́" ("by the window")). Statements such as "в библиотеке" "v biblioteke" ("in the library") or "на Аляске", "na Aljaske" ("in Alaska"), demonstrate the use of the prepositional case to indicate location. However, this case is also used after the preposition "о" ("about") as in "о студенте", "o studente" ("about the student").
Nevertheless, approximately 150 masculine nouns retain a distinct form for the locative case, used only after "в" and "на". These forms end in "-у́" or "-ю́": "лежать в снегу́", "ležať v snegú" (to lie in the snow), but "думать о сне́ге", "dumať o snége" (to think about snow). Other examples are рай, "raj" (paradise); "в раю́", дым "dym" (smoke); and "в дыму́", "v dymú". As indicated by the accent marks, the stress is always on the last syllable, which is unlike the dative-case forms with the same spelling. A few feminine nouns that end with the soft sign, such as дверь and пыль, also have a locative form that differs from the prepositional in that the stress shifts to the final syllable: "на двери́", "na dverí" ("on the door"), but "при две́ри", "pri dvéri" ("by the door"). These distinct feminine forms are sometimes referenced as "second locative" or "new locative", because they developed independently from the true locative case, which existed in the Old Russian.
With some words, such as дом, "dom" (house), the second locative form is used only in certain idiomatic expressions, while the prepositional is used elsewhere. For example, "на дому́", "na domu" ("at the house" or "at home") would be used to describe activity that is performed at home, while "на до́ме" ("on the house") would be used to specify the location of the roof.
Slovak.
The Slovak language uses the locative case to denote location ("na Slovensku/in Slovakia"), but as in the Russian language, the locative case may be used after certain prepositions with meanings other than location ("o Bratislave/about Bratislava, po revolúcii/after the revolution"). Cases other than the locative may be used to denote location in Slovak as well ("U Milana/at Milan's house" -genitive, or "nad stolom/above the table" -instrumental). A preposition must always be used with this case.
There are several different locative endings in Slovak:
See also Slovak declension for declension patterns for all Slovak grammatical cases, including locative.
Armenian.
In the Eastern standard of the Armenian language non-animate nouns take -ում (-um) for the locative. Animate nouns (referring to persons especially) do not take the locative.
Turkic languages.
The Proto-Turkic language had a locative. As a result, most Turkic languages continue its locative.
Turkish.
The locative case exists in Turkish, as the suffix generally specified by "-DA". For instance, in Turkish, "okul" means "the school", and "okulda" means "in the school". The morpheme may exist in four different forms, depending on the preceding consonant and vowel. The first phoneme of the locative, "D", changes according to the previous consonant: it is "t" after voiceless consonants, but "d" elsewhere. The vowel changes depending on the phonetic characteristics of the previous vowel: it is "a" after a preceding back vowel, and "e" after a preceding front vowel, congruent with the vowel harmony of the language. This gives four different versions of the morpheme:
Azerbaijani.
The locative case also exists in Azerbaijani. Similarly to Turkish, Azerbaijani employs a system of vowel harmony throughout the language. There are two simple Locative case endings:
-da, as in "kitabda", "in the book".
-də, as in "şəhərdə", "in the city".
Kazakh.
The locative case also exists in Kazakh. Similarly to Turkish, Kazakh employs a system of vowel harmony throughout the language. There are four simple locative case endings:
Furthermore, Kazakh nouns frequently utilize a possessive affix to indicate a relationship between the object and its owner. When forming the locative case of a noun in the presence of a possessive affix, there are two possible endings:
Uyghur.
The locative case exists in Uyghur, similarly to Turkish. This gives four different versions of the morpheme:
Uzbek.
The locative case exists also in Uzbek. For example, in Uzbek, "shahar" means "city", and "shaharda" means "in the city", so using "-da" suffix, the locative case is marked.
Uralic languages.
Proto-Uralic has been reconstructed with a single "state" or "stationary" locative case, with the ending "*-na" or "*-nä" in accordance with vowel harmony. In many of its descendants, additional locative cases were created by combining these endings with others.
Inari Sami.
In Inari Sami, the locative suffix is -st.
Hungarian.
In the Hungarian language, nine such cases exist, yet the name 'locative case' refers to a form "(-t/-tt)" used only in a few city/town names along with the inessive case or superessive case. It can also be observed in a few local adverbs and postpositions. It is no longer productive.
Examples:
The town/city name suffixes "-ban/-ben" are the inessive ones, and the "-on/-en/-ön" are the superessive ones.
Finnic languages.
In the Finnic languages, the original Proto-Uralic locative became the essive case, but is still found with a locative meaning in some fossilised expressions such as Finnish "kotona" "at home". Two new locative cases were created from the old locative:
These endings still survive as such in several Finnic languages including Finnish, but have been reduced to "-s" and "-l" in Estonian and some others.
The Finnic languages, like some Indo-European languages (Latin, Russian, Irish), do not normally use the verb "to have" to show possession. The adessive case and the verb "to be" is used instead, so that the combination literally means "on/at me is...". For example, "I have a house" in Estonian would be "Mul on maja" in which "mul" is in the adessive case, "on" is the third singular of "to be" ("is"), and "maja" is in nominative, not accusative. So "maja" is the subject, "on" is the verb and "mul" is the indirect object. This could be translated to English as "At me is a house" or "A house is at me" or "There is a house at me".
Etruscan.
The Etruscan language has a locative ending in -thi. E.g. "velsnalthi", "at Velznani", with reference to Volsinii.
Algonquian languages.
Algonquian languages have a locative.
Cree.
In Cree, the locative suffix is -ihk.
Innu-aimun.
In Innu-aimun, the locative suffix is -(i)t.