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For the physical process, see ablation.
In linguistics, the ablative case is a noun case found in several languages, including Armenian, Latin, Sanskrit and the Finno-Ugric languages.
The Latin ablative combines the functions of the Indo-European ablative (indicating "from"), instrumental (indicating "with" or "by"), and locative (indicating "in") cases, which merged together in the development of Latin. From these original meanings several others developed, including the ablative of cause (indicating "caused by"), the ablative of time (indicating "at the time of", deriving from the locative), and the ablative absolute.
In Finnish, the ablative case is the sixth of the locative cases with the meaning "from off of", e.g. pöytä — pöydältä "table — off from the table". It is an outer locative case, used just as the adessive and allative cases to denote both being on top of something and "being around the place" (as opposed to the inner locative case, the elative, which means "from out of" or "from the inside of").
The other locative cases in Finnish are:
Latin usage
The case also exists in 3 kinds besides it's direct purpose and Ablativus absolutus:
- Ablativus separationis with meaning of separation, e.g. movere loco - "to put aside", educere castris - "to bring out from camp" or domo - "from home", Roma - "from Rome";
- Ablativus causae means the reason, e.g. ira clamare - "to shout because of anger", morbo abesse - "to absent because of disease";
- Ablativus comparativus which is used in comparisons, e.g. vilius argentum auro - "the silver is cheaper than gold";
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