Another case which occurs sporadically, though not usually given in grammars, is the Excessive, ending in -nta. This termination is much used in the dialect spoken about St. Petersburg, and is even employed by some writers. It expresses departure either from a place or a state; e.g. kotonta, from home; hän jäi palvelijanta, he gave up being a servant. Hän muutti paimenenta rengiksi, he became a farm-labourer instead of a shepherd. It is also found in some adverbial forms, e.g. siintä, luonta, takanta.
Another sporadic case is an allative or dative ending in -nne, -ne, or -n. Its original form seems to have been -nek, for in the Savo-dialect we find tuonnek, tännek instead of the ordinary tuonne, tänne, thither, hither. In written Finnish this termination is only used in a few adverbs, as sinne, thither, muuanne, to another place. Alle, päälle, and ylle are also apparently for al-ne, pääl-ne, yl-ne. In the expression Jumalan kiitos, thanks be to God, Jumalan appears to be really this case, and similar strange uses of an apparent genitive in old writings are no doubt to be explained the same way.
It will be observed that the local cases are arranged in two sets of three, one characterised by the presence of s, the other by that of l.
We have:—
| Inessive s-sa (for s-na) | Adessive l-la (for l-na) |
| Elative s-ta | Ablative l-ta |
| Illative sen or h-n. | Allative l-le (for l-len) |
The Essive in na and Excessive in n-ta are parts of a similar set.
The case called adessive (-lla) is also used as an instrumental, and probably represents two original cases.
The primitive form of the abessive appears to have been taka or taha, which is considered by some as identical with the word taka, back. Besides the regular termination in -tta, the forms -ta and -t are found in dialects, and -ti in some adverbs; ääneti, silently; huoleti, carelessly. Closely connected with the abessive are the caritive adjectives ending in -ttoma.
The prolative, though generally counted as one of the regular cases, is really very seldom employed, and cannot be formed from the majority of nouns.
The plur. inflection of the Finno-Ugric languages, gives three suffixes, t, k, and i, of which t and i are found in Finnish. It has been suggested that the t and k are really identical, k not being allowable as a final letter. It is not improbable that i may be the remains of a k weakened to j (cf. [26], [27]).