On the use of the adessive case in Tver Karelian

Abstract

This study provides a descriptive account of the adessive case in the endangered and scarcely documented Tver Karelian variety of the Karelian language. The investigation provides not only an overview of the many functional uses of the case in question, but also comparisons to Finnish and Estonian, as well as Russian. The adessive case is historically associated with external location but has acquired a wide range of other uses not directly related to location, including temporal, instrumental, possessive, dative, and experiential functions. The case is even used to mark direct and oblique objects of certain verbs. Some of these functions are shared by the adessive case in other Finnic languages, including Finnish and Estonian, while other functions that set Tver Karelian apart from these relatives appear to have developed under the influence of Russian with which the language has a long history of contact.