Ablative

Lost Cases.—Greek has generally lost the forms of the instrumental and locative cases (which have become fused with the dative) and of the ablative. The Greek dative is used to express by, as in βίᾳ, Lat. υῑ ; with, as in λίθοις with stones; and in, on, as in γῇ on the earth. From may be expressed by the genitive: πόρρω Σπάρτης far from Sparta. When the genitive and dative do duty for the ablative, prepositions are often used. Instances of the forms of the lost cases are given in 341.

Cases in -φι(ν).—-φι(ν) is often added to noun stems in Hom. to express the relations of the lost instrumental, locative, and ablative, both singular and (more commonly) plural; rarely to express the relations of the genitive and dative cases. From ᾱ stems are made singulars, from ο stems singulars or plurals, from consonant stems almost always plurals. Except in θεό-φιν with the gods -φι(ν) is not added to a stem denoting a person. (a) Instrumental: βίη-φι by might, ἑτέρη-φι with the other (hand), δακρυό-φιν with tears; (b) Locative: θύρη-φι at the door, ὄρεσ-φι on the mountains; (c) Ablative: κεφαλῆ-φιν from off the head; especially with prepositions, as ἐκ ποντό-φιν from off the sea, ἀπὸ ναῦ-φιν from the ships.

Of the cases belonging to the Indo-European language, Greek has lost the free use of three: instrumental, locative, and ablative. A few of the forms of these cases have been preserved (341, 1449, 1535); the syntactical functions of the instrumental and locative were taken over by the dative; those of the ablative by the genitive. The genitive and dative cases are therefore composite or mixed cases.

N.—The reasons that led to the formation of composite cases are either (1) formal or (2) functional. Thus (1) χώρᾳ is both dat. and loc.; λόγοις represents the instr. λόγοις and the loc. λόγοισι; in consonantal stems both ablative and genitive ended in -ος; (2) verbs of ruling may take either the dat. or the loc., hence the latter case would be absorbed by the former; furthermore the use of prepositions especially with loc. and instr. was attended by a certain indifference as regards the form of the case.

Origin.—Adverbs, like prepositions and conjunctions, were originally case forms, made from the stems of nouns and pronouns. Some of these nominal and pronominal stems have gone out of common use, so that only petrified forms are left in the adverbs. Some of these words were still felt to be live cases; in others no consciousness of their origin survived. Many adverbs show old suffixes joined to the stem or to a case form (342). It is sometimes uncertain whether we should speak of adverbs or of nouns with local endings.

Nominative (rare): πύξ with clenched fist, ἅπαξ once, ἀναμίξ pell-mell.

Genitive: ἕνης day after to-morrow, ἑξῆς next, ποῦ, οὗ where, αὐτοῦ in the very place, ἐκποδών out of the way (ἐκ + ποδῶν); by analogy, ἐμποδών in one's way.

Dative: δημοσίᾳ at public cost, λάθρᾳ in secret, κοινῇ in common, etc. (1527 b), ἄλλῃ otherwise, πῇ how.

Accusative: very common, especially such adverbs as have the form of the accusative of neuter adjectives, as πολύ much, μῑκρόν a little, πρῶτον at first, τήμερον to-day, πολλά often. See 1606-1611.

Locative: οἴκο-ι at home (οἶκο-ς house), Ἰσθμο-ῖ at the Isthmus, ποῖ whither, and all adverbs in -οι. The -ι of the consonantal declension is properly the ending of the locative, as in Μαραθῶν-ι at Marathon; -οισι (234) in O stems, in contrast to -οις; -ᾱσι (-ησι) in Ā stems (215): θύρᾱσι at the doors, Πλαταιᾶσι at Plataea, Ἀθήνησι at Athens; further in πάλαι long ago, ἐκεῖ there, πανδημεί in full force.

Instrumental: ἄνω above, κάτω below, οὔπω not yet, ὧ-δε thus (but the forms in -ω may be ablatives); κρυφῆ and λάθρᾱ in secret.

Ablative: all adverbs in -ως, as ὡς as, οὕτως thus, ἑτέρως otherwise. Here, e.g. original ἑτερωδ (cp. Old Lat. altoōd, abl. of altus) became ἑτερω (133), which took on -ς from the analogy of such words as ἀμφίς parallel to ἀμφί.