In linguistics, abessive, caritive and privative is the grammatical caseexpressing the lack or absence of the marked noun. In English, the corresponding function is expressed by the preposition or by the suffix. The name abessive is derived from Latinabesse "to be away/absent", and is especially used in reference to Uralic languages. The name caritive is derived from Latin carere "to lack", and is especially used in reference to Caucasian languages. The name privative is derived from Latin privare "to deprive".
In Martuthunira, the privative case is formed with two suffixes, -wirriwa and -wirraa. What determines which suffix is used in a given situation is unclear.
In Uralic languages
Finnish
In the Finnish language, the abessive case is marked by -tta for back vowels and -ttä for front vowels according to vowel harmony. For example: An equivalent construction exists using the wordilman and the partitive: or, less commonly: The abessive case of nouns is rarely used in writing and even less in speech, although some abessive forms are more common than their equivalent ilman forms: The abessive is, however, commonly used in nominal forms of verbs, such as puhu-ma-tta "without speaking", osta-ma-tta "without buying," välittä-mä-ttä "without caring:" This form can often be replaced by using the negative form of the verb: It is possible to occasionally hear what is considered wrong usage of the abessive in Finnish, where the abessive and ilman forms are combined: There is debate as to whether this is interference from Estonian.
Estonian
also uses the abessive, which is marked by -ta in both the singular and the plural: Unlike in Finnish, the abessive is commonly used in both written and spoken Estonian. The nominal forms of verbs are marked with the affix -ma- and the abessive marker -ta: Tallinn has a pair of bars that play on the use of the comitative and abessive, the Nimeta baar and the Nimega baar.
Skolt Sami
The abessive marker for nouns in Skolt Sámi is -tää or -taa in both the singular and the plural: The abessive-like non-finite verb form is -ǩâni or -kani: Unlike Finnish, the Skolt Sámi abessive has no competing expression for lack of an item.
Inari Sami
The abessive marker for nouns in Inari Sámi is -táá. The corresponding non-finite verb form is -hánnáá,-hinnáá or -hennáá.
In Hungarian, the abessive case is marked by -talan for back vowels and -telen for front vowels according to vowel harmony. Sometimes, with certain roots, the suffix becomes -tlan or -tlen. For example: There is also the postpositionnélkül, which also means without, but is not meant for physical locations.
