Reconstruction:Proto-Finnic/-llën

• *-lën, *-llëk, *-lëk
• *-llen, *-len, *-llek, *-lek (front vowel harmony)

Probably contracted from the genitive ending *-n + *ülä (“upper, above”) + Proto-Uralic *-ŋ (lative suffix), perhaps through a Uralic postposition *üleŋ: *-n-ülä-ŋ/*-n-üle-ŋ > *-n-leŋ > *-lle[n/k].^[1] The treatment of final *-ŋ has not been fully explained; both variants with *-n and *-k appear to exist for the allative suffix, but only one for the illative suffix *-sën and the other for the lative suffix *-k.

In the past also thought to derive from *-la + the aforementioned lative suffix, in which case the long *-ll- would have been analogous to the adessive ending *-lla.

*-llën / *-llen

1. Allative case ending.

• Estonian: -le (< *-lëC)
• Finnish: -lle (< *-llëk), (dialectal) -le (< *-lëk), (dialectal) -llen (< *-llën), (dialectal) -len (< *-lën)
• Ingrian: -lle (< *-llëk)
• Karelian: (merged with adessive *-lla)
• Livonian: -l, -lõ, -õl
• Livvi: -le (< *-lëk)
• Ludian: -le (< *-lëk)
• Veps: -le (< *-lëk)
• Võro: -lõ (< *-lëC)
• Votic: -lõõ (< *-lën)