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The aversive or evitative case (abbreviated EVIT) is a grammatical case found in Australian Aboriginal languages that indicates that the marked noun is avoided or feared.
For example, in Walmajarri:
Yapa-warnti
child-ABS.PL
pa-lu
IND-they
tjurtu-karrarla
dust-AVERSIVE
laparnkanja
ran away
natji-karti.
cave-ALL
The children ran into the cave because of the dust storm.
The suffix -karrarla indicates that the action (running away) was carried out in order to avoid the dust storm, tjurtu-.
The aversive may also be used to mark the object of verbs of fearing. For example, in Djabugay:
Djama-lan
snake-AVERSIVE
ŋawu
I
yarrnga-nj.
be afraid-PAST
I was afraid of the snake.
The aversive may be used on a nominalized verb, to produce an equivalent of English "lest". For example, "lest they be forgotten" could be encoded as "to avoid forgetting them".
Few languages have a distinct aversive case. Usually, a single case will be used both for the aversive and other functions.
Languages with a distinct aversive case include:
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