Proximity vs. contact

Another variation with the dative and genitive is with certain postpositions indicating relative position, such as meele, kiire, pakkattule and the points of the compass. When used with the genitive, they indicate that there is contact between the two objects, whereas with the dative they indicate that there is proximity but no contact:

a. marattu-meele irundadu `It was on top the house'

b. marattu-kku meele irundadu `It was above the house'

c. viittu meele/kiire/pakkattule irundadu

`It was on top of/on the underside of/on the side of the house'

d. viitt-ukku meele/kiire/pakkattule irundadu

`It was above, below, next to the house (but not touching it)'