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[Virankannos]

Hei, I read your blog post about "Lase oma sisemine sportlane välja." from your older blog and I started thinking that isn't ".välja" actually just the illative form of "väli"? And not an adverb.

Especially considering that inessive (väljas) and elative (väljast) forms also exist. And they all look just like the respective forms of "väli". It seems to me that in this case "väli" was originally "large open space/area" as an opposite to small confined space, and so ".välja"/"väljas"/"väljast" has over time become the general word for 'out'.

There is also this "väli-" prefix, for example "välitöö" (work that is done outdoors / can be done outdoors only) and "välikäimla" (toilet which is located outside the house).

This is my understanding, too. Its Finnish cognate väljä means 'loose; roomy, spacious', so the semantic connection is rather transparent. The older stem for out(side) is preserved in Finnish (ulko(na), ulo(s)) and Sámi (olgu(n), olggo(s)). The Estonian stem ulgu- (like in ulgumeri) has been borrowed from Finnish via Northeastern coastal dialects. It may be connected to ulatama (Fi ulottaa).

[ainurakne]

Interesting.

Since you mentioned ulatama (which has a instead of o as in its Finnish equivalent), I started thinking about the word ula and it seems to be kind of similar/related to the Finnish stem ulo.
At least for me the the primary meaning of "ula peal olema" has always been to be out there somewhere/to be at large.