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Final i-stem endings are closer to the standard set compared to the a-stem declension. In general, the -i is gunated in some cases, and a -n- is inserted intervocalically between the stem and the ending in a few other cases, especially in the neuter.
In Latin, nouns of the first, second, fourth, and fifth declensions are considered thematic; the first declension has the theme vowel a, the second o, the fourth u, and the fifth e. Stems with i are treated together with athematic stems in the third declension, as they came to closely resemble one another.
The oldest system of declension was in Proto-Indo-European, inherited by Sanskrit, to affix the endings directly to the nominal root. In later stages, a new system developed wherein an intermediary called the thematic vowel is inserted to the root before the final endings are appended: *-o-which in Sanskrit becomes -a-, producing the thematic stem.
The Attic genitive singular Πηλεΐδ-ου Pēleḯd-ou uses a copy of the second-declension ending, which came from the same original form as the ending -oio (used in Homer) [4] — o-syo, thematic vowel o and case-ending -syo). The Homeric form comes from the same case ending, with the first-declension pseudo-thematic vowel ā.
In contrast with the first-and second-declension endings, those of the third declension lack a theme vowel (a or o/u in the first and second declensions) and so are called athematic. One distinguishing feature of third-declension nouns is a genitive singular ending of a short vowel and s : Latin rēg-is "of a king" Greek χειρ-ός ( cheir ...
Latin declension is the set of patterns according to which Latin words are declined—that is, have their endings altered to show grammatical case, number and gender.Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are declined (verbs are conjugated), and a given pattern is called a declension.
Deflexion typically involves the loss of some inflectional affixes, notably affecting word endings that indicate noun cases, verbal tenses and noun classes. This is part of a process of gradual decline of the inflectional morphemes , defined as atomic semantic units bound to abstract word units ( lexemes ).
Latin word order is relatively free. The verb may be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence; an adjective may precede or follow its noun (vir bonus or bonus vir both mean 'a good man'); [5] and a genitive may precede or follow its noun ('the enemies' camp' can be both hostium castra and castra hostium; the latter is more common). [6]