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The accusative singular ending -α appears after Proto-Greek consonants, and is much more common than -ν, because almost all third-declension stems end in a consonant. When a Proto-Greek consonant was lost ( ϝ , ι̯ , σ ), -α appears after a vowel, and may be lengthened to ᾱ : βασιλέᾱ .
Most neuter nouns end either in -ο [-o] (plural: -α [-a]) or -ι [-i] (plural: -ιά [-ia]). Indeed, most of them that end in -i initially ended in -io, an ending for diminutives that many nouns had acquired already from Koine Greek. As a result, the endings of the plural and of the genitive singular are reminiscent of those older forms.
In Ancient Greek, all nouns, including proper nouns, are classified according to grammatical gender as masculine, feminine, or neuter. The gender of a noun is shown by the definite article (the word ὁ, ἡ, τό ( ho, hē, tó ) "the") which goes with it, or by any adjective which describes it:
Many third-declension nouns, unlike first- or second-declension nouns, show different stems depending on case and number — usually one stem for the nominative singular, and another for the rest of the cases, though some Greek nouns have three stems. Greek stems are often formed by ablaut: Latin homō "person" and homin-ēs "people"; Greek ...
Although the a of the Greek and Latin first declension was not originally a thematic vowel, it is considered one in Greek and Latin grammar. In both languages, first-declension nouns take some endings belonging to the thematic second declension. An a-stem noun was originally a collective noun suffixed with -eh₂, the ending of the neuter plural.
In ancient Greek grammar, movable nu, movable N or ephelcystic nu (Ancient Greek: νῦ ἐφελκυστικόν nû ephelkustikón, literally "nu dragged onto" or "attracted to") is a letter nu (written ν; the Greek equivalent of the letter n) placed on the end of some grammatical forms in Attic or Ionic Greek.
The latter class, i.e. the neuter nominative/accusative singular, usually ends with -um in Latin and -ον (-on) in Greek, matching the accusative of the former. In Latin, the masculine words of the second declension that end with -us in the nominative case are differently declined from the latter in the vocative case: such words end with -e.
The first declension is a category of declension that consists of mostly feminine nouns in Ancient Greek and Latin with the defining feature of a long ā (analysed as either a part of the stem or a case-ending). In Greek grammar, it is also called the alpha declension, since its forms have the letter α, at least in the plural.