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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.
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.
Nouns in -is correspond to the ancient first declension in most cases, having the accent on the ultimate syllable in the genitive plural, and so do some nouns ending in -ίας [-ˈias]. [16] Nouns in -as stem from the ancient third declension. They formed their nominative singular from the accusative singular and retain the original accent in ...
In the Attic dialect, some masculine second-declension nouns and some adjectives have endings with lengthened vowels. Some nouns in this category end in -εως, which developed from an original *-ηος by the process of quantitative metathesis (switching of vowel lengths). All second-declension endings containing ο were transformed: ο, ου ...
Nouns differ as to their endings. For example, the nominative plurals of regular masculine and feminine nouns can end in -αι (-ai), -οι (-oi) or -ες (-es). They are divided into three different groups, called declensions, according to these endings and the endings of the other cases: αἱ θεαί (hai theaí) "the goddesses" – 1st ...
Most nouns in English have distinct singular and plural forms. Nouns and most noun phrases can form a possessive construction. Plurality is most commonly shown by the ending-s (or -es), whereas possession is always shown by the enclitic-'s or, for plural forms ending in s, by just an apostrophe.
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 ...
Unmarked nouns ending in -ū and -ī generally shorten this to -u and -i before the oblique (and vocative) plural terminations, with the latter also inserting the semivowel y. [ 12 ] [ 13 ] [ 14 ] Many feminine Sanskrit loanwords such as bhāṣā ('language') and mātā (mother) end in - ā , therefore the ending - ā is not always a reliable ...