First declension
Declension paradigm in Indo-European
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.
In Latin and Greek grammar, the first declension is analyzed as a thematic declension. But its lack of a Proto-Indo-European thematic vowel (o or e) and of any nominative singular ending (ordinarily -s or -os) does not neatly place it within either of the Proto-Indo-European nominal categories, thematic and athematic. Therefore, it is assumed to be a newer formation: a suffix based on the neuter plural ending *-(e)h₂, forming a collective noun.
01Latin
Latin nouns and adjectives
Latin first declension has only one set of endings for both feminine and masculine nouns. Within this category of declension, most of these nouns are feminine.
The very small native masculine group includes only a few occupation nouns and nouns imported from the Greek masculine first declension.
- agricola "farmer" ← ager, agro- "field" and root of colō "I cultivate"
- poēta "poet" ← ποιητής poiētēs "one who composes" poetry
- pīrāta "pirate" ← πειρᾱτής peirātēs "one who makes an attempt on" someone
- aurīga "charioteer" ← aurea "horse's bridle" and agō "I do, lead, drive"
The same endings are used for the feminine gender of Latin adjectives.
02Ancient Greek
Greek nouns
Greek first declension has two basic classes of feminine endings and one basic class of masculine endings, distinguished by their original nominative singular: long -ā, short -(y)ă, long -ās. But besides the nominative and accusative singular of feminines, and nominative, genitive, and vocative singular of masculines, forms are the same between subclasses.
In the Attic dialect, an ā-ē split divides each class into two subclasses: nouns with ᾱ and nouns with η. By contrast, other dialects tend to generalize the vowel one way or the other, Ionic has only ē, and Doric and Aeolic have only ā.
Greek adjectives
The feminine of first- and second-declension adjectives uses the -ā class of the first declension:
- -os, -ā/ē, -on
First- and third-declension adjectives, including participles in -nt-, use the -(y)ă class. Here are examples of this class, which is complex because of sound changes involving the y (see Ancient Greek nouns: short a):
- -us, -eia, -u
- -ās, -aina, -an
- -ōn, -ousa, -on
- -ās, -āsa, -an
- -eis, -eisa, -en
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “First declension”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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