4. Nouns

4.1.1. Declension is made by adding terminations to different stem endings, vowel or consonant. The various phonetic changes in the language have given rise to the different declensions. Most of the case-endings, as shown in this Modern Indo-European grammar, contain also the final letter of the stem.

Adjectives are generally declined like nouns, and are etymologically to be classed with them, but they have some peculiarities of inflection which will be later explained.

4.1.2. Nouns and adjectives are inflected in four regular Declensions, distinguished by their final phonemes – characteristic of the Stem –, and by the opposition of different forms in irregular nouns. They are numbered following Graeco-Latin tradition: First or a-Declension, Second or o-Declension, Third or i/u-Declension, fourth or Consonant Declension, and the variable nouns.

NOTE. The Second or o-Declension is also the Thematic Declension, opposed to the rest – and probably older in the evolution of PIE nominal inflection –, which form together the Athematic Declension.

The Stem of a noun may be found, if a consonant stem, by omitting the case-ending; if a vowel stem, by substituting for the case-ending the characteristic vowel.

NOTE. Most Indo-Europeanists tend to distinguish at least two major types of declension, Thematic and Athematic. Thematic nominal stems are formed with a suffix -o- (in vocative -e), and the stem does not undergo ablaut. The Athematic stems are more archaic, and they are classified further by their ablaut behaviour: acro-dynamic, protero-dynamic, hystero-dynamic and holo-dynamic, after the positioning of the early PIE accent (dynamis) in the paradigm.

4.1.3. The following are General Rules of Declension:

a. The Nominative singular for animates ends in -s when the stem endings are i, u, ī, ū, Diphthong, Occlusive and Thematic (-os), or -Ø in ā, a, Sonant and s; while in the plural -es is general, -s for those in ā, and -os for the Thematic ones.

b. The Accusative singular of all masculines and feminines ends in -m; the Accusative plural in -ms.

c. The Vocative singular for animates is always -Ø, and in the plural it is identical to the Nominative.

d. The Genitive singular is common to animates and inanimates, it is formed with -s: -s, -es, -os. A very old alternative possibility is extended -os-(i)o. The Genitive plural is formed in -ōm (also -ēm), and in -ām in a-stems.

e. The Obliques singular end usually in -i: it can be -i, -ei, -ēi, -oi, -ōi or -āi. In the plural, there are two series of declensions, with -bh- (general) and -m- (only Gmc. and Sla.), generally -bhi, -bhis, -bhios, -bhos, and (Gmc., Bal.-Sla.) -mis, -mos, and also some forms in -si (plural mark -s- plus oblique mark -i), found mainly in Graeco-Aryan dialects.

f.  Inanimates have a syncretic form for Nom.-Ac.-Voc. in -Ø in Athematic, or -m in Thematic. The plural forms end in -a or -ā.

g. All Animates have the same form in the plural for Nom.-Voc., in -es.

4.1.4. The so-called Oblique cases – opposed to the Straight ones, Nom.-Acc.-Voc –, are Genitive and the Obliques, i.e. Dative, Locative, Instrumental and Ablative. However, the Ablative seems to have never been independent, but for thematic stems in some dialectal areas. The other three cases were usually just one local case in different contexts (what we call the Oblique), although Late PIE clearly shows an irregular Oblique declension system.

NOTE 1. There are some traces – in the Indo-European proto-languages which show divided Oblique cases – that could indicate a possible first division – from a hypothetical  five-case-IE II– between a Dat. and a Loc.-Ins., and then another, more recent between Loc. and Ins (see Adrados). Languages like Sanskrit or Avestan show 8 cases, while some Italic dialects show up to 8 (cf. Osc. Loc. aasai ‘in ārā’, or Ins. cadeis amnud, ‘inimicitiae causae’, preiuatud ‘prīuātō’, etc.), while Latin shows six and a semisystematic Locative notion; Slavic and Baltic dialects show seven, Mycenaean Greek shows at least six cases, while Koiné Greek shows five, just as Germanic dialects.

NOTE 2. We know that the splitting and merging processes that affected the Obliques didn't happen uniformly among the different stems, and it didn't happen at the same time in plural and singular. Therefore, there was neither a homogene and definite declension system in IE III, nor in the dialects and languages that followed. From language to language, from stem to stem, differences over the number of cases and its formation developed. Firstly syncretism obscured the cases, and thereafter the entire system collapsed: after the time when cases broke up in others, as in most modern Slavic languages, another time came when all cases merged or were completely lost: so today in Romance languages, in Germanic like English, or in Slavic like Bulgarian. However, Modern Indo-European needs to systematize to some extent this diversity, based on the obvious underlying old system, which usually results in 6-case paradigms (normally with Dat.-Abl. and Loc.-Ins.) in most inflected forms.

 

Nominal Desinences (Summary)

 

1. They are usually Animate nouns and end in ā, and ia/ī/iā, and also rarely in ē, ō.  Those in ā are very common, generally feminine in nouns and always in adjectives. Those in ia/ī/iā are always feminine and are also used to make feminines in the adjectival Motion. Those in ō and ē are feminine only in lesser used words. Those in a are etymologically identical to the Neuter plural in Nom.-Acc.-Voc.

a-Declension Paradigm