PART FIRSTWORDS AND FORMS

FIRST DECLENSION (-STEMS)

The Stem of nouns of the First Declension ends in -. The Nominative ending is -a (the stem-vowel shortened), except in Greek nouns.

Latin nouns of the First Declension are thus declined:

		stella, F., star
		STEM stell-
		SINGULAR	CASE-ENDINGS
NOM.	stella	a star	-a
GEN.	stellae	of a star	-ae
DAT.	stellae	to or for a star	-ae
ACC.	stellam	a star	-am
ABL.	stell	with, from, by, etc. a star	-
		PLURAL
NOM.	stellae	stars	-ae
GEN.	stellrum	of stars	-rum
DAT.	stells	to or for stars	-s
ACC.	stells	stars	-s
ABL.	stells	with, from, by, etc. stars	-s

The Latin has no article; hence stella may mean a star, the star, or simply star.

Gender in the First Declension

Nouns of the first declension are Feminine.

Exceptions: Nouns masculine from their signification: as, nauta, sailor. So a few family or personal names: as, Mrna, Dolbella, Scaevola ²¹ ; also, Hadria, the Adriatic.

Case-Forms in the First Declension

a. The genitive singular anciently ended in - (dissyllabic), which is occasionally found: as, aul. The same ending sometimes occurs in the dative, but only as a diphthong. [p. 19]

An old genitive in -s is preserved in the word familis, often used in the combinations pater (mter, flius, flia) familis, father, etc., of a family (plur. patrs familis or familirum).

The Locative form for the singular ends in -ae; for the plural in -s (cf. p. 34, footnote): as, Rmae, at Rome; Athns, at Athens.

The genitive plural is sometimes found in -um instead of -rum, especially in Greek patronymics, as, Aeneadum, sons of neas, and in compounds with -cla and -gna, signifying dwelling and descent: as, caelicolum, celestials; Triugenum, sons of Troy; so also in the Greek nouns amphora and drachma.

The dative and ablative plural of dea, goddess, flia, daughter, end in an older form -bus (debus, flibus) to distinguish them from the corresponding cases of deus, god, and flius, son (des, flis). So rarely with other words, as, lberta, freed-woman; mla, she-mule; equa, mare. But, except when the two sexes are mentioned together (as in formulas, documents, etc.), the form in -s is preferred in all but dea and flia.

NOTE 1.The old ending of the ablative singular (-d) is sometimes retained in early Latin: as, praidd, booty (later, praed).

NOTE 2.In the dative and ablative plural -eis for -s is sometimes found, and -is (as in taenis) is occasionally contracted to -s (taens); so regularly in words in -ia (as, Bs from Biae).

Greek Nouns of the First Declension

Many nouns of the First Declension borrowed from the Greek are entirely Latinized (as, aula, court); but others retain traces of their Greek case-forms in the singular.

	Electra, F.	synopsis, F.	art of music, F.
NOM.	lectra (-)	epitom	msica (-)
GEN.	lectrae	epitoms	msicae (-s)
DAT.	lectrae	epitomae	msicae
ACC.	lectram (-n)	epitomn	msicam (-n)
ABL.	lectr	epitom	msic (-)
	Andromache, F.	neas, M.	Persian, M.
NOM.	Andromach (-a)	Aens	Perss (-a)
GEN.	Andromachs (-ae)	Aenae	Persae
DAT.	Andromachae	Aenae	Persae
ACC.	Andromachn (-am)	Aenn (-am)	Persn (-am)
ABL.	Andromach (-)	Aen	Pers (-)
VOC.	Andromach (-a)	Aen (-a)	Persa

[p. 20]

	Anchises, M.	son of neas, M.	comet, M.
NOM.	Anchss	Aeneads (-a)	comts (-a)
GEN.	Anchsae	Aeneadae	comtae
DAT.	Anchsae	Aeneadae	comtae
ACC.	Anchsn (-am)	Aeneadn	comtn (-am)
ABL.	Anchs (-)	Aenead (-)	comt (-)
VOC.	Anchs (-, -a)	Aenead (-a)	comta

There are (besides proper names) about thirty-five of these words, several being names of plants or arts: as, cramb, cabbage; msic, music. Most have also regular Latin forms: as, comta; but the nominative sometimes has the a long.

Greek forms are found only in the singular; the plural, when it occurs, is regular: as, comtae, -rum, etc.

Many Greek nouns vary between the first, the second, and the third declensions: as, Botae (genitive of Bots, -is), Thcdids (accusative plural of Thcdids, -is). See 52. a and 81.

NOTE.The Greek accusative Scpiadam, from Scpiads, descendant of the Scipios, is found in Horace.