Third Declension Nouns 1 Prof. Kyle T. Fever Note from Mary: Kyle co-taught online Greek with me last year. This is his handout on Third Declension. It follows what Mounce tells you, but the different presentation may be useful to you. What's up with the third declension? Why do they exist, and how are they really different from the first and second declension? Let’s review nouns. The first declension are nouns whose stem ends in an alpha (a) or an eta (h). We know that. Thus, w{ra or fwnh/ are first declension nouns. First declension nouns take no case ending in the nominative singular forms. These nouns happen to be called “feminine” nouns for whatever reasons….. The second declension are nouns whose stem ends in an omicron (o). Thus, no/moj or e1rgon. The actual stems of these second declension nouns are no/mo* and e1rgo* respectively. The sigma (j) and the nu (n) at the end are the nominative singular case endings for the second declension masculine and neuter. The first declension above has no case ending for the nominative singular, and so they end in the vowel which is part of the stem itself. Ok so far? So, the THIRD DECLENSION are nouns whose stem ends in a CONSONANT and not one of the above vowels. This is main point #1. Main point #2 is that there are a few options as to what consonant is the final consonant, and as we know, when we put case endings after various consonants, things can change. But if we are familiar with certain rules, then it is not all that “irregular.” So there are a few basic types of third declension nouns based on the type of consonant that ends the stem. This is important to know. I’ll go through each of the types of nouns, based on the final consonant. But first, the case endings for third declension….The order in the endings chart below is masculine, feminine, neuter.1 Knowing which nouns are masculine, feminine, or neuter is a matter of knowing vocabulary for the most part. There are a couple of patterns I will point out below also. Here are the third declension noun endings: SINGULAR PLURAL Nom. j -- /j2 -- ej ej a Genitive oj oj oj wn wn wn Dative i i i si(n) si(n) si(n) Accusative a/n a/n -- aj aj a 1 Guys rarely get to go first anymore. J 2 A dash (--) means no case ending. So the feminine nominative sometimes has no case ending, just like in the first declension. Third Declension Nouns 2 Prof. Kyle T. Fever Ok. So those are the third declension case endings. Notice the patterns, and even similarities with first and second declension endings. Now let’s apply these to some third declension nouns. Noun type #1: Stems that end in a kappa (k) Stem: sark* Third declension paradigm: SINGULAR PLURAL Nom. sa/rc 3 sa/rk ej Gen. sark o/j sark w~n Dative sark i/ sarci/(n)4 Accusative sa/rk a sa/rk aj Noun type #2: Nouns that end in a tau or delta (t / d) Stem: xarit* Paradigm: SINGULAR PLURAL Nom. xa/rij 5 xa/ritej Gen. xa/ritoj xari/twn Dative xa/riti xa/risin 6 Accusative xa/rita7 xa/ritaj 3 Remember the rule: when you put a sigma (the case ending for the nominative singular) after a k, you get the sound c. 4 See the note above to figure out why the dative plural is sarcin and not sarksin. Know the simple rules, and you’ll go far! 5 Here, the tau (t) at the end of the stem is eaten up by the nominative singular ending sigma, as we have learned happens when a tau is followed by a sigma. Thus, you get xarij instead of xaritj. 6 Why is this xarisin and not xaritsin? See previous note. 7 Nouns of this pattern will sometimes alternate between the alpha ending (xarita) and the nu (xarin). When it comes with the nu ending, the nu (n) eats the final tau (t), so not xaritn, but xarin. Third Declension Nouns 3 Prof. Kyle T. Fever Noun type #3: Stems ending in mat Noun: o1nomat* (these are neuter nouns) Paradigm: SINGULAR PLURAL Nom. o1noma8 o0no/mata9 Gen. o0no/matoj o0no/matwn Dative o0no/mati o0no/masin10 Accusative o1noma11 o0no/mata Noun type #4: Nouns ending in iota (i) Noun stem: pisti* (these are typically feminine nouns) Paradigm: SINGULAR PLURAL Nom pi/stij pi/steij12 Gen pi/stewj13 pi/stewn Dative pi/stei14 pi/stesin Accusative pi/stin pi/steij15 8 Third declension nouns ending in mat are neuter nouns. According to the paradigm, neuter third declension nouns do not have an ending in the nominative singular. Because a tau (t) cannot stand alone at the end of a noun, it drops off, and you get o1noma. 9 Just following the paradigm of endings for the neuter in the third declension. Very easy! 10 Why is the dative plural of this type onomasin and not onomatsin ? You should know this by now…. 11 As with the neuter in the second declension, there is no ending in the accusative singular. There is a pattern here… 12 If we put the ending -ej after the stem, we would get: pistiej. The two vowels simply change places. 13 What happened here? The genitive singular ending is –oj. If we add that to the stem we get: pistioj. With these words, the iota shifts to an epsilon (e), and the addition of the ending causes the omicron to elongate to an omega (w). Thus: pistewj. 14 Here, if we add the ending -i to the stem we would get: pistii. This can’t happen, so the iota in the stem changes to an epsilon: pistei. 15 The accusative plural ending --aj after the stem vowel i causes the vowels to change to –ei. .