Noun: 3rd Declension

GrammarNoun – 3rd Declension neuter singular

Remember, a noun declension is just a group of nouns that share the same endings, or in other words, they are declined in the same way. Because third declension is the most diverse of the declensions in Greek, we will learn a lot of different variations of the pattern you will see in this lesson.

fromLesson 9.3

MorphologyNoun – 3rd Declension neuter singular

• The nom and acc forms are the same like 2nd declension neut nouns, e.g. τέκνον (see 3.2.3.1).
• The final τ drops out in the nom and acc sg.
• The gen sg ending is -ος, where we see the characteristic o-class vowel of the gen (see also 3.2.3.1, 6.1.3.1, 6.2.3.1).
• The dat sg ending is -ι where the ι marks the dat (see 3.1.4.1 – note the iota subscript under the dat sg, 6.1.3.1, 6.2.3.1).

fromLesson 9.3

MorphologyInflectional Morphology

Even though we interpret words as whole units, some words are made up of smaller pieces. As an example, the two sibling terms, ἀδελφός and ἀδελφή, ‘brother’ and ‘sister,’ share the part ἀδελφ-. These words only differ in the ending which gives the case, gender, and number. The part that does not give information about the case, gender, or number is called the stem of a word. So, these two words share the same stem, namely ἀδελφ, and they differ in how they are inflected for case, gender, or number. Linguists call these kinds of endings inflectional morphology, which is the morphology that indicates grammatical information about the word. When you take away this inflectional part, you are left with the stem of a word (for more on word composition, see Morphology A).

fromLesson 10.1

MorphologyNoun – 3rd Declension neuter plural

• Since the nom/acc pl ends in -α, we see the τ of the stem.
• The gen pl has the normal -ων ending (which often shifts the accent; see 3.1.3).
• For the dat pl, the ending is σι with a movable ν, and the σ causes the τ of the stem to drop. Both the σ and ι are characteristic of the dat pl (e.g. τέκν-οις).

fromLesson 10.1