Appendix:Ancient Greek third declension

The Ancient Greek third declension (also known as the athematic declension) comprises the most diverse and potentially confusing forms of nominal inflection. The third declension does not have a stem vowel, as the first (α/η) and second (ο) declensions do. Since the stem vowels provide a sort of buffer between the stems and inflectional endings, the third declension is more prone to contractions and other irregularities than the other two.

Etymology

The third declension is the Ancient Greek reflex of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) consonant declension. A dash with nothing following indicates an unmarked inflection, that is, a bare stem.

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	*-s	*-h₁?, -e?	*-es
Genitive	*-s, -es, -os	?	*-om
Dative	*-ey	?	*-bʰos, -mos
Accusative	*-m̥	*-h₁?, -e?	*-m̥s
Vocative	*-	*-h₁?, -e?	*-es
Instrumental	*-h₁, -éh₁	?	*-bʰi(s), -mī(s)
Ablative	*-s, -es, -os	?	*-bʰos, -mos
Locative	*-i, -	?	*-su
Neuter †	*-	*-yh₁(e?)	*-h₂

† The neuter nominative and accusative in the singular and plural have a different inflection from the masculine and feminine.

Suffixes

In Ancient Greek the ablative and genitive have merged into a single case, a process already well underway in Proto-Indo-European. The dative, locative, and instrumental cases were all merged into the dative, which generally takes on the inflection of the locative. Consult the Wikipedia article on Indo-European sound laws to aid in understanding some of the Ancient Greek reflexes of PIE sounds, such as the perhaps unintuitive evolution of PIE *m̥ → Ancient Greek α.

	Singular		Dual	Plural
	m./f.	n.		m./f.	n.
Nominative	-ς	-	-ε	-ες	-ᾰ
Vocative	-, -ς
Accusative	-ᾰ, -ν			-ᾰς
Genitive	-ος		-οιν	-ων
Dative	-ῐ			-σῐ(ν)

The rare dual suffix *-ϳε, as in Homeric ὄσσε (ósse, < *ὄσϳε).

Examples

Consonant stems

Stop-stems

In nouns which end with a labial (π, β, φ, ψ) or velar (κ, γ, χ, ξ) consonant, the pattern is fairly recognizable, as seen in πτέρυξ (ptérux, “wing”). Note that κσ, γσ and χσ are written ξ and πσ, βσ and φσ are written ψ in the nominative singular and dative plural.

	πτέρυξ f (ptérux, “wing”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	πτέρυξ	πτέρῠγε	πτέρῠγες
Vocative
Accusative	πτέρῠγᾰ		πτέρῠγᾰς
Genitive	πτέρῠγος	πτερύγοιν	πτερύγων
Dative	πτέρῠγῐ		πτέρυξῐ(ν)

Nouns which end with a dental (τ, δ, θ and similarly ντ) show some contractions. Ancient Greek does not typically allow the clusters δσ, θσ, or τσ, and so dental is dropped, often with a lengthening of the stem vowel, which sometimes goes back to PIE itself. Compare the inflection of πούς (poús, “foot”), stem ποδ- (pod-), with that given for *pṓds.

	πούς m (poús, “foot”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	πούς	πόδε	πόδες
Vocative
Accusative	πόδᾰ		πόδᾰς
Genitive	ποδός	ποδοῖν	ποδῶν
Dative	ποδί		ποσί(ν)

	γίγᾱς m (gígās, “giant”)			γέρων m (gérōn, “old man”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	γίγᾱς	γίγαντε	γίγαντες	γέρων	γέροντε	γέροντες
Vocative	γίγαν			γέρον
Accusative	γίγαντα		γίγαντας	γέροντᾰ		γέροντᾰς
Genitive	γίγαντος	γιγάντοιν	γιγάντων	γέροντος	γερόντοιν	γερόντων
Dative	γίγαντι		γίγᾱσι(ν)	γέροντῐ		γέρουσῐ(ν)

Neuter nouns of the third declension are nearly identical to their masculine and feminine counterparts except for the nominative, accusative, and vocative cases in the singular and plural. Since the stem often ends with a sound which an Ancient Greek word cannot end on, the final sound is often dropped or changed in unmarked forms. The simplest and most common third declension neuters are the dental stems, such as ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”), stem ονοματ- (onomat-). Interestingly, the τ in the stem is a common feature of Ancient Greek words derived from PIE neuter n-stems, which is not well explained.

	ὄνομᾰ n (ónomă, “name”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὄνομᾰ	ὀνόμᾰτε	ὀνόμᾰτᾰ
Vocative
Accusative
Genitive	ὀνόμᾰτος	ὀνομάτοιν	ὀνομάτων
Dative	ὀνόμᾰτῐ		ὀνόμασῐ(ν)

Nasal stems

	ἡγεμών m (hēgemṓn, “leader”)			ᾰ̓κτῑ́ς f (ăktī́s, “ray, beam”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡγεμών	ἡγεμόνε	ἡγεμόνες	ᾰ̓κτῑ́ς	ᾰ̓κτῖνε	ᾰ̓κτῖνες
Vocative
Accusative	ἡγεμόνα		ἡγεμόνας	ᾰ̓κτῖνᾰ		ᾰ̓κτῖνᾰς
Genitive	ἡγεμόνος	ἡγεμόνοιν	ἡγεμόνων	ᾰ̓κτῖνος	ᾰ̓κτῑ́νοιν	ᾰ̓κτῑ́νων
Dative	ἡγεμόνι		ἡγεμόσι(ν)	ᾰ̓κτῖνῐ		ᾰ̓κτῖσῐ(ν)

Liquid stems

	χᾰρᾰκτήρ m (khărăktḗr, “character”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	χᾰρᾰκτήρ	χᾰρᾰκτῆρε	χᾰρᾰκτῆρες
Vocative
Accusative	χᾰρᾰκτῆρᾰ		χᾰρᾰκτῆρᾰς
Genitive	χᾰρᾰκτῆρος	χᾰρᾰκτήροιν	χᾰρᾰκτήρων
Dative	χᾰρᾰκτῆρῐ		χᾰρᾰκτῆρσῐ(ν)

Sibilant stems

Neuter stems ending with a Vς (where V is a vowel) drop the sigma, and subsequently contract, especially in later Greek. The inflection of τέλος (télos, “end, goal”), stem τελε- (tele-) is as follows:

	τέλος n (télos, “end”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τέλος	τέλει (τέλεε)	τέλη (τέλεᾰ)
Vocative
Accusative
Genitive	τέλους (τέλεος)	τελοῖν (τελέοιν)	τελῶν (τελέων)
Dative	τέλει (τέλεῐ̈)		τέλεσῐ(ν) (τέλεσσῐ(ν))

Vowel stems

I-stems

Nouns with stems ending in ι show an odd admixture of ι and ει stem endings. Homeric Greek shows a more consistent ι ending resulting in εις in the plural. [1] [2] [3] Take the example of πόλῐς (pólĭs, “city”):

	πόλῐς f (pólĭs, “city”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	πόλῐς	πόλει	πόλεις
Vocative	πόλῐ
Accusative	πόλῐν
Genitive	πόλεως	πολέοιν	πόλεων
Dative	πόλει		πόλεσῐ(ν)

U-stems

ἰχθύς m (ikhthús, “fish”)
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ῐ̓χθῡ́ς	ῐ̓χθῠ́ε	ῐ̓χθῠ́ες
Vocative	ῐ̓χθῡ́
Accusative	ῐ̓χθῡ́ν		ῐ̓χθῦς
Genitive	ῐ̓χθῠ́ος	ῐ̓χθῠ́οιν	ῐ̓χθῠ́ων
Dative	ῐ̓χθῠ́ῐ̈		ῐ̓χθῠ́σῐ(ν)