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	*-bʰi, -mī	?	*-s, -es, -os
Ablative	*-s, -es, -os	?	*-bʰos, -mos
Locative	*-i, -	?	*-su
Neuter †	*-	/	*-h₂

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

Basic pattern

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.

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	-ς	-ε	-ες
Genitive	-ος	-οιν	-ων
Dative	-ῐ		-σῐ(ν)
Accusative	-ᾰ, -ν	-ε	-ᾰς
Vocative	-, -ς		-ες
Neuter	-		-ᾰ

Realizations

Stop consonants

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 how the γ and σ merge into a ξ in the nominative singular and dative plural.

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	πτέρυξ	πτέρῠγε	πτέρῠγες
Genitive	πτέρῠγος	πτερύγοιν	πτερύγων
Dative	πτέρῠγῐ		πτέρυξῐ(ν)
Accusative	πτέρῠγᾰ	πτέρῠγε	πτέρῠγᾰς
Vocative	πτέρυξ		πτέρῠγες

Nouns which end with a dental (τ, δ, θ) show some contractions. Ancient Greek does not allow a δσ, θσ, or τσ combination, and so the dental is generally 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.

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	πούς	πόδε	πόδες
Genitive	ποδός	ποδοῖν	ποδῶν
Dative	ποδί		ποσί(ν)
Accusative	πόδᾰ	πόδε	πόδᾰς
Vocative	πούς		πόδες

Neuters

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.

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὄνομᾰ	ὀνόμᾰτε	ὀνόμᾰτᾰ
Genitive	ὀνόμᾰτος	ὀνομάτοιν	ὀνομάτων
Dative	ὀνόμᾰτῐ		ὀνόμασῐ(ν)
Accusative	ὄνομᾰ	ὀνόμᾰτε	ὀνόμᾰτᾰ
Vocative	ὄνομᾰ

Contractions

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 (pólis, “city”):

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	πόλῐς	πόλει	πόλεις
Genitive	πόλεως	πολέοιν	πόλεων
Dative	πόλει		πόλεσῐ(ν)
Accusative	πόλῐν	πόλει	πόλεις
Vocative	πόλῐ

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:

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τέλος	τέλεε, τέλει	τέλεᾰ, τέλη
Genitive	τέλεος, τέλους	τελέοιν, τελοῖν	τελέων, τελῶν
Dative	τέλεϊ, τέλει		τέλεσσῐ(ν), τέλεσῐ(ν)
Accusative	τέλος	τέλεε, τέλει	τέλεᾰ, τέλη
Vocative