3 rd DECLENSION I. GM 9

Introductory information. Division of the 3 rd declension. Paradigm. Examples of use. Textbook. Content

Introductory information All words belonging to the 3 rd declension have Gen. Sg. with ending -is. There is no exception from this rule. 3 rd declension is the biggest one among groups of Latin nouns. Also it is the most complicated. Therefore we will divide the subject to two parts. Internally the declension is split up to two groups called parisyllabics and imparisyllabics.

Parisyllabics and imparisyllabics Terms parisyllabic/imparisyllabic mean in LMT: “ words with same or different number of syllables in Nom. and Gen. Sg. ”. Demonstration: auris (Nom. Sg.) has Gen. Sg. auris and is therefore parisyllabic (two and two syllables). foramen (3 syllables), Gen. Sg. foraminis (4 syllables) is im parisyllabic.

Introductory information 2 For sake of simplicity we can consider imparisyllabics to be a basic form. Parisyllabics will be derived later from this former version in the next lesson. Imparisyllabics contain two paradigms: dolor used for masculines and feminines caput used for neuters.

The most prominent feature of this declension is variety of endings in Nom. Sg. So far declensions have had only limited amount of versions usually associated with certain gender. (Example: -us/-er for masculines in the 2 nd declension, -a for feminines in the 1 st decl., etc.) The list of possible endings in the nominative singular of the 3 rd declension would contain more than 20 different entries! Example: calor, apex, operatio, mater, foramen, coma, etc.

There are three consequences: Relation between the nominative ending and gender of given noun, which used to be relatively straightforward ( musculus is M, vena is F, intestinum N), is in the 3 rd decl. very complicated. Therefore you must remember exactly a gender of every word belonging to this declension. Nominative endings are nevertheless used to distinguish between particular subgroups of the 3 rd declension (paradigms). This will be explained in the future lessons. Difference between Nom. Sg. and Gen. Sg. often includes also an alteration of stem.

Paradigm dolor, is Sg.Pl. Nom. dolor*dolor -es Gen. dolor -isdolor -um Acc. dolor -emdolor -es Abl. dolor -edolor -ibus (is used for masculines and feminines) * Due the complicated nature of the 3 rd declension, the Nom. Sg. ending can be any of more than 20 variations.

Paradigm caput, itis Sg.Pl. Nom. caput*capit -a Gen. capit -iscapit -um Acc. caput*capit -a Abl. capit -ecapit -ibus (is used for neutrals) * In neutral paradigms the accusative grammatical case is always same as nominative.

Stem alterations Word caput, capitis is not only a paradigm for neutrals, but it is also example of stem alteration. Normally a Latin noun changes in various cases only its ending. However certain nouns in the 3 rd declension alternate also stems. If there is a different stem it is always indicated in the vocabulary form of the word. Example: apex, icis m. here “ic” in the genitive ending signifies that although nominative is apex, the genitive will be apicis.

haluc- pulver- operation- foramin- -em -es -is -a stems endings Change in stem A word with no change in stem has in vocabulary form only -is ending. If there is an alteration, then it is indicated in genitive ending. Compare following vocabulary forms: calor, is m. sudor, is m. ren, is m. no change index, dicis m. suspicio, onis, f. coma, comat is n. change

Comments On the page 108 in the textbook there are three different paradigms for the 3 rd declension: apart from dolor and caput there is also operatio. But if you compare dolor (masculine) and operatio (feminine) you will see that they are the same. Therefore we will use only dolor for both masculines and feminines.

Comments Word latus (p. 111) is tricky. We have an adjective latus, lata, latum (meaning “wide”) and a noun latus, lateris n. (meaning “side”). There are two words with the same nominative os. The first is os, oris n. (mouth) and the second is os, ossis n. (bone). Further, the “bone” has an exception in Gen. Pl. ending. Instead of -um we must use -ium ( os, ossis, ossium NOT ossum ).

Textbook Explanation of the 3 rd declension: p Vocabulary: