Classical Arithide declension
- See also Classical Arithide grammar for more information
Owing to the language's inflectionary nature, Classical Arithide nouns, pronouns and certain of its adjectives must be declined (i.e. inflected) to provide grammatical meaning. A group of words that decline in the same way is known as a "declension class". There are 8 declension classes for nouns and the same for adjectives; pronouns are generally irregular.
Declension classes
Nouns in Classical Arithide are classed into different declensions based on their semantic meaning. This lexically based categorisation means that each declension class represents a broad group of nouns that share a certain characteristic. Traditional grammatical analysis takes the number of declension classes in Classical Arithide to be six, but the sub-classes that are sometimes sufficiently distinct from their ostensible parent class render the number about double. Factoring in overlapping and coincident declensions, modern grammarians generally accept the existence of 8 discrete groups, numbered declension classes I to VIII respectively. Only 7 classes were lexical: classes I to IV were productive classes due to their nature—they are still productive in Modern Arithide—and the nouns thence derived, which declined distinctly from their original classes, were categorised under an eighth class.
Nouns of the first declension ending in -os are associated lexically with abstractions: states (valonos "peace") and qualities (fugirenos "dangerousness"), as well as others (sonos "daily life"). The second declension ends in -as and is associated with places: kitaras "hall". The third (-ir) and fourth (-rir) both indicate a negative denotation or connotation associated with the noun, and were treated traditionally as variants of one declension, but separately nowadays because of the differences in their declension; they are also the only declensions where disyllabic nouns are stressed on the last syllable; vokir "evil", kirir "faux pas". The fifth declension consists of nouns ending in either -er or -a, and the association here is with people, society and culture: ither "person", medier "wife", steima "measurement"; nouns without an ending decline the same way but have no particular lexical association (stant "weight"). The sixth declension consists solely of nouns which all end in -on, e.g. pūron "hero" or foriton "miner", and the ending is productive in forming the agentive nouns of verbs. The seventh is made up of nouns ending in -i or -e, as well as certain nouns ending in -is and -es, but no apparent lexical connection has been found that sufficiently encompasses the nouns in the category. The eighth, and last, declension class comprises the derived nouns, ending in any of -os, -as or -ir, and is the most regular declension class due to its character: it is the only class in which no irregularity is observed in any individual noun.
Distinction between -er and -on
Both the nominative singular endings -er (V) and -on (VI) indicate people, or agents of verbs. While in surviving Classical Arithide texts only the latter seemed to be sufficiently lexemic to be productive (as the agentive noun-forming suffix, for one), there existed a semantic distinction between the two suffixes that persisted long enough for the -er ending to experience a resurgence in productivity in the vulgar tongue, and hence subsequently the koine and the modern standard.
The lexeme -on was straightforward: it simply denoted any person who committed any action, and could be freely attached to any verb due to its broad semantic scope:
- segrēn "to write" > segron "one who writes, the person who wrote"
- terēn "to weave" > teron "one who weaves, the person who wove"
- damēn "to carry" > damon "one who carries, the person who carried"
-Er, on the other hand, was more restrictive: this suffix could be used only to denote such persons as professionals, passionate believers, or members of the family and so on. In other words, the action in question could not be a casual, one-off incidence, but had to be done by virtue of vocation, profession, conviction, or social role. Note the semantic contrast between the examples in the above paragraph and those that follow:
- segrēn "to write" > segriter "author"
- terēn "to weave" > teriter "tailor, seamstress"
- damēn "to carry" > dampter "porter"
The above examples all include the infix -(i)t-, which is attached to frst conjugation verbs in the derivation of nouns one degree removed semantically from the verb, for more of which see Classical Arithide conjugation#Verbal nouns.
Irregular nominatives
A combination of phonetic processes, among which is notable syncope (the elimination of non-initial or -final word syllables), has given rise to many first declension nouns whose nominative singular forms do not end in the expected -os. In these nouns, the most common process has been the elision of the -o- in the ending; the resultant consonant clusters have each been resolved in a different way, at times through assimilation, at others through dissimilation, and in yet other cases triggering further elision. Note, however, that declension VIII nouns never undergo such reduction.
Examples are given below:
- *-fos > -fs > -ps: kaps "list"1
- *-tos > -ts > -ss > -s: ves "breeze"2
- *-dos > -ds > -z > -s: as "sea"
- *-ros > -rs > -s: tos "step"3
- *-egos, *-igos > -ēs, -īs: rēs "day", rīs "we (exclusive)"4
- *-gos > -gs > -ks: rūthex "chairperson, president"5
1
In cases other than the nominative, the /f/ is generally voiced to [v], while retaining its spelling. Hence <kafo> [kavo] "list (acc.)". There are, coincidentally, no declension I nouns that end in -pos (except as part of a cluster), all of which having already been lenited to -fos in Ancient Arithide.
2
Note that the supines of second to fourth conjugation verbs (which are declension I), as well as the infix -(i)t-, do not undergo this particular reduction due to the prominence of their -t- and their productivity.
3
This process, with r-stems, was considerably short-lived, and consequently affected only a limited number of words, leaving many others unaltered.
4
Again, this process lost steam very quickly, and affected only the most commonly-used words.
5
This process did not actually occur in Classical Arithide, but in Dethric, from which the few agentive nouns ending in -x were borrowed.
These reductive processes only kicked in when the consonants mentioned above were in isolation, i.e. they did not occur as part of a cluster. In addition, the behaviour of the vowels immediately before the affected consonants exhibits a degree of variation that is not entirely regular or predictable. While much of the time they remain unchanged, in certain nouns the high vowels [i] and [u] may be lowered to [e] and [o] (which was not reflected in the standard orthography but gleaned from informal correspondences and writings).
Most problematically, for reasons of stress and hence scansion, they might sometimes be lengthened. Vowel-lengthening in orathōs < *orathodos "religious" is logical, partly because the reduction involves the coalescence of two [o]s, and partly for reasons of contrast with plain orathos "religion". However, the adjectival substantive ending -itās has the stem -itat-, and the stem of dhīs "festival" is actually dhid-. The occurrence of -ā- and -ī- in these cases appears to be entirely arbitrary, especially given the precedents of words like das, dad- "hand" that do not undergo compensatory lengthening.
Grammatical cases
Fully declining a noun requires expressing its 11 cases:
- Nominative, which marks the subject of a verb; the nominative is the case in which a noun or pronoun is cited in the dictionary, hence it is also known as the citation case
- Topical, which marks the topic of a sentence
- Accusative, which marks the object of a verb
- Genitive, which marks possession by
- Dative, which marks motion towards, and by extension benefaction to etc.
- Locative, which marks location (with places) or indicates shift of grammatical focus (with objects and people)
- Ablative, which marks motion away or existence apart, and by extension is used with prepositions such as parō "about, regarding" or etel "by (agentive)"
- Instrumental, which marks instruments, and by extension accompaniment, using the preposition etel "with"
- Vocative, which marks direct address
- Connective, which is an open-ended stem form to which certain affixes or other nouns are appended, e.g. salumos "heaven" + innos "top" > saluminnum "in heaven" (lit. "on heaven"; innos is in the locative) and allas "city" + dolō "around" (from dolos "surroundings") > alladolō "around the city" 1
- Essive, which marks existence as
1
Alladolō (connective + prep.) must be distinguished from the similar dolō allior (prep. + ablative); while both might be translated as "around the city", the former refers to the areas outside and surrounding a certain city, while the latter refers to places all around within the city: alladolō siethē sena "there are flowers around the city" vs. dolō allior siethē sena "there are flowers all about the city".
Of these, the connective and essive cases in all nouns are identical, resulting in 10 effective cases. Should the need arise to differentiate the two, however, the essive may take on the auxiliary suffix -sanos (lit. "semblance, condition, state").
First declension -os
Nouns of and adjectives in the first declension take the following endings:
| sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | sōmos, thiftios | sōmēs |
| Top. | sōmou | sōmōi |
| Acc. | sōmo | sōmē |
| Gen. | sōmoi, thiftine1 | sōmēi, thiftinēi1 |
| Dat. | sōmae | sōmei |
| Loc. | sōmi, thiftim2 | sōmō, thiftiō |
| Abl. | sōmōn | sōmēn |
| Ins. | sōmōis, thiftitis1 | sōmūis, thiftitēs1 |
| Voc. | sōmō | sōmē |
| Ess./Con. | sōm, sōm- | sōme(r), sōme(r)- |
1 The former in each pair is used with consonant-stem words (e.g. sōmos, sōm-), while the latter with vowel-stem words (e.g. thiftios, thifti-).
2 This alternation is not due to the consonant- and vowel-stem differentiation. The locative ending for declension I is -im, in this case shown truncated to -i after an m- stem, and to -m after a vowel-stem.
Second declension -as
Unlike the first declension, nouns of the second declension do not distinguish endings between consonant- and vowel-stem words. An example conjugation is provided with sivias "town" below.
| sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | sivias | siviais |
| Top. | siviāi | siviaiā |
| Acc. | sivia | siviai |
| Gen. | siviā | sivian |
| Dat. | sivīs1 | sivīei1 |
| Loc. | sivium | siviām |
| Abl. | sivior2 | siviēri |
| Ins. | siviāis | siviēis |
| Voc. | siviā | siviai |
| Ess./Con. | sivia, sivia- | siviē, siviē- |
1 The actual endings -īs and -iei. With -i- stem words, a simple, long -ī- results in both cases.
2 The actual ending is -ior. In this case the -i- in the case ending is elided.
Third declension -ir
In Classical Arithide, nouns that end in -ir in the nominative singular are descended from two separate older noun groups, with singular stems in either -yr- or -rud-, and fall in either of two declension classes; plural stems for both are -id-. The important distinction between nouns that end in the simpler -ir and more complex -rir endings (declensions III and IV respectively) must be maintained for purposes of proper declension. Besides maintaining distinctive stems, third declension nouns take endings that vary substantially from those of the fourth declension.
In the third declension, besides the traditional -yr- stem, sound change also introduced a variant stem, -ir-, and both forms appear liberally throughout Classical Arithide texts.
Vokir is declined as follows:
| sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | vokir | vokidēs |
| Top. | vokyrō, vokirō | vokidō |
| Acc. | voki | vokidē |
| Gen. | vokin | vokidin |
| Dat. | vokyrae, vokirae | vokidei |
| Loc. | vokyrī, vokirī | vokidī |
| Abl. | vokyrōn, vokirōn | vokidēn |
| Ins. | vokyrū, vokirū | vokidū |
| Voc. | voky | vokidē |
| Ess./Con. | voky, voky(r)- | vokit, vokid- |
Fourth declension -rir
Kirir is declined as follows:
| sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | kirir | kiridēs |
| Top. | kirudō | kiridō |
| Acc. | kiru(d) | kiridē |
| Gen. | kirudi | kiridēī |
| Dat. | kirudīs | kiridiei |
| Loc. | kirudum | kiridām |
| Abl. | kirudior | kiridēri |
| Ins. | kirū | kiridū |
| Voc. | kirū | kiridē |
| Ess./Con. | kirur, kirud- | kirit, kirid- |
Fifth declension -er and -a etc.
The groups of nouns in the fifth declension decline in generally the same way, albeit with minor differences. Nouns with no ending are declined like nouns ending in -er.
Theler, steima and stant are declined as below:
| sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | theler | theleis | steima | steimeis | stant | stanteis |
| Top. | theleu | theleiā | steimeu | steimeiā | stanteu | stanteiā |
| Acc. | thelor | thelei | steimor | steimei | stantor | stantei |
| Gen. | thelus | thelius | steimus | steimeus | stantus | stantius |
| Dat. | theleīs | thelīei | steimeīs | steimīei | stanteīs | stantīei |
| Loc. | thelera | thelirē | steimera | steimerē | stantera | stantirē |
| Abl. | theleōn | theliēn | steimōn | steimēn | stanteōn | stantiēn |
| Ins. | thelet(is) | thelitū | steimet(is) | steimetū | stantet(is) | stantitū |
| Voc. | thelā | thelī | steimā | steimē | stantā | stantī |
| Ess./Con. | thele, thele- | theli, theli- | steima, steima- | steime, steime- | stante, stante- | stanti, stanti- |
Sixth declension -on
The sixth declension is the only class of nouns that has variant stems: in the plural, the -on (which is actually part of the stem; the class marker is a null morpheme) fronts to become -ēn-.
Sixth declension nouns decline as per the table below:
| sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | -(on) | -(ein, ēnis)1 |
| Top. | -a | -a |
| Acc. | -ē | -ē |
| Gen. | -us | -us |
| Dat. | -ae | -ēs |
| Loc. | -era | -erē |
| Abl. | -ōn | -ēn |
| Ins. | -is | -is |
| Voc. | -ā | -ā |
| Ess./Con. | -(on) | -(eni) |
1 The form -ein is a contraction of the older -ēnis; the former is more often seen in later texts, but the latter remains widespread and the standard for formal and serious topics.
Thus agnon has a declension of:
| sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | agnon | agnein/-nēnis |
| Top. | agnona | agnēna |
| Acc. | agnonē | agnēnē |
| Gen. | agnonus | agnēnus |
| Dat. | agnonae | agnēnēs |
| Loc. | agnonera | agnēnerē |
| Abl. | agnonōn | agnēnēn |
| Ins. | agnonis | agnēnis |
| Voc. | agnonā | agnēnā |
| Ess./Con. | agnon, agnon- | agneni, agneni- |
Seventh declension -i, -e, -is, -es
The seventh declension takes the following endings:
| sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | -i(s), -e(s) | -īs |
| Top. | -us | -utē |
| Acc. | -ēs | -ētē |
| Gen. | -is | -itē |
| Dat. | -e, -eā | -erei |
| Loc. | -ira | -ērē |
| Abl. | -igōn | -ēgēn |
| Ins. | -uī, -eī | -uītē, -eītē |
| Voc. | -i etc. | -ē |
| Ess./Con. | -ī, -ī- | -ē, -ē- |
Below is the example declension for vosi:
| sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | vosi, libe | vosīs |
| Top. | vosus | vosutē |
| Acc. | vosēs | vosētē |
| Gen. | vosis | vositē |
| Dat. | vose, libeā | voserei |
| Loc. | vosira | vosērē |
| Abl. | vosigōn | vosēgēn |
| Ins. | vosuī, libeī | vosuītē, libeītē |
| Voc. | vosi | vosē |
| Ess./Con. | vosi, vosi- | vosē, vosē- |
Eighth declension -os, -as, -ir
The derived nouns of the eighth declension take endings as follows in the table below. One peculiarity of these derived nouns is that they form all cases by appending the relevant case ending to their connective, as will be demonstrated by the example conjugations table further down; in -ir nouns, only the singular connective is used, except where the case endings are identical for the singular and plural, when the plural connective is also used. For this declension, the genitive, dative, locative, ablative and instrumental cases have identical endings for all three classes of nouns.
Note: This declension does not cover the derived verbal nouns, whether supine, agent or patient. Declension VIII encompasses only abstract nouns derived from other nouns, as per the examples below. Verbal nouns include identifying infixes and decline according to declensions I, II etc.
| sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | -os | -ēs | -as | -ae | -ir | -rēs |
| Top. | -ou | -ōi | -ai | -ōi | -ou | -ōi |
| Acc. | -o | -ē | -a | -ē | -o | -ē |
| Gen. | -is | -ēs | -is | -ēs | -is | -is |
| Dat. | -ae | -ei | -ae | -ei | -ae | -ei |
| Loc. | -um | -um | -um | -um | -um | -um |
| Abl. | -ōn | -ēn | -ōn | -ēn | -ōn | -ēn |
| Ins. | -ōs | -ū | -ās | -ū | -itis | -ērū |
| Voc. | -ā | -ā | -ā | -ē | -ā | -ērā |
| Ess./Con. | -ōr, -or- | -ēr, -er- | -ār, -ar- | -aes, -aer- | -ir, -r- | -rēr, -rēr- |
Moros "request" (cf. mossos "act of requesting"), minnas "locality of the valley" and syndir "sin" are declined as examples below:
| sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | sg. | pl. | |
| Nom. | moros | morēs | minnas | minnae | syndir | syndrēs |
| Top. | mororou | morerōi | minnarai | minnaerōi | syndrou | syndrōi |
| Acc. | mororo | morerē | minnara | minnaerē | syndro | syndrē |
| Gen. | mororis | morerēs | minnaris | minnaerēs | syndris | syndrēris |
| Dat. | mororae | morerei | minnarae | minnaerei | syndrae | syndrei |
| Loc. | mororum | morerum | minnarum | minnaerum | syndrum | syndrērum |
| Abl. | mororōn | morerēn | minnarōn | minnaerēn | syndrōn | syndrēn |
| Ins. | mororōs | morerū | minnarās | minnaerū | syndritis | syndrērū |
| Voc. | mororā | morerā, morerē | minnarā | minnaerē | syndrā | syndrērā |
| Ess./Con. | morōr, moror- | morēr, morer- | minnār, minnar- | minnaes, minnaer- | syndir, syndr- | syndrēr, syndrēr- |
Irregular nouns
- Main article: List of Classical Arithide irregular nouns
As with all languages, Classical Arithide has its share of irregularly-declined nouns, some of them being among the most commonly used.
In addition to that, most personal names in Classical Arithide are irregularly declined (e.g. Pereos, gen. Fini; Symbakos, voc. Sebeō). See also Areth names#Classical declension for more on personal name declensions.
