Appendix:Latin first declension

Latin words of the first declension end in -a in the nominative singular and -ae in the genitive singular. In the context of historical linguistics, they can be called ā-stem nouns (corresponding to Greek stems ending in η, ᾱ, and ᾰ).

In the context of Latin teaching, the "stem" is often alternatively defined as the portion of the word shared in common between all of its inflected forms. This stem can be found by removing -ae from the genitive singular form, and the inflected forms can be constructed by adding the endings shown in the tables below to this stem. The predominant letter in the endings of this declension is a.

First-declension nouns typically have feminine grammatical gender. This includes many nouns referring to female living beings (human or animal), such as puella f (“girl; female child”) and equa f (“mare; female horse”). It also includes many nouns referring to inanimate objects or abstractions, such as aqua f (“water”) and vīta f (“life”). However, a minority of first-declension nouns are masculine, in exception to the usual rule. Most masculine first-declension nouns refer to persons of male or unspecified sex. They include:

• a few common nouns referring to occupations held predominantly by men, such as agricola, agricolae m (“farmer”), nauta, nautae m (“sailor”), aurīga, aurīgae m (“charioteer”), pīrāta, pīrātae m (“pirate”), scrība, scrībae m (“writer”).
• Deverbal compounds referring to people, such as incola, incolae m (“inhabitant”), derived by adding the suffix -a to the compound verb incolō (“to inhabit”). The endings -cola (“-worshipper; -inhabitant”), -gena (“-born”), -cīda (“-killer; -cutter”) in particular show some productivity in forming new compounds.
• Proper names of male persons; e.g. Seneca, Caligula, Galba.

Inanimate first-declension nouns are rarely masculine. Some examples can be found in the following categories:

• Sometimes river names, which were often (but not always) masculine in Latin.
• Nouns of foreign origin, including various nouns taken from Greek (see below).

Compounds of the incola type are usually grammatically masculine (like other masculine nouns, they can have generic signification when used indefinitely), but there are examples of some of them being treated as grammatically feminine when used with specific reference to a female person. Thus, dictionaries often categorize words like incola as 'common gender' nouns. They are often used attributively with other nouns. Examples of this in Classical Latin can often be interpreted as showing apposition of two nouns (a common construction in Latin). However, the distinction between nouns and adjectives in Latin was somewhat permeable, and some words of this type eventually came to show increasingly similar behavior to adjectives (for example, by being used to modify neuter nouns). As a result, some (such as advena) may be described as adjectives of common gender.

The locative singular ending is -ae. Its use is productive only for the names of cities and small islands: e.g. Romae (“in Rome”), locative of Rōma (“Rome”). The locative case is unproductive for common nouns in Classical Latin, but there are attested remnants of its use for a few nouns, including terrae, militiae, viciniae. The dative/ablative plural ending, -īs, functions as the locative ending for cities and small islands that have plural-only names: e.g. Athenīs (“in Athens”), locative of Athenae (“Athens”).

Alternative endings:

• Genitive singular -ās occurs only in a few isolated expressions, such as familiās in pater familiās and māter familiās. The genitive singular ending -ās was inherited from Proto-Italic, but was replaced around the 3rd century BCE by -āī, which then evolved to Classical Latin -ae.
• Genitive singular -āī occurs in Old Latin, and occasionally in Classical Latin poets as an archaism. Aulāī for aulae.
• Genitive plural -um is used instead of -ārum in certain circumstances (mainly in poetry). Caelicolum for caelicolārum.
• Dative/ablative plural -ābus is used regularly for the nouns dea (“goddess”) and fīlia (“daughter”) and occasionally for others. The usual first-declension dative/ablative plural ending, –īs, is shared with the second declension, and so deīs and fīliīs would be prone to be understood as forms of the masculine nouns deus (“god”) and fīlius (“son”). The use of the ending -ābus prevents this misunderstanding. This ending occasionally appears on other first-declension feminine nouns to distinguish them from their second-declension masculine counterparts: e.g. equābus to indicate the dative/ablative plural of equa (“mare”) as opposed to equus (“horse”).

The first declension holds three types of Greek nouns, derived from Ancient Greek's first (alpha) declension. They are declined irregularly in the singular. Occasionally, these Greek nouns may be declined as if they were native Latin nouns, e.g. nominative athlēta may be used instead of the original athlētēs.

Notes:

• The plural and dative singular forms are the same as for native Latin words.

Examples:

• nymphē, -ēs f
• comētēs, -ae m (also: comēta, -ae m); dynastēs, -ae m
• xiphiās, -ae m

Adjectives of the first declension are of "common" gender, meaning the same forms are used for masculine and feminine. The use of first-declension adjectives with neuter nouns is very rare and poorly attested in Classical Latin, but there are a handful of examples showing neuter genitive singular ("Tempore rūricolae patiēns fit taurus arātrī", Ovid Tristia 4.6.1) or neuter ablative singular forms ("vīnō aliēnigenā", Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 2.24.2.8 ; "dē indigenā vīnō", Pliny, Naturalis Historia 14.72.3; mārtigenā vulgō, Silius Italicus, Punica 16.532).

It is questionable whether the full neuter paradigm shown above was established in Classical Latin. The neuter endings can be inferred to an extent based on the general rules of Latin declension, and some are attested in later authors. However, a complicating factor is that many adjectives of this type eventually developed alternative forms declined as first/second declension adjectives in -us, -a, -um. This makes it ambiguous whether attested neuter plural forms ending in -a (nom/acc/voc) or -īs (dat/abl) are first-declension or second-declension forms. For example, Priscian cites "alienigena studia" from Valerius Maximus, but interprets alienigena as a second-declension plural form (corresponding to a singular alienigenum), arguing that there are no neuters in the first or fifth declension.^[1] Gaffiot cites Seneca's "alienigena sacra" (Ep. 108.22) and Lucretius's "ex alienigenis rebus" (DRN 1.865) as examples of alienigenus, alienigena, alienigenum,^[2] even though unambiguously second-declension forms of this word do not appear in the works of Seneca or Lucretius.

Neuter cases other than the nominative/accusative/vocative. As a rule, Latin adjectives normally share these forms between all genders.

• The genitive plural ending -ārum is attested in New Latin on adjectives modifying neuter nouns, e.g. animalium indigenarum/cornupetarum.
• The dative singular ending -ae is attested in New Latin on adjectives modifying neuter nouns, e.g. animali indigenae.
• The dative/ablative plural ending -īs is attested in Classical Latin on adjectives modifying neuter nouns, e.g. ex alienigenis membris (Lucretius). However, this form is ambiguous and can be interpreted as a second-declension ending. Lucretius uses unambiguously second-declension forms for some adjectives of similar construction, such as omnigenus, primigenum, caecigeni, vitigeni.

Neuter nominative/accusative/vocative. Latin neuter nouns and adjectives always share the same form among those three cases, and almost always end in -a in the plural. Based on these rules, we might infer the ending -a for the neuter nominative/accusative/vocative in both singular and plural.

• The neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular ending -a is mentioned by some grammarians. The grammarian Pompeius, who likely lived in the fifth century, considers the word advena to be common to all three genders, saying that it is possible to find the phrase "mancipium advena".^[3]
• The neuter nominative/accusative/vocative plural ending -a is attested in ancient Latin on adjectives modifying neuter nouns. However, this form is ambiguous and can be interpreted as a second-declension ending. Examples can be found in imperial authors who wrote in the first century CE: Columella ("semina ... alienigena", De Re Rustica 3.4.1.6); Valerius Maximus ("alienigena exempla", "alienigena studia"); and Seneca ("alienigena sacra", Ep. 108.22). Valerius Maximus also uses the unambiguously second-declension form alienigeni ("alienigeni amores", "alienigeni sanguinis"). Tertullian used terrigena as a neuter plural in animālia terrigena (but this may be regarded as a nonclassical feature).^[4]

Examples:

• aliēnigena
• cornupeta
• indigena
• rūricola

• Latin second declension
• Latin third declension
• Latin fourth declension
• Latin fifth declension
• Wikipedia article on declension
• Wikipedia article on Latin declension