Hansen & Quinn, Greek: An Intensive Course, Unit 1
Morphological content in this unit:
13.5. Declensions of Nouns
14. First-Declension Nouns (Nominative in -η or -̵ᾱ)
15. Second-Declension Nouns
16. The Article
13.5. Declensions of Nouns
Declensions are classes of nouns that share the same patterns of inflection. That is, words that belong to the same declension will (mostly) use the same case markers. For instance, λόγος, “statement,” and ἔργον, “work,” use the same genitive singular marker /ο that produces λόγου (λόγο/ο) and δώρου (δώρο/ο). So they and nouns like them belong to the same declension, namely the 2nd declension. In contrast, τέχνη, “skill,” marks the genitive singular with a different ending, namely /Lς, which gives us τέχνης (from τέχνα/Lς). This noun, and nouns like it, belong to the 1st declension.
Here are this unit’s nouns divided between declensions:
| 1st declension | 2nd declension |
| ἀγορα/ μάχα/ οἰκία/ τέχνα/ χώρα/ ψυχά/ | ἀδελφό/ ἄνθρωπο/ βιβλίο/ δώρο/ ϝέργο/ θεό/ λόγο/ νήσο/ ὁδό/ Ὅμηρο/ |
You may have noticed that Reading Morphologically talks about Greek in a slightly different way than Hansen & Quinn. For one, we divide words between what we call bases (for instance, λόγο/, δώρο/, and τέχνα/) and markers (for instance, /ο and /Lς). A marker is the bit added to a word to mark it as nominative or genitive, singular or plural, past or future, and so forth. A base is, essentially, the word minus its markers. We use / to separate bases from markers within words (for instance λόγο/ο) or show where bases and markers end or begin (for instance λόγο/, a base, and /ο, a marker). On its own, a base is not a complete word.
On occasion Reading Morphologically segments words differently than Hansen & Quinn. Take λόγος. Hansen & Quinn identifies the nominative singular case marker as “-ος” while we identify it as “/ς.” Both are correct in their own ways. In fact, later we’ll see that ο should be considered its own distinct unit, giving us the more precise segmentation λόγ/ο/ς. But we’ll get to that later.
Reading Morphologically usually doesn’t diverge this much from Hansen & Quinn. Alas, we have to begin with an instance in which it does. It is worth it, though, to follow our approach alongside Hansen & Quinn’s. You should soon find that this linguistics approach meaningfully simplifies the presentation of material elsewhere in the textbook.
14. First-Declension Nouns (Nominative in -η or -ᾱ) and
15. Second-Declension Nouns
The 1st and 2nd declensions differ morphologically only in the nominative singular and genitive singular (and nominative/accusative plural of neuter nouns). In all other cases and numbers, they use the same case markers. To highlight the similarities between declensions, we discuss both together. (For future reference, the 3rd declension also largely follows the same pattern as the first two, so the benefit of considering all nouns together will extend beyond this unit.)
We learned in Section 13.5 above that 1st declension nouns have bases ending in -α/ and 2nd declension nouns have bases ending in -ο/.
1ST AND 2ND DECLENSION CASE ENDINGS
| Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | /L (1st declension) /ς (2nd declension) /ν (2nd declension neuter) | /ι (all 1st and 2nd declension nouns except neuter) /α (all neuter nouns) |
| Genitive | /Lς (1st declension) /ο (2nd declension) | /ων |
| Dative | /ι | /ι/σι > /ις |
| Accusative | /Ṇ (the neuter is the same as the nominative) | /Ṇς (the neuter is the same as the nominative) |
| Vocative | same as nominative except -ος > -ε | same as nominative |
NOMINATIVE SINGULAR
To form the nominative singular of the 1st declension, simply lengthen -α/. Regularly α lengthens to η. However, in Attic α lengthens to ᾱ if the letter before it is ε, ι, or ρ:
| τέχνα/L > τέχνη | χώρα/L > χώρα |
Words in bold are final forms that appear in written texts. Greek does not use macrons (the long mark ¯ over vowels) in written texts, so we don’t either.
To form the nominative singular of the 2nd declension, add /ς if the noun is masculine or feminine and /ν if it is neuter:
| λόγο/ς > λόγος | ϝέργο/ν > ἔργον |
The letter ϝ is called digamma and represents a consonantal /w/ (When forward slashes surround Latin letters, they indicate phonetic pronunciation.) The sound drops from final forms in Attic, but it can influence word formation, so it’s important to learn where it is before dropping.
VOCATIVE SINGULAR
The vocative singular is the same as the nominative singular except for 2nd declension masculine and feminine nouns. These drop the -ο/ of the base and add /ε:
| τέχνα/L > τέχνη | χώρα/L > χώρα |
| ἄνθρωπ | ϝέργο/ν > ἔργον |
GENITIVE SINGULAR
To form the genitive singular of the 1st declension, lengthen -α/ and add /ς:
| τέχνα/Lς > τέχνης | χώρα/Lς > χώρας |
To form the genitive singular of the 2nd declension, add /ο. The resultant -οο contracts to -ου:
| λόγο/ο > λόγου | ϝέργο/ο > ἔργου |
The 1st and 2nd declensions use the same case markers for the remaining cases and numbers.
DATIVE SINGULAR
To form the dative singular, add /ι. In the 1st and 2nd declensions (but not in the 3rd), adding /ι lengthens the base vowel:
| τέχνα/ι > τέχνῃ | χώρα/ι > χώρᾳ |
| λόγο/ι > λόγῳ | ϝέργο/ι > ἔργῳ |
ACCUSATIVE SINGULAR
To form the accusative singular, add /Ṇ, a non-Greek letter that represents a nasal sound called vocalic nu. After a consonant, Ṇ becomes α. After a vowel, Ṇ becomes ν:
In the 1st declension (but not in the 2nd or 3rd), adding /Ṇ lengthens the base vowel:
| τέχνα/Ṇ > τέχνην | χώρα/Ṇ > χώραν |
| λόγο/Ṇ > λόγον | ϝέργο/ν > ἔργον* |
* There are two universal rules of neuter nouns. The first is: the accusative is the same as the nominative of the same number. So here ϝέργο/ simply adds /ν because that is how it formed the nominative singular.
NOMINATIVE AND VOCATIVE PLURAL
To form the nominative and vocative plural of 1st and 2nd declension nouns except for the neuter, add /ι:
| τέχνα/ι > τέχναι | χώρα/ι > χῶραι |
| λόγο/ι > λόγοι | ϝέργ |
* The second universal rule of neuter nouns is: the nominative plural is always marked by /α. Here, /α simply replaces the -ο/ of the base.
GENITIVE PLURAL
To form the genitive plural, add /ων. In the 1st declension, the addition of /ων forces the accent forward to -α/ (-άων). In Attic, -άων contracts to -ῶν. In the 2nd declension, /ων replaces the -ο/ of the base:
| τέχνα/ων > τεχνάων > τεχνῶν | χώρα/ων > χωράων > χωρῶν |
| λόγ | ϝέργ |
DATIVE PLURAL
To form the dative plural, add /σι to the nominative plural. In Attic, the final -ι drops:
| τέχνα/ι/σι > τέχναισι > τέχναις | χώρα/ι/σι > χώραισι > χώραις |
| λόγο/ι/σι > λόγοισι > λόγοις | ϝέργο/ι/σι > ἔργοισι > ἔργοις* |
* When forming the dative plural, the neuter acts as if its nominative plural were ἔργοι.
Occasionally we spell out intermediate steps, like λόγοισι before we arrive at λόγοις. This is for two reasons. First, it may be helpful to see how the word undergoes change. Secondly, often these intermediate steps exist in other dialects—or even used by Classical Attic authors, just not standardly.
ACCUSATIVE PLURAL
Το form the accusative plural, add /Ṇς. This produces -ανς. In noun (and adjective) formation, ν drops before σ. The droppage of ν forces the previous vowel to stretch. Here, α stretches to ᾱ and ο stretches to ου.
| τέχνα/Ṇς > τέχνανς > τέχνα_ς > τέχνας | χώρα/Ṇς > χώρανς > χώρα_ς > χώρας |
| λόγο/Ṇς > λόγονς > λόγο_ς > λόγους | ϝέργ |
* Remember the second rule of neuter nouns: the accusative is the same as the nominative of the same number.
For a comprehensive account of all Greek nouns (and adjectives), see here.
16. The Article
For the most part, the definite article declines like a regular 1st declension noun with the base τά/ when it is feminine and a 2nd declension noun with the base τό/ when it is masculine or neuter. Only the nominative singular forms ἡ (feminine), ὁ (masculine), and τό (neuter) are unexpected.
For a full account of the article, see here.
Vocabulary
The first column (left) lists the base of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. Words that do not decline, like prepositions and conjunctions, have no base. When the meaning of a word (right) differs from that in the book, it is because the book’s definition is outdated.
The default accent of a word is the acute. It becomes a circumflex in two instances: if the accent is on the last syllable and that syllable undergoes lengthening, stretching, or contraction (ἀγορά/Lς > ἀγορῆς), or if the accent is on the second-to-last syllable, that syllable has a long vowel or diphthong, and the last syllable of the word has a short vowel (δώρο/ν > δῶρον).
| ἀγορά/ | ἀγορά, ἀγορᾶς, ἡ | market place |
| ἀδελφό/ | ἀδελφός, ἀδελφοῦ, ὁ | brother |
| ἄνθρωπο/ | ἄνθρωπος, ἀνθρώπου, ἡ or ὁ | person (ἄνθρωπος means “man” only in the old use of the word, when it simply meant “person”) |
| βιβλίο/ | βιβλίον, βιβλίου, τό | book |
| δώρο/ | δῶρον, δώρου, τό | gift |
| εἰς | into, to (+ acc.) | |
| ἐκ, ἐξ | from, out of (+ gen.) | |
| ἐν | in (+ dat.) | |
| ϝέργο/ | ἔργον, ἔργου, τό | work, deed |
| θεό/ | θεός, θεοῦ, ἡ or ὁ | god, goddess |
| καί | and; even, also | |
| λόγο/ | λόγος, λόγου, ὁ | statement, speech, story (λόγος rarely means “word”) |
| μάχα/ | μάχη, μάχης, ἡ | battle |
| νήσο/ | νῆσος, νήσου, ἡ | island |
| ὁ/, τό/ | ὁ, ἡ, τό | the |
| ὁδό/ | ὁδός, ὁδοῦ, ἡ | road |
| οἰκία/ | οἰκία, οἰκίας, ἡ | house, household |
| Ὅμηρο/ | Ὅμηρος, Ὁμήρου, ὁ | Homer |
| παιδευ/ | παιδεύει | she/he/it teaches |
| πεμπ/ | πέμπει | she/he/it sends |
| τέχνα/ | τέχνη, τέχνης, ἡ | art, skill, craft |
| χώρα/ | χώρα, χώρας, ἡ | land, country |
| ψυχά/ | ψυχή, ψυχῆς, ἡ | soul |
| ὦ | hey! |
reading morphologically 