Lesson 09. First Declension Masculine Nouns Substantives Flashcards
Masculine first declension nouns: types and facts about endings
Besides the feminine ᾱ-stem and η-stem nouns and their subcategories (Lessons 4 & 5), there exist masculine ᾱ-stem and η-stem nouns.
Their endings match those of the feminine first-declension nouns except in the singular of the nominative, genitive, and vocative cases:
- in the nominative singular -ς is added to ᾱ or η
- in the genitive singular they have -ου (borrowed from second declension) substituting for -ᾱς or -ης.
- the vocative singular of masculine ᾱ-stems always ends in a long alpha.
- the vocative singular of masculine η-stems ends in a short alpha if the nominative ends in -της (e.g., μαθητής) or if the word is a compound (e.g., βυρσοδέψης; see the reading for this lesson) or the name of a nationality (e.g., Πέρσης, “Persian”); otherwise the vocative ends in -η.
εἷς ἐστι δοῦλος οἰκίᾱς ὁ δεσπότης
The master is a slave to his household. —Menander, Fragment 716
Endings for first declension masculine nouns
SING α η Nom -ης -ας Gen -ου -ου Dat -ῃ -ᾳ Acc -ην -αν Voc -α/η -α PLUR Nom -αι Gen -ων Dat -αις Acc -ας Voc -αι
Endings in the plural are the same for all first declension masculine nouns.
Accent for first declension masculine nouns
The first-declension masculine nouns resemble first-declension feminine nouns in:
- having persistent accent
- using a circumflex in the genitive and dative if the accent falls on the ultima
- always accenting the ultima of the genitive plural.
The masculines, like the feminines, keep their original ᾱ after ε, ι, or ρ, but otherwise change it to η.
First declension masculine nouns ending in -της
If the nominative singular of an η-stem masculine noun ends in -της, the word identifies the agent or the doer of an action (e.g., μαθητής = “one who learns,” i.e., “student”) or a person concerned with or involved in something (e.g., οἰκέτης = “one involved in the household,” i.e., “family member”).
Nouns ending in -της are therefore similar to English nouns ending in -er (e.g., “learner,” “householder”).
Two-ending adjectives
Adjectives with no special set of endings to indicate the feminine gender. They have only two (masculine, neuter) rather than three sets of endings.
Two-ending adjectives use masculine endings to modify both masculine and feminine nouns:
e. g., the two-ending adjective ἀνάξιος, -ον:
- ὁ ἀνάξιος νεᾱνίᾱς (masculine noun)
- ἡ ἀνάξιος κόρη (feminine noun)
Many (but not all) such adjectives are examples of alpha privative.
Alpha privative
An adjective built by compounding ἀ- (ἀν- before a vowel) and a stem.
Like the prefix un- in English, the alpha privative is a rough equivalent of “not”; it implies the absence or lack of a particular trait (e.g., ἀθάνατος = “without death,” “undying”).
Substantives
The noun modified by an adjective may be omitted from the sentence. If so, the adjective becomes a substantive, a word that undertakes the role of a noun even though it is not a noun by nature (eg “The land of the free”).
Substantives are much more frequent in Greek than in English.
Since a Greek adjective always has an ending specifying gender, number, and case, it has the ability, by itself, to convey the ideas expressed by the nouns meaning “man,” “men,” “woman,” “women,” “thing,” “things.”
A speaker of Greek will avoid using one of those nouns when the adjective ending is sufficiently explicit: e.g., ἀγαθός = “a good [man]”; ἀξίᾱ = “a worthy [woman],” κακά = “evil [things],” i.e.,“evils.”
Prepositional phrase
Consists of a preposition (from, to, for, etc) + noun, pronoun, gerund or clause.
A prepositional phrase will function as an adjective or adverb.
- As an adjective, the prepositional phrase will answer the question Which one?
- As an adverb, a prepositional phrase will answer questions such as How? When? or Where?
Attributive and predicate positions for adjectives
Attributive position: the adjective is an attribute of the noun, and forms part of the noun phrase. The adjectives comes immediately after a definite article that agrees with the noun it modifies.
Predicate position: the adjective is (part of) the predicate rather part of the noun phrase. The adjective does not immediately follow a definite article that agrees with the noun it modifies.
Genitive of possession
The genitive is used for possession. It may either follow or precede the noun that it modifies.
For example, here are two different ways to write “the master’s house”:
(1) ἡ οἰκίᾱ τοῦ δεσπότου
(2) τοῦ δεσπότου ἡ οἰκίᾱ
It is also common to place the possessive genitive in the attributive position to indicate the speaker regards it as an attribute of the modified noun (“the of-the-master house”).
So two other possible ways to write “the master’s house” are:
(1) ἡ τοῦ δεσπότου οἰκίᾱ
(2) ἡ οἰκίᾱ ἡ τοῦ δεσπότου
Greek does not mind having two—or even three—definite articles in a row, as long as they are not identical.
δουλεύω
δουλεύω, δουλεύσω (+ dative) be a slave (to), serve
δεσπότης
δεσπότης, -ου, ὁ master (of the household), lord, despot
voc. sg. δέσποτα has recessive accent; voc. pl. δεσπόται is regular
µαθητής
µαθητής, -οῦ, ὁ student, disciple
νεᾱνίᾱς
νεᾱνίᾱς, -ου, ὁ young man, a youth; (pl.) youth (collectively)
