The first declension is a category of

declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ...

that consists of mostly

feminine Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

nouns in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

with the defining feature of a long ''ā'' (analysed as either a part of the stem or a case-ending). In Greek grammar, it is also called the

alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whi ...

declension, since its forms have the letter α, at least in the plural. In Latin and Greek grammar, the first declension is analyzed as a thematic declension. But its lack of a

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

thematic vowel In Indo-European studies, a thematic vowel or theme vowel is the vowel or from ablaut placed before the ending of a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs in the Indo-European languages with this vowel are thematic, and tho ...

(''o'' or ''e'') and of any nominative singular ending (ordinarily ''-s'' or ''-os'') doesn't neatly place it within either of the Proto-Indo-European nominal categories, thematic and athematic. Therefore, it is assumed to be a newer formation: a suffix based on the neuter plural ending ''*-(e)h₂'', forming a

collective noun In linguistics, a collective noun is a word referring to a collection of things taken as a whole. Most collective nouns in everyday speech are not specific to one kind of thing. For example, the collective noun "group" can be applied to people (" ...

Latin

Latin nouns and adjectives

Latin first declension has only one set of endings for both feminine and masculine nouns. The very small native masculine group includes only a few occupation nouns and nouns imported from the Greek masculine first declension. *''

agricola Agricola, the Latin word for farmer, may also refer to: People Cognomen or given name :''In chronological order'' * Gnaeus Julius Agricola (40–93), Roman governor of Britannia (AD 77–85) * Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, Roman governor of the mi ...

'' "farmer" ← '' ager'', ''agro-'' "field" and root of '' colō'' "I cultivate" * '' poēta'' "poet" ← ποιητής ''poiētēs'' "one who composes" ''poetry'' * '' pīrāta'' "pirate" ← πειρᾱτής ''peirātēs'' "one who makes an attempt on" ''someone'' * '' aurīga'' "charioteer" ← ''

aurea Aurea, golden in Latin, may refer to: * Aurea (car), a former Italian automobile manufactured in Turin from 1921 to 1930 * Aurea (singer) (born 1987), Portuguese singer * Aurea Alexandrina, a kind of opiate or antidote * Áurea, a municipality ...

'' "horse's bridle" and '' agō'' "I do, lead, drive" The same endings are used for the feminine gender of Latin adjectives.

Ancient Greek

Greek nouns

Greek first declension has two basic classes of feminine endings and one basic class of masculine endings, distinguished by their original nominative singular: long ''-ā'', short ''-(y)ă'', long ''-ās''. But besides the nominative and accusative singular of feminines, and nominative, genitive, and vocative singular of masculines, forms are the same between subclasses. In the

Attic dialect Attic Greek is the Greek dialect of the ancient region of Attica, including the ''polis'' of Athens. Often called classical Greek, it was the prestige dialect of the Greek world for centuries and remains the standard form of the language that is ...

, an ''ā''-''ē'' split divides each class into two subclasses: nouns with ᾱ and nouns with η. By contrast, other dialects tend to generalize the vowel one way or the other — Ionic has only ''ē'', and

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

and

Aeolic In linguistics, Aeolic Greek (), also known as Aeolian (), Lesbian or Lesbic dialect, is the set of dialects of Ancient Greek spoken mainly in Boeotia; in Thessaly; in the Aegean island of Lesbos; and in the Greek colonies of Aeolis in Anato ...

have only ''ā''.

Greek adjectives

The feminine of first- and second-declension adjectives uses the ''-ā'' class of the first declension: * ''-os, -ā/ē, -on'' First- and third-declension adjectives, including participles in ''-nt-'', use the ''-(y)ă'' class. Here are examples of this class, which is complex because of sound changes involving the ''y'' (see Ancient Greek nouns: short a): *''-us, -eia, -u'' *''-ās, -aina, -an'' *''-ōn, -ousa, -on'' *''-ās, -āsa, -an'' *''-eis, -eisa, -en''

References