The second declension is a category of nouns in
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 ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
with similar
case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of related merchandise
* Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component
* Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books
* Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to ca ...
formation
Formation may refer to:
Linguistics
* Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes
* Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes
Mathematics and science
* Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...
. In particular, these nouns are
thematic, with an original ''o'' in most of their forms. In
Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...
, the short ''o'' of the nominative and accusative singular became ''u''.
Both Latin and Greek have two basic classes of second-declension nouns: masculine or feminine in one class, neuter in another. Most words of the former class have ''-us'' (Latin) or -ος ''-os'' (Greek) in the
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Eng ...
singular, except for the r-stem nouns in Latin, and the
"Attic" declension and contracted declension in
Attic Greek
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 ...
(when these groups are considered part of this declension). The latter class, i.e. the neuter nominative/accusative singular, usually ends with ''-um'', in Latin and -ον (''-on''), in Greek, matching the accusative of the former.
In Latin, the masculine words of the second declension that end with ''-us'' in the nominative case, are differently declined from the latter in the
vocative case: such words end with ''-e''.
See also
For specifics on the second declension as it appears in Latin and Greek, see the appropriate sections in
Latin declension
Latin declension is the set of patterns according to which Latin words are declined—that is, have their endings altered to show grammatical case, number and gender. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are declined (verbs are conjugated), and a gi ...
and
Ancient Greek nouns
In Ancient Greek, all nouns are classified according to grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and are used in a number (singular, dual, or plural). According to their function in a sentence, their form changes to one of the five case ...
.
The Wiktionary appendix
Second declension contains more detailed information and full paradigm tables for the Latin second declension.
References
2
2
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