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 spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
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 of all kno ...
with similar
case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Instances
* Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design
* Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of relate ...
formation. 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 language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin ...
, 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 E ...
singular, except for the r-stem nouns in Latin, and the
"Attic" declension and contracted declension in
Attic Greek
Attic Greek is the Greek language, Greek dialect of the regions of ancient Greece, ancient region of Attica, including the ''polis'' of classical Athens, Athens. Often called Classical Greek, it was the prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige diale ...
(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
In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numeral ...
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 language, Latin words are Declension, declined—that is, have their endings altered to show grammatical case, Grammatical number, number and Grammatical gender, gender. Nouns, pron ...
and
Ancient Greek nouns.
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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