16
votes
What declension is the name, Aeneas?
It is of the first declension, but not of the most typical kind.
I would divide the first declension into four classes:
Case
(Feminine) A-type
Masculine A-type
Feminine E-type
Masculine E-type
...
- 107k
12
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of the -a in words like "collega, advena"?
It is generally believed is that
"The Italic "1st declension" continues PIE feminine formations ("ā-stems") built with an invariable suffix *-eh2(-)" (Vine 2017: 755)
cf. Beekes 2011 proposal of ...
- 11.4k
12
votes
Accepted
Æ ligature – the definitive answer
When it comes to Latin, 'æ' is the same as 'ae', at least when in the diphthong.
When the vowels are in different syllables, as in aer, then 'æ' is not used.
You could see this so that 'ae' is such a ...
- 107k
11
votes
In contemporary spoken Latin, do people mark the 1st-declension ablative case?
tl;dr: as the risk of mistake is higher than for other suffixes, in contexts where analyzing the cases is difficult (like chanting psalms in a fast pace) people often distinguish the length less for -...
- 1,803
10
votes
Accepted
Was "Pascha" ever used as a neuter first-declension noun?
Actually Du Cange (Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis) records a lot of examples of the neuter form Pascha, -ae, which he seems to prefer.
"Orat. et prec. de Pascha annotino"
"...
- 146
9
votes
How common is the genitive plural ending -um in the first declension?
Leumann (p. 421) mentions two cases:
spoken gen.pl. drachmum and amphorum;
in dactylic poetry, four-syllable masculine nouns, besides the regular forms, could also have gen.pl. in -um, mostly ...
- 11.4k
8
votes
In contemporary spoken Latin, do people mark the 1st-declension ablative case?
I don't know about the Vatican. But I've met very few people at conventicula, living-Latin events, etc., who make any distinction whatsoever. I don't generally have a problem, I think in part because ...
- 16.1k
8
votes
Can masculine 1st-decl. nouns be feminine? (e.g. "Nauta perita"?)
According to the conclusion of one discussion, constructions in which these nouns are modified by feminine adjectives, when referring to females, are
not so much avoided as simply not needed ... ...
- 1,193
8
votes
In contemporary spoken Latin, do people mark the 1st-declension ablative case?
In contemporary spoken Latin in Finnish all vowel quantities are carefully articulated.
There is nothing special about the first declension ablative.
I have therefore learned to expect it, and it will ...
- 107k
7
votes
Was "Pascha" ever used as a neuter first-declension noun?
Never realized that, but you have an example (nominative-only, though) in ecclesiastical Latin in the hymn Lauda Sion:
In hac mensa novi Regis
Novum Pascha novae legis
Phase vetus terminat
...
- 10.7k
6
votes
Accepted
The length of the final vowel in first declension nouns (Greek)
There doesn't seem to be any single rule that can be used to determine without fail if a first-declension feminine noun ends in ᾰ or ᾱ just from the unaccented spelling of the nominative singular. (I ...
- 23.8k
6
votes
Accepted
Was -i used as genitive ending for first declension masculines?
I don't see any reference to such an ending in either Allen and Greenough or Gildersleeve and Lodge, so I strongly suspect the answer is no.
That said, in another, historical sense the -ī ending was ...
- 29.5k
6
votes
Is the unmarked 1st-declension ablative in writing ever jarring or confusing?
I'll give you a partial answer, but I'm not a fluent reader yet, so others will be better able to say.
If the structure is complex enough that I have to "work it out," then it's sort of moot. But, as ...
- 16.1k
5
votes
In contemporary spoken Latin, do people mark the 1st-declension ablative case?
I had a Latin teacher who insisted that the long a at the end of ablatives of first declension nouns be pronounced for a noticeably longer time than other vowels. This was the only long vowel she ...
- 71
4
votes
Was -i used as genitive ending for first declension masculines?
Sort of, but technically "no".
It seems that -i was sometimes used as a genitive singular ending for masculine names from Greek that end in -ēs in the nominative. But although many of these ...
- 23.8k
3
votes
Do first-declension neuter nouns or adjectives have plural forms?
I just found that Nouvelle méthode pour apprendre facilement la langue latine, by Claude Lancelot (? et al?), which I quoted in my previous question about Pascha, includes this word in a list of &...
- 23.8k
3
votes
How are "Arsaces" and "Gotarzes" declined, and why?
Here are all the references that I have found so far that have relevant information about the declension of nouns ending in -es that come from Greek. These references don't specifically mention ...
- 23.8k
1
vote
Is the unmarked 1st-declension ablative in writing ever jarring or confusing?
All languages have homographs. In English we have (for example) “read” /ri:d/ and “read” /rɛd/. It belongs to basic literacy to be able to distinguish the two when reading aloud.
- 16.5k
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