First declension

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The Stem of nouns of the First Declension ends in -i, -u, -i, -u and diphthong. The Nominative ending is -s.

The Paradigm

Europaio nouns of the First Declension are thus generally declined:

	Animate	Inanimate
NOM.	-s	-Ø
ACC.	-m
VOC.	-Ø
GEN.	- (e/o)s
OBL.	-ei / -i

The animates in -i and -u are masculine or feminine (indifferent to the distinction in adjectives); those in -i and -u, always feminine.

The -s can indicate Nominative and Genitive: the distinction is obtained through the full-grade of the vowel before the declension (Gen. -ei-s for -i, -ou-s for -u).

Another problem is that of the indistinctness between the Vocative of the animates and the Nom.-Acc.-Voc. of the inanimates. But in this case, distinction is guaranteed in the noun because they have different stem vowels. The problem comes in the adjective, where a Vocative singular animate -i can be an homophone with Nom.-Acc.-Voc. singular neuter -i (like in lat. suaue, -i). This is, though, a rare case, in which the context is generally enough for disambiguation.

In -i, -u

1. Nominative Singular Animate in -s; as in owis, noqtis, ghostis, sunus,
2. Accusative Singular Animate in -m; as in owim, noqtim, ghostim, sunum
3. Vocative Singular Animate in -ei or -i, -eu or -u; as in owei/owi, suneu-sunou/sunu.
4. The Nom.-Acc.-Voc. Singular Inanimate in -i, -u; as in peku, medhu, swadu
5. Genitive Singular in -eis (-ois) or -ios, -eus (-ous), -uos; as in egneis, sunous, pekwos, adj. swadeus
6. Oblique Singular in -ei, -ou, also with long vowel, -ei, -ou, and also in Ø-grade, -i, -u: egnei, sunu, owei.

	f. neqti	m. sunu	f. owi	n. peku
NOM.	neqtis	sunus	owis	peku
ACC.	neqtim	sunum	owim	peku
VOC.	neqti	sunu	owi	peku
GEN.	neqteis	sunous	owios	pekwos
OBL.	neqtei	sunou	owei	pekou

In -i:, -u:

1. Its inflection is similar to that of -i, -u, but they have no alternating vowels before the declension, and the -i and -u are substituted before vowel by -ij, -uw.

2. They are always feminine, and they cannot be inanimates nor adjectives.

3. These themes are most of the times roots.

4. Examples of this are:

	f. bru	f. dnghu
NOM.	bru-s	dnghu-s
ACC.	bru-m	dnghu-m
VOC.	bru	dnghu
GEN.	bruw-es	dnghuw-os
OBL.	bruw-ei / bruw-i	dnghuw-ou

In Diphthong

There are long diphthongs -au, -eu, -ou, -ei, which sometimes present short vowels, as well as other endings without diphthong, i.e., -a, -e, -o.

• The last are probably remains of older diphthongs, from IE II. So, although from the point of view of the Europaio there are only stems with variants -au, -eu, -a, etc, these can all be classified as Diphthong endings, because the original stems were formed as diphthongs in the language history. This kind of irregularities is usual in today's languages, as it was already five millennia ago.

In zero grade, in Genitive, there are forms with -i- or -ij- or with -u- or -uw-, depending on the diphthongs.

	m. cou	m. djeu
NOM.	cous	djeus
ACC.	com	djem, dijem
VOC.	cou	djeu
GEN.	cous	diuos, djeues
OBL.	cowi	djeuei

These are root words, but there is a secondary formation of words, especially that of Greek origin, in -eus, -euos, as in Avestic bazaus, arm, or gr. Basileus, which are also so declined.

The Plural

The following table depicts the general system, common to the First and Second Declension.

	Animate	Inanimate
NOM.	-es	-a, -a
ACC.	-ms
VOC.	-es
GEN.	-om, -em
OBL.	-bhis, -bhos; -mis, -mos; -si

* The inanimate plural forms, -a and -a, correspond possibly to an older theme vowel of an earlier stage of the language, *-h and *-eh after the Laryngeals' Theory.

1. Unlike in the Singular, in which only some Nominatives have an -s, in Nom.-Voc. Plural the -s is general, and there is always one fix-grade vowel, e. So, the opposition Singular-Plural in -s/-es is actually a Ø/e distinction. This opposition has also sometimes another mark, that of the vowel before the ending (see § 4.7).
2. The Nom.-Voc. Plural Animate is normally in -es; as in cowes
3. There are forms in -eies for -i themes, as in oweies; in -eues for -u themes, as in suneues; in ijes, -uwes for -i, -u; as in bhruwes;
4. The Accusative Plural Animate is in -ms: owims, sunums, coms/coums
   1. Many scholars reconstruct for IE III the accusative plural ending -ns, because most of the attested proto-languages show either -ns (as some endings in Sanskrit or Germanic) or long vowel, sometimes with -s. Most of them also admit an original, older -ms form (a logical accusative singular -m plus the plural mark -s), but they prefer to reconstruct the attested -ns, thus (implicitly) suggesting an intermediate phase (IE II -ms> IE III *-ns> proto-languages -ns/-_s), common to all proto-languages. We don't know if this intermediate phase happened, and if it was common to all languages, or even if it was common to those languages which present in some declensions -ns, and in other declensions another endings. What we do know is that the form -ms is older than any other, and that it existed already in the IE II dialects, as the Anatolian shows.
5. Nom.-Voc. Acc. Plural Inanimate in -a
6. Genitive Plural Animate in -om/-om and -em: owi-om, noqti-om, sunuw-em/sunuw-om, cow-om
   1. The -m of the Acc. sg. An., Nom.-Acc.-Voc. sg. Inan. and this case could sometimes be equivocal. It is disambiguated with the vocalic grade, full or lengthened, which the Genitive takes - as the singular is always Ø.
7. The Obliques are generally divided into two groups, that of the i.-i., gr., arm., lat., and cel. in -bh-; and another of the ger. and bsl. in -m-. There are, thus, -bhis, -bhos, -bhios, -bhi, and -mis, -mos: sunubhis / sunubhos / sunubhios / sunumis / sunumos.

There is also another possible ending, mostly (southern) dialectal, in -si: sunusi

• This has probably an origin in the plural mark -s-, to which the local case ending -i is added. This is a general oblique ending in the thematic declension.

	f. owi	m. sunu	f. bhru	m. cou
NOM.	oweies	suneues	bhruwes	cowes
ACC.	owims	sunums	bhrums	coums
VOC.	oweies	suneues	bhruwes	cowes
GEN.	owiom	sunuwem	bhruwom	cowom
OBL.	owebhos	sunubhis	bhrumis	coumos

See Also

• Declension of nouns
• Second declension
• Third declension
• Fourth declension

Reference

• Quiles Casas, Carlos, Europaio: A Brief Grammar of the European Language, Vol. 1, Dnghu, 2006, ISBN 84-689-7727-6