From Indo-European Languages

The Stem of nouns of the Fourth Declension ends in -e/o, i.e. they are thematic. They can be animates and inanimates, as well as adjectives. The inanimates have an ending -m only in Nom.-Acc.-Voc. The animates, with a Nominative -s, are generally masculine in nouns and adjectives, but there are also feminine nouns and animate adjectives in -os, as remains of the old indistinctness of declension.

Contents 1 The Paradigm 2 Fourth Declension in examples 3 The Plural 4 See Also 5 Reference

The Paradigm

The e/o stems are declined:

Animates

	Animage	Inanimate
NOM.	-os	-om
ACC.	-om
VOC.	-e
GEN.	-os, -osio, -oso, -i
OBL.	-oi, -oi, -ei; -o, -e

NOTE. It is obvious that this model could have been written without the initial vowel -o-, given that the probable origin of this vowel is the theme vowel of some thematic stems, while other, primitive athematic stems were reinterpreted thereafter and this vowel was added to them by way of analogy. So, for thematic stems, like wlqo-, this system should be read Nom. -s, Acc. -m, Voc. -e, Gen. -s, -sio, -so, -i.

There is obviously a possible confusion between the Nominative and the Genitive in -os. This can only be solved with lengthenings, as in -os-io or os-o.

Fourth Declension in examples

Nominative Singular Animate in -os; as in wlqos

Accusative Singular Animate in -om; as in wlqom

Vocative Singular Animate in -e; as in wlqe

The Nom.-Acc.-Voc. Singular Inanimate in -om; as in jugom, newom

Genitive Singular in -os, -osio, -e/oso, or -i; as in wlqosio / wlqeso / wlqi,

NOTE. The original form -os is rare, as the Genitive has to be distinguished from the Nominative. This disambiguation happens, as already said, by alternatively lengthening the ending or changing it altogether. This Declension is probably recent in IE III - even though it happened already in IE II - and that's why it is homogeneous, without variations in vocalism nor in accent; the major problem is the distinction between Genitive and Nominative.

Oblique Singular in -oi, -oi, -o : wlqoi, newoi

Animates

	m. wlqo	n. jugo
NOM.	wlqos	jugom
ACC.	wlqom	jugom
VOC.	wlqe	jugom
GEN.	wlqosio	jugos
OBL.	wlqoi	jugoi

The Plural

The table of the Thematic Plural system is this:

Animates

	Animate	Inanimate
NOM.	-os, -oi	-a, -a
ACC.	-oms
VOC.	-os, -oi
GEN.	-om/-om, -em
OBL.	-ois, -oisi; -ois, -oisi

NOTE. The plural, -es, if compared with the other declensions, could indicate that the original form was *-o-es>-os. This discussion is not relevant for our system, though, as the situation we look for is that of the third stage and not the etymology of every single case.

The Nominative-Vocative Animate Plural in -os: wlqos/wlqoi, wiros

The Accusative Animate Plural in -oms: wlqoms

The Nom.-Voc.-Acc. Inanimate Plural in -a, -a: juga/juga

NOTE. Even though this ending is similar to other declensions, please notice that it has no theme vowel. This happens probably because, as we said in the general model section, the inanimate ending is an independent older form of an earlier stage, later modified. The possible *-h and *-eh, therefore, changed the themes altogether, by changing the vowels.

The Genitive Plural in -om/-om, -em: wlqom/wlqem

The Obliques Plural in -ois, -oisi; -ois, -oisi, and also, as in the other Declensions, -bhis, -bhos, -bhios, -mis, -mos and -si: wlqois/ wlqoisi

Animates

	m. wlqo	n. jugo
NOM.	wlqos	juga
ACC.	wlqoms	juga
VOC.	wlqos	juga
GEN.	wlqom	juga
OBL.	wlqoi	jugois

See Also

• Declension of nouns
• First declension
• Second declension
• Third declension
• Third declension
• Variable nouns
• Vocalism before the declension

Reference

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