Nouns

Danetian nouns inflect for three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), two numbers (singular, plural), and seven cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, ablative, dative, locative, instrumental). Traditionally, nouns are categorized into three broad inflection classes: first declension, second declension, and third declension.

The inflection of Danetian nouns can be decomposed into the following elements:

1. root: carries the lexical meaning of the noun
2. thematic vowel: a vowel appended at the end of a root
3. ending: carries information about case and number

First declension: a-stem nouns

The first declension contains nouns whose thematic vowel is a. Most of these nouns are feminine, although a few are masculine. Although the stress can fall either on the stem or on the thematic vowel, its position remains constant. All nouns in this class are regular. Some examples of first declension nouns are:

• barda (f): beard
• byna (f): woman
• bora (f): mountain
• dilemma (m): dilemma
• dina (f): day
• grammatica (f): grammar
• physica (f): physics
• pluksna (f): feather
• poeta (m): poet
• schola (f): school
• systema (m): system

Second declension: o-stem nouns

The second declension contains nouns whose thematic vowel is o. Nouns in this declension are either masculine or neuter. As before, the stress can fall on the stem or the thematic vowel, but its position remains constant. All nouns in this class are regular. Some examples of second declension nouns are:

• asjdros (m): field
• arsjtos (m): bear
• divos (m): god
• donom (n): gift
• sjdrynom (n): grain
• esjvos (m): horse
• kapros (m): goat
• lubos (m): love
• medios (m): middle
• porsjos (m): pig
• stauros (m): cross
• tauros (m): bull
• volpos (m): wolf
• verdjom (n): work
• viros (m): man

Neuter nouns in the second declension differ from masculine nouns only in the nominative and accusative cases; all other cases are identical.

Third declension: i-stem nouns

The third declension is the most diverse class of nouns. It contains several subclasses: i-stems, u-stems, n-stems, s-stems, among others. In this section, we’ll focus solely on the i-stem nouns.

The i-stem nouns have i as their thematic vowel. Many of these nouns change their stem in different cases. For example, mentis, mynties “thought”. This phenomenon is a vestige of Proto-Indo-European ablaut. Because of this ablaut pattern, two principal parts are necessary to fully decline an i-stem noun.

Some examples of i-stem nouns are:

• mori, myries (n): sea
• djentis, djynties (f): birth
• gostis, gysties (m): guest
• ludis, ludies (m): people
• mertis, myrties (f): death
• mentis, mynties (f): thought
• mektis, mykties (f): might
• statis, styties (f): position

Third declension: u-stem nouns

The u-stem nouns have u as their thematic vowel. As in the i-stem declension, u-stem nouns can change their stems as a vestige of Proto-Indo-European ablaut. Some examples of u-stem nouns are:

• artus, yrtues (m): order
• danu, dynues (n): river
• dasjtru, dysjtrues (n): tear
• desjartus, desjyrtues (m): disorder
• doru, dyrues (n): tree
• lokus, lykues (m): lake
• sunus, sunues (m): son

Third declension: s-stem nouns

Third declension: n-stem nouns

Third declension: e-stem nouns