το ὀνόματο, το ἐπίθετο και το ὁριστικό ἄρθρο
Nouns, Adjectives & Definite Article

All the ΤΑΚΕ nouns and adjectives and the definite article are, of course, invariable; they have no inflexions and, therefore, have no grammatical gender, and do not change to show either case or number. Comparison of adjectives is also, of course, analytic.
 

NOTE: the accent in ΤΑΚΕ is exactly the same as on the ancient Greek form, as shown in dictionaries, from which the ΤΑΚΕ word id derived.

1. Nouns

I wonder how many felt the same distaste as I did for the θάλασσο of ΤΑΚΕ before the September 2010. Now I cannot pass the blame onto any fictional character; I must put this right. We first encounter θάλασσα "sea" in Homer; and the word has remained θάλασσα for most Greeks during three millennia until the present day (the only exceptions being those ancient dialects - Attic, Boiotian, Cretan and Euboian - that had θάλαττα). Clearly the word must remain θάλασσα in ΤΑΚΕ.

Also it must be admitted that νόο "mind, intellect" is somewhat clumsy. Are we really going to pronounce it [nɔ.ɔ] as two syllables? I justified with the derivations "noology, noogenesis"; but these are not exactly common English words! I had treated nouns that contracted ο+ο → ου and ε+ο → ου the same way. But they do not behave the same way in ancient Greek. The forms given in the revised ΤΑΚΕ below are, I hope, more sensible and satisfactory.

Giuseppe Peano chose the Latin ablative case for nouns in 'Latino sine flexione' (LSF) as this was more or less the stem of the Latin word. Unfortunately, there really is no correspondingly neat case form in ancient Greek. In ΤΑΚΕ before the reform I had used a so-called "compositional base" but this grew to seem far too artificial to me. As I intimate in the praragraph above, I want something closer to Greek itself. The singular case endings of the ancient noun can be summarized in the table below:

	masc. & fem.	neuter
nominative	-ς or none	-ν or none
accusative	-ν, -α or none
genitive	-ς, -(ι)ο or -ος (-ως)
dative	-ι

The familiar Attic 2nd decl. genitive in -ου is
from an earlier -οιο (ου ← οο ← οιο).

From this it would seem that the best thing is to take the nominative and, if it has an ending, drop the final -ς or -ν. This indeed is what I do for nearly all nouns whose stems end in a vowel or diphthong (including those that originally ended in an -ϝ-or -σ- which had fallen silent before the classical period).

But with a very large group of nouns, namely those whose stem ends in a consonant, this is not such a neat solution. The way the original -ς has combined with the ending varies considerably; often the -ς has disappeared and some compensatory vowel lengthening has taken place and some nominatives are, quite frankly, abnormal. As one grammar book puts it: "The numerous forms of the nominative singular of this [3rd] declension must be learned by practice." Clearly with these nouns we must used some other case. As with Latin, Greek dictionaries normally indicate the nominative and genitive cases of the ancient nouns, therefore since all these particular nouns form their genitive in -ος, we drop the final -ς of that case.

Giuseppe Peano did not expect people to know the ablative case; rather he gave rules whereby the correct form could be deduced from the nominative and genitive given in dictionaries. I shall likewise give rules for deriving the ΤΑΚΕ forms from the ancient nominative and genitive.

1.1 First Declension

1. feminines (nom. -η, gen. -ης; nom. -α, gen. -ας; nom. -α, gen. -ης)
   use forms identical to the ancient nominative; e.g.
   τιμή (gen.τιμῆς) → τιμή (honor)
   χώρα (gen. χώρας) → χώρα (land)
   θάλασσα (gen. θαλάσσης) → θάλασσα (sea)
   γῆ (gen. γῆς) → γῆ (earth)
2. masculines (nom. -ης, gen. -ου; nom. -ας, gen. -ου¹)
   drop the final -ς of the nominative ending; e.g.
   ταμίας (gen. ταμίου) → ταμία (steward)
   πολίτης (gen. πολίτου) → πολίτη (citizen)
   Note:
   (a) The uncontracted βορέας is to be used, not the irregularly contracted βορρᾶς, thus:
   βορέας (gen. βορέου) → βορέα (north wind, north)

¹The ending -ου is 'borrowed' from the 2nd declension.

1.2 Second Declension

1. Nom. -ος (masc./ fem.) or -ον (neuter), with gen. -ου, drop the final -ς or -ν of the nominative; e.g.
   ἄνθρωπος (gen. ἀνθρώπου) → ἄνθρωπο (person, human [being])
   νῆσος (gen. νήσου) → νῆσο (island)
   δῶρον (gen. δώρου) → δῶρο (gift).
2. The Attic dialect contracted -εο- to -ου-; but in the wider Greek world the vowels generally remained uncontracted and it is noteworthy that later writers also tend to use uncontracted forms. ΤΑΚΕ nouns are accordingly derived from the uncontracted forms (which is what dictionaries normally give), e.g.:
   ὀστέον (ὀστοῦν) (gen. ὀστέου (ὀστοῦ)) → ὀστέο (bone)
3. The contraction of -οο-, however, was normal; some dialects contracted the two vowels to -ω- (i.e. /oo/ → /ǫ:/) while other contacted them to -ου- (i.e. /oo/ → /ọ:/). Attic and Ionic belonged to the latter group and this became the norm in the Koine and is the from used to derive the ΤΑΚΕ noun, e.g.:
   νοῦς (νόος) (gen. νοῦ (νόου)) → νοῦ (mind, intellect)
4. Those words of the so-called 'Attic declension' with nominatives in -ως and genitive in -ω, are treated thus:
   (a) if they terminate in -εως in Attic, but in -αος in Koine, use the Koine form and follow the normal rule for 2nd declension; e.g.
   λαός (gen. λαοῦ) → λαό (people)
   ναός (gen. ναοῦ) → ναό (temple);
   (b) otherwise the ΤΑΚΕ form is identical to nominative without final -ς (which, in these words, is identical with the genitive), e.g.
   λαγώς (gen. λαγώ) → λαγώ (hare)

1.3 Third Declension

1. If the genitive ends in -ος,
   then drop the final -ς of the genitive; e.g.
   ὄρνις gen. ὄρνιθος) → ὄρνιθο (bird)
   λέων (gen. λέοντος) → λέοντο (lion)
   θρίξ (gen. τριχός) → τριχό (hair [singular])
   μητήρ (gen, μητρός) → μητρό (mother)
   Ζεύς (gen. Διός) → Διό (Zeus)
   ἥρως (gen. ἥρωος) → ἥρωο (hero)
   σῶμα (gen. σώματος) → σώματο (body)
   ὄνομα (gen. ὀνόματος) → ὀνόματο (name)
   ἧπαρ (gen. ἥπατος) → ἥπατο (liver)
   ὕδωρ (gen. ὕδατος) → ὕδατο (water).
   βοῦς (gen. βοός) → βοό (ox)
   γραῦς (gen. γραός) → γραό (old woman)
   ἰχθύς (gen. ἰχθύος) → ἰχθύο (fish)
   This covers the vast majority of nouns, whether masculine, feminine or neuter.
2. For the rest, i.e. genitive in -ους (← -εος or ← οος), in -εως (← -ηος) or in -ως (← -αος),
   use the nominative without final -ς (if there is one); e.g.
   Σωκράτης (gen. Σωκράτους) → Σωκράτη (Socrates)
   Περικλῆς (gen. Περικλέους) → Περικλῆ (Pericles)
   τριήρης (gen. τριήρους) → τριήρη (trireme)
   γένος (gen. γένους) → γένο (stock, kin, breed, type, sort)
   τεῖχος (gen. τείχους) → τεῖχο (city-wall, fortified wall)
   αἰδώς (gen. αἰδοῦς) → αἰδώ (shame)
   πειθώ (gen. πειθοῦς) → πειθώ (persuasion)
   ναῦς (gen. νεώς) → ναῦ (ship)
   βασιλεύς (gen. βασιλέως) → βασιλεύ (king)
   πόλις (gen. πόλεως) → πόλι (city)
   πήχυς (gen. πήχεως) → πήχυ (forearm, cubit)
   ἄστυ (gen. ἄστεως) → ἄστυ (town)
   κρέα (gen. κρέως) → κρέα (meat)
   γέρα (gen. γέρως) → γέρα (prize)
   Note:
   (a) those words like κέρα (horn) which has both a regularly formed gen. κέρατος and a contracted κέρως form their ΤΑΚΕ noun from the regularly formed genitive, i.e. κέρατο
   (b) The noun οἶς (gen. οἰός) is not used, being replaced by πρόβατο ← regularly from the more common ancient word πρόβατον (sheep)

 

2. Adjectives

Adjectives had similar case endings to nouns, so ΤΑΚΕ will form its adjectives with much the same rules as for nouns above. Where this would give different forms for one or more of the three genders, we derive the ΤΑΚΕ adjective from the ancient neuter form.

2.1 First & Second Declension

1. Most ancient adjectives of this type have nominative endings in -ος (masc.), -η (fem.), -ον (neut.); if however a front vowel or -ρ- preceded the ending, then the feminine ends in -α. These adjectives form by far the largest group of adjectives in ancient Greek.

   If we apply the rules above, we remove the final -ν of the neuter, e.g:
   σοφός, σοφή, σοφόν → σοφό (wise)
   ἅγιος, ἁγία, ἅγιον → ἅγιο (holy)
   μικρός, μικρά, μικρόν → μικρό (small).

2. Contracted forms:
   Adjectives whose stems ended in -ε- or -ο- had contracted endings in classical Attic. These are treated exactly the same way as the contracted 2nd declension nouns such as ὀστέον/ ὀστοῦν and νόος/ νοῦς,i.e. ΤΑΚΕ uses uncontracted forms for ε+ο but contracted for ο+ο e.g:
   χρύσεος (χρυσοῦς), χρυσέα (χρυσῆ), χρύσεον (χρυσοῦν) → χρύσεο (golden)
   ἁπλοῦς (ἁπλόος), ἁπλῆ (ἁπλόη), ἁπλοῦν (ἁπλόον) → ἁπλοῦ (single)
3. 'Attic declension':
   (a)Where common Greek has an alternative, that should be used and the normal rule applied; thus rather than Attic ἵλεως "gracious", we use the common Greek ἵλαος thus to give ἵλαο (gracious).
   (b) Instead of πλέως (full) and the defective σῶς (safe), the the far more common words πλήρης and ἀσφαλής are used; indeed these words survive till today in modern Greek. These adjectives will be considered under the 3rd declension below.

2.2 Third Declension

The genitive singular of these adjectives is the same for all three genders.

1. If the genitive ends in a consonant+ος,
   then drop the final -ς of the genitive, taking the accentuation of the genitive form if different from the nominative; e.g.
   εὐδαίμων [m. & f.], εὔδαιμον [n.] (gen. εὐδαίμονος) → ευδαίμονο (happy)
   εὔελπις [m. & f.], εὔελπι [n.] (gen. εὐέλπιδος) → εὐέλπιδο (hopeful)
2. Other 3rd declension adjectives have genitive in -ους (← -εος); applying the rules above, we remove the final -ς of the neuter, e.g:
   πλήρης [m. & f.], πλῆρες [n.] (gen. πλήρους) → πλῆρε (full)
   ἀσφαλής [m. & f.], ἀσφαλές [n.] (gen. ἀσφαλοῦς) → ἀσφαλέ (safe)

2.3 First & Third Declension

These adjectives have masculine & neuter with 3rd declension endings, and feminines with 1st declension endings. ΤΑΚΕ derives its adjective from the neuter according the same rules as nouns; in effect, this means that:

1. Those adjectives in -υς [masc.], -εια (← ευια) [fem.], -υ [neut.] simply use the neuter nominative, e.g.
   γλυκύς [m.], γλυκεῖα [f.], γλυκύ [n.] → γλυκύ (sweet)
   θῆλυς [m.]. θήλεια [f.], θῆλυ [n.] → θῆλυ (female)
2. For all other adjectives of this type, take the genitive singular of the (masc. &) neut. and remove final -ς, e.g.
   μέλας [m.], μέλαινα [f.], μέλαν [n.] (gen. m&n: μέλανος) → μέλανο (black)
   χαρίεις [m.], χαρίεσσα [f.], χαρίεν [n.] (gen. m&n: χαρίεντος) → χαρίεντο (graceful)
   πᾶς [m.], πᾶσα [f.], πάν [n.](gen. m&n: παντός) → παντό (all)

2.4 Irregular Adjectives

1. πρᾶος [m.], πραεῖα [f.], πρᾶον [n.] has 1st & 2nd. declension endings, but the feminine uses a modified stem. The adjective has, however, an alternative set of endings
   πραΰς [m.], πραεῖα [f.], πραΰ [n.], i.e. like γλυκύς above.
   The former set of endings is found in Attic tragedy and comedy; the second set is found in Xenophon, Polybios, the Septuagint and other later writers. ΤΑΚΕ, therefore, adopts the neuter of the second set, i.e.
   πραΰ /pra'y/ (mild).
2. πολύς [m.], πολλή [f.], πολύ [n.] (much, many) behaves as a regular 1st & 2nd declension adjective throughout the plural and in the genitive and dative singular; but in the nominative & accusative single it behaves as a 3rd and 1st declension adjective. ΤΑΚΕ derives adjectives from both types by taking the neuter nominative singular (if it is 2nd declension the final -ν is dropped). Therefore ΤΑΚΕ adopts:
   πολύ /pɔ'ly/ (much, many)
   (It is noteworthy also that in the ancient language very few compounds begin πολλ(ο)- but a truly huge number that begin with πολυ- .)
3. μέγας [m.], μεγάλη [f.], μέγα [n.] (great) also behave as a regular 1st & 2nd declension adjective throughout the plural and in the genitive and dative singular but as a 3rd and 1st declension adjective in its nominative & accusative single. When, however, we look at compounds, we find that although several do begin with μεγα- by far the greater number behind with μεγαλ(ο)-; also we find a vocative singular μεγάλε (ὦ μεγάλε Ζεῦ "Oh great Zeus" as though the nominative were *μεγάλος) and the derived adverb is μεγάλως (whereas πολύς used either the neuter singular πολύ or neuter plural πολλά for its adverb). ΤΑΚΕ, therefore, exceptionally adopts its adjective from a supposed neuter *μεγάλον, namely:
   μεγάλο /mɛ'galɔ/ (great)

 

3. Definite Article

The ancient Greek definite article was somewhat anomalous. For the nominative and genitive singular we find:

	masc.	fem.	neuter
nom.	ὁ	ἡ	τό
gen.	τοῦ	τῆς	τοῦ

We cannot use the genitives as these are 1st and 2nd declensions forms (even though the nominatives are irregularly formed). ΤΑΚΕ must use the neuter nominative. But the definite article is not normally stressed but is rather a proclitic. There it does not make sense to write it with an accent, so ΤΑΚΕ treats it as atonic just like the nominative masculine & feminine in the ancient language, i.e. το = the

Ancient Greek had no indefinite article; ΤΑΚΕ therefore also has no indefinite article.

 

4. Comparison of Adjectives

In the ancient language most adjectives added -τερος and -τατος to form the comparative and superlative respectively. These were added, more or less regularly, according to rules for different groups of adjective. But some adjectives added -ίων (comparative) and -ιστος (superlative); such comparatives were often irregularly formed. However, as Goodwin's Greek Grammar says: "Adjectives may be compared by prefixing μᾶλλον, more, and μάλιστα, most; as μᾶλλον σοφός, more wise, μάλιστα κακός, most bad."

ΤΑΚΕ clearly must use this last method; e.g.
μᾶλλον λευκό ἤ χιόνο = whiter than snow
το μάλιστα σοφό ἄνθρωπο = the wisest person

 

5. Word Order

The normal word order is the same as in Greek (both ancient and modern), English, German and many other languages, namely: the adjective precedes the noun and, if there is a definite article, it comes first in the phrase, for example:
σοφό ἀνδρό = a wise man
το σοφό ἀνδρό = the wise man

However, unlike English, ancient Greek and ΤΑΚΕ also allow the adjective to be put after a noun and, if the noun is definite, the definite article must be placed before the adjective. This is a marked word order:
ἀνδρό σοφό = a wise man/ a man who is wise
το ἀνδρό το σοφό = the wise man/ the man who is wise.

Furthermore, both the ancient language and ΤΑΚΕ require that adverbs and prepositional phrases used adjectivally must also follow these word orders, e.g.
το νῦν λαό or το λαό το νῦν = (the now people) people of the present day;
το ἐν το ναῦ λαό or το λαό το ἐν το ναῦ = (the in the boat people) the people in the boat
το ἐκ το ἀνδρό ναῦ or το ναῦ το ἐκ το ἀνδρό = (the of the man boat) the man's boat.