of the Greek Tongue. 233 



atov^f or changing v into a on account of Greek euphony, o^oaj-, 

 and contracting, o^ovs. The genitive is formed by postfixing or, 

 and in this noun inserting r between it and the radix. Now 

 the characteristic or seems to be composed of o, signifying 

 which, and s-, equivalent in its import to i of the dative, and 

 consequently denoting to ; so that this termination os- of the 

 genitive will have the same force as the Ionic termination i o 

 of the second declension. Hence, therefore, we have the 

 genitive o^ov-t-os-. The dative is regularly formed by suffixing 

 I, and in certain nouns, such as this before us, also by inserting 

 T, thus giving us o^ov-r-i. The accusative is regularly formed 

 by postfixing v. Now, it is obvious, that v cannot be pro- 

 nounced directly after an inserted consonant, or a consonant 

 in the radix immediately preceding it. In this case, therefore, 

 V is changed into a, according to the analogy of the language, 

 so that the accusative in this noun will be o^ovra. When the 

 radix terminates in a vowel, the accusative may be formed 

 directly by suffixing v, as from spi, spiv. The other oblique 

 cases, however, taking ^ inserted, we have also, by adding v 

 and changing it into a, spi^ac. The nominative plural we have 

 seen is formed by postfixing es- ; the dative plural is formed by 

 adding to the radix r, the characteristic of the number, and i 

 the characteristic of the case, inserting when requisite t, J, 

 or S- ; we, therefore, have here o^ov-r-s-i, or, throwing out r on 

 account of euphony, o^ov-s-i, and changing v into a, o^ox^iy 

 which contracts regularly into the form in use, o^ovai. Some- 

 times, indeed, the datives plural are formed directly from the 

 Tiominatwes plural, by suffixing i, the characteristic of the case : 

 thus o^ovrssy teeth, o^ovtss--*, to teeth, which poetically, for the 

 sake of quantity, doubles the s-, making it o^ovrsGai. The ac- 

 cusative plural is formed according to the general rule, by 

 adding s-, the plural characteristic to the accusative singular, 

 thus making o^ovra-s-. 



Another instance, wherein we shall find the advantage of 

 attending to the real theme or root, with a view to correcting 

 the erroneous rules laid down by grammarians, is to be found 

 in respect to the rule they give us for the formation of datives 

 plural, whose nominative singular terminates in ^. In these 

 instances, they mechanically form the former case, by adding 



