One of the
major, perhaps
artificial divisions in
declension in the
Latin language.
Famed for notable regularity as opposed to
third declension, the 2nd consists of mostly
masculine and
neuter words.
famulus, -i (masculine) slave, servant
This fairly common us, -i form is declined as follows:
Singular
nominative ----- famulus
genitive ------- famuli
dative---------- famulo
accusative ----- famulum
ablative ------- famulo
Plural
N. --------------- famuli
G. --------------- famulorum
D. --------------- famulis
Ac. -------------- famulos
Abl. ------------- famulis
Vocatives
S. --------------- famulum, rare e in other nouns (Gildersleeve)
P. --------------- famuli
The second most common
subcategory is the er, -i nouns.
puer, -i (masculine) usually "
boy",
infant through
adolescent male
er, -i nouns differ only in their nominative singular -er ending
puer and vocative singular -er (same).
Neuters are formed in a very regular manner as well.
templum, -i generic temple,
sacred space (needn't be a
building per se)
Same as
standard us, -i except nominative and accusative singular are same.
Plural nominative, accusative, and vocative end in -a, ie
templa.
While
city names generally cross declensional rules, according to Gildersleeve some
Greek loanwords in the
feminine are considered 2nd:
methodus, -i method
In my opinion as a (perhaps
feeble)
student of Latin the second declension is the second easiest to master (after the
first declension.) The true test of declensional
knowledge comes with familiarity with the third declension. There
irregularity appears with much greater
frequency, in a
time when
high school students already have enough
stress.