DECLENSION, a grammatical term applied to the system of modifications called ewes, which nouns, pronouns, and adjectives undergo in many languages. How the words declension (Lat. derlinatio, a declining, or leaning away) and case (Lat. easue, fall) came to be applied to this species of inflection, has never been made altogether clear. The relations in which one thing stands to other things may be expressed in either of two ways. Some languages make use separate words, called prepositions: in others, the relations are. expressed by. changes in the termination of the name of the thing. Thus, in Latin, reg being the root or crude form of the word for " king," regs, or rex, is the word in the nominative case, signifying " a king" as subject or agent; regis, in the genitive case, "of a king;" regi, in the dative, "to a king," etc. An adjec tive joined to a noun usually takes a corresponding change. The number of cases is very different iu different languages. The further we go back in the history of the Indo-European languages, the richer do we find them in these modifications. banscrit had eight cases, Latin six, and Greek five.. The names of the Latin cases, which are often used also in regard to the English language, are the nominative, which names the subject or actor; the genitive, expressing the source whence something proceeds, or to which it belongs; the dative, that to which something is given, or for which it is done; the accusative, the object towards which an action is directed; the vocative, the person addressed or called; and the ablative, that from which something is taken. The Greek has no ablative case. The Sanscrit, in addition to the Latin cases, has an instru mental case and a locative case. The grammar of the inflecting languages is compli
cated by the circumstance that all nouns do not form their cases in the same way. This makes it necessary to distribute nouns into various classes, called " declensions." In Latin, as many as five declensions are usually given. See INFLECTION. As we descend the stream of time, the case-endings become rubbed off, as it were, and prepositions are used in their stead. The languages descended from the Latin (French, Italian, etc.) have lost all the cases of nouns and adjectives. The Gothic languages, of which Anglo Saxon is one, had cases almost as numerous and perplexing as those of the Latin. Ger man is still to a great extent encumbered with them. English has only one case in nouns different from the nominative—namely, the genitive, or possessive. See NOUN. The declension of pronouns (q.v.) has been more persistent than that of nouns and adjectives. Languages of the agglutining order have, in general, a great abundance of cases. In Finnish, nouns have fifteen cases. Thus, k,ar1at, a bear; korhun. of a bear; karhunit, as a hear; karluitta, without bear; karlitissa, in the hear; karhusta, out of the hear, etc. In the Magyar, twenty cases may be reckoned; and'the languages of the North American Indians arc richer still—perhaps we should say more embarrassed. What case endings and other inflectional terminations were in their origin, as well as the comparative merits of the highly inflected and the analytic languages, will be con sidered under INFLECTION.