4.5.3. The Plural in the Fourth Declension

1. The table of the Thematic Plural system is this:

NOTE. The plural, -es, if compared with the other declensions, could indicate that the original form was *-o-es>-os. This discussion is not relevant for our system, though, as the situation we look for is that of the third stage and not the etymology of every single case.

2. The Nominative-Vocative Animate Plural in -os: wlqos/wlqoi, wiros

3. The Accusative Animate Plural in -oms: wlqoms

4. The Nom.-Voc.-Acc. Inanimate Plural in -a, -a: juga/juga

NOTE. Even though this ending is similar to other declensions, please notice that it has no theme vowel. This happens probably because, as we said in the general model section, the inanimate ending is an independent older form of an earlier stage, later modified. The possible *-h and *-eh, therefore, changed the themes altogether, by changing the vowels.

5. The Genitive Plural in -om/-om, -em: wlqom/wlqem

6. 5. The Obliques Plural in -ois, -oisi; -ois, -oisi, and also, as in the other Declensions, -bhis, -bhos, -bhios, -mis, -mos and -si: wlqois/ wlqoisi

NOTE. The Obliques Plural are less innovative than those of the Singular, as it can be seen from the table above. Because the innovations in the Obliques Plural happened only in some IE III dialects (in Proto-Baltoslavic and Proto-Indo-Iranian, and, to some extent, in Proto-Greek and Proto-Armenian), we cannot extrapolate this irregular and unstable cases to the whole, general system. This is the natural divided situation we encounter in the Europaio III before the great divisions, and so we reconstruct it.