-ις

See also: ἴς

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

-ῑς (-īs)
-τίς (-tís) — extended form

Etymology

Uncertain, but compare Latin -idus (forming adjectives). Furnée and Beekes also consider it a common Pre-Greek suffix, related to -ιτ- (-it-), -ινδ- (-ind-) and -ινθ- (-inth-).

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /is/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /is/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /is/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /is/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /is/

Suffix

-ῐς • (-is) f (genitive -ῐδος); third declension

Forms feminine nouns, or feminine forms of adjectives (often accented on the ultima)
‎Ἕλλην (Héllēn, “Greek man”) + ‎-ις (-is) → ‎Ἑλληνίς (Hellēnís, “Greek woman”)

‎Ἰλλυριός (Illuriós, “Illyrian man”) + ‎-ις (-is) → ‎Ἰλλυρίς (Illurís, “Illyrian woman”)

Declension

Third declension of -ῐς; -ῐδος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	-ῐς -is	-ῐδε -ide	-ῐδες -ides
Genitive	-ῐδος -idos	-ῐδοιν -idoin	-ῐδων -idōn
Dative	-ῐδῐ -idi	-ῐδοιν -idoin	-ῐσῐ / -ῐσῐν -isi(n)
Accusative	-ῐδᾰ -ida	-ῐδε -ide	-ῐδᾰς -idas
Vocative	-ῐς -is	-ῐδε -ide	-ῐδες -ides
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. Nominative singular -ς (-s) arose by reduction of the original cluster *-ds.

Derived terms

Ancient Greek terms suffixed with -ις

References

Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920) “Part III: Formation of Words”, in A Greek grammar for colleges, Cambridge: American Book Company, § 843.b.2
Furnée, Edzard Johan (1972) Die wichtigsten konsonantischen Erscheinungen des Vorgriechischen (Janua linguarum. Series practica; 150) (in German), The Hague and Paris: Mouton, page 324
Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014) “70 -ῑδ-”, in Stefan Norbruis, editor, Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, § 2.3 The Suffixes, page 36