Editing Grammatical case (section)

== Case order ==
The traditional case order (nom-gen-dat-acc) was expressed for the first time in ''[[The Art of Grammar]]'' in the 2nd century BC:
{{verse translation|[[s:el:Τέχνη Γραμματική|Πτώσεις ὀνομάτων εἰσὶ πέντε· ὀρθή, γενική, δοτική, αἰτιατική, κλητική.]]|There are five Cases, the right [nominative], the generic [genitive], the dative, the accusative, and the vocative.<ref>{{cite book |title=The grammar of Dionysios Thrax |translator=Tomas Davidson |location=St. Louis |publisher=Studley |year=1874 |page=10 |url=https://archive.org/stream/grammarofdionysi00dionuoft#page/10/mode/1up}}</ref>}}

[[Latin]] grammars, such as ''[[Ars grammatica]]'', followed the Greek tradition, but added the [[ablative case]] of Latin. Later other European languages also followed that Graeco-Roman tradition.

However, for some languages, such as Latin, due to case [[Syncretism (linguistics)|syncretism]] the order may be changed for convenience, where the accusative or the vocative cases are placed after the nominative and before the genitive. For example:
{|
|-
|
|
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Latin
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | {{wikt-lang|la|aqua|aqua, aquae}}<br />water {{abbr|f.|feminine}}
! colspan="2" | {{wikt-lang|la|bellum|bellum, bellī}}<br />war {{abbr|n.|neuter}}
|-
! Singular
! Plural
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! Nominative
| rowspan="2" | aqua || rowspan="2" | aquae
| rowspan="3" | bellum || rowspan="3" | bella
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| aquam || aquās
|-
! Genitive
| rowspan="2" | aquae || aquārum
| bellī || bellōrum
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2" | aquīs
| rowspan="2" | bellō || rowspan="2" | bellīs
|-
! Ablative
| aquā
|}
|}

For similar reasons, the customary order of the four cases in [[Icelandic grammar#Nouns|Icelandic]] is nominative–accusative–dative–genitive, as illustrated below:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" width=500px
! number || case || masculine || feminine || neuter || neuter
|-
! rowspan=4 | singular || {{abbr|nom.|nominative}} 
| hattur || rowspan="3" | borg || rowspan="2" | glas || rowspan="2" | gler
|-
! {{abbr|acc.|accusative}} 
| hatt 
|-
! {{abbr|dat.|dative}}
| hatti || glasi || gleri
|-
! {{abbr|gen.|genitive}}
| hatts || borgar || glass ||glers
|-
! rowspan=4 | plural || {{abbr|nom.|nominative}}
| hattar || rowspan="2" | borgir || rowspan="2" | glös || rowspan="2" | gler
|-
! {{abbr|acc.|accusative}}
| hatta 
|-
! {{abbr|dat.|dative}}
| höttum || borgum || glösum ||gler(j)um
|-
! {{abbr|gen.|genitive}}
| hatta || borga || glasa || gler(j)a
|}

[[Sanskrit]] similarly arranges cases in the order nominative-accusative-instrumental-dative-ablative-genitive-locative-vocative.<ref name=":4" /> The cases are individually named as the "first," "second," "third" and so on.<ref name=":4" /> For example, the common "when-then" construction is called the सति सप्तमी ''(Sati Saptami)''<ref>Chitrapur Math, "Step by Step Sanskrit Learning Programme"

https://archive.org/details/SatiSaptami/mode/1up</ref> or "The Good Seventh" as it uses the locative, which is the seventh case.