Ancient Latin Grammar

Synopsis of Ancient Latin Grammar J. Matthew Harrington Ph.D. Tufts University – Department of Classics © August 2016 - Version 3.0 Section I: Writing Systems and Pronunciation 1.1 Writing Systems 1 1.2 Vocalic Phonemes 2 1.3 Consonantal Phonemes 2 1.4 Chart of Phonemes and Symbols in Classical Latin 3 1.5 Aspiration 3 1.6 Conditioned Sound Change 3 1.7 Syllabification 4 1.8 Quantity 4 1.9 Accent 5 1.10 Elision 5 1.11 Proto-Indo-European (PIE) 5 1.12 Latin Dialects 5 1.13 Educated Latin Pronunciation in the Early 1st Century CE 8 1.14 Vulgar and Late Latin Pronunciation 9 Section II: Case and Syntactic Function 2.1 Syntax 10 2.2 Semantic Word Order 10 2.3 Case and Morpho-Syntax 11 2.4 Adjectival Modification 12 2.5 Nominative 12 2.6 Genitive 12 2.7 Dative 14 2.8 Accusative 16 2.9 Ablative 19 2.10 Vocative 21 2.11 Locative 22 2.12 The Four Forms of Agreement 23 Section III: Mood and Subordination 3.1 Coordination/Subordination 24 3.2 Syntax of Verbal Forms 24 3.3 Independent Subjunctive Usages 25 A. Hortatory Subjunctive 25 B. Deliberative Subjunctive 25 C. Potential Subjunctive 25 D. Optative Subjunctive 25 3.4 Dependent Usages 25 I. ADJECTIVAL CLAUSES 26 A. Relative Clause 26 B. Relative Clause of Characteristic 26 C. Relative Clause in Indirect Statement 26 II. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES 26 A. Purpose Clause 27 B. Result Clause 27 i C. Consecutive Clause 28 D. Conditional Constructions 28 E. Temporal Clause 29 F. Circumstantial Clause 30 G. Causal Clause 30 H. Concessive Clause 31 I. Clause of Comparison 32 J. Proviso Clause 32 K. Adverbial Relative Clauses 32 1. Relative Clause of Purpose 32 2. Relative Clause of Result 32 3. Conditional Relative Clause 33 L. Prepositional Phrase 33 III. NOMINAL CLAUSES 34 A. Substantive Noun Clause 34 B. Fear Clause 34 C. Indirect Question 35 D. Indirect Statement 35 E. Direct Statement 36 3.5 Syntax of the Participle 36 A. Temporal Circumstantial Participle 36 B. Causal Circumstantial Participle 36 C. Concessive Circumstantial Participle 36 D. Conditional Circumstantial Participle 36 E. Ablative Absolute 37 3.6 Syntax of the Infinitive 37 A. Complimentary Infinitive 36 B. Historical Infinitive 36 C. Explanatory (Epexegetical) Infinitive 36 D. Infinitive of Purpose 36 E. Infinitive Subject 37 3.7 List of Subordinate Usages 37 Section IV: Principal Parts and their Derivatives 4.1 Verbal Morphology 39 4.2 Verb Formation 39 4.3 Verb Endings 40 4.4 Linguistic Change and Variation in Verbal Forms 40 4.5 [ esse ] 42 4.6 Verbal Forms 42 4.7 Perfect Active System 44 4.8 Thematic Verbs - [ amāre ] 45 A. 1st Principal Part - Thematic 45 B. 2nd Principal Part - Thematic 45 C. 3rd Principal Part - Thematic 47 D. 4th Principal Part - Thematic 48 ii 4.9 Athematic Verbs - [ ferre ] 50 A. 1st Principal Part - Athematic 50 B. 2nd Principal Part - Athematic 50 C. 3rd Principal Part - Athematic 52 D. 4th Principal Part - Athematic 52 Section V: Morphological Paradigms 5.1 Noun Paradigms 53 5.2 Adjective Paradigms 56 5.3 Adverb Formation 58 5.4 Pronoun Paradigms 59 5.5 Numeral Paradigms 61 5.6 Thematic Verbal Paradigms A. 1st Conjugation Verbal Form - [ amāre ] 63 B. 2nd Conjugation Verbal Form - [ habēre ] 65 C. 3rd Conjugation Verbal Form - [ regere ] 67 D. 3rd -iō Conjugation Verbal Form - [ capere ] 69 E. 4th Conjugation Verbal Form - [ audīre ] 71 5.7 Athematic Verbal Paradigms A. Athematic Verb “to be” - [ esse ] 73 B. Athematic Verb “to be able” - [ posse ] 74 C. Athematic Verb “to go” - [ īre ] 75 D. Athematic Verb “to want” - [ velle ] 76 E. Athematic Verb “to not want” - [ nōlle ] 77 F. Athematic Verb “to want more” - [ mālle ] 78 G. Athematic Verb “to carry” - [ ferre ] 79 H. Athematic Verb “to become” - [ fierī ] 81 I. Athematic Verb “to give” - [ dare ] 82 5.8 Defective Verbal Paradigms A Defective Verb “I say” - [ inquam ] 84 B Defective Verb “I say” - [ āiō ] 85 C Defective Verb “to speak” - [ fārī ] 86 D Defective Verb “to be able” - [ quīre ] 87 E Defective Verb “to eat” - [ edere ] 88 5.9 Thematic Verbal Synopsis 89 5.10 Thematic Verb Synopses (6 person/number) 91 5.11 Thematic Verb Paradigms (by Tense) 97 Appendices Appendix A Latin Poetic Meter 100 I Dactylic Meters 102 II Iambic and Trochaic Meters 102 III Aeolic Meters 106 Appendix B Proto-Indo-European Cases 108 Appendix C Glossary 109 iii Section I: Writing Systems and Pronunciation 1.1 Writing Systems: At some point around the late 9th or early 8th century BCE, contact with Phoenician traders allowed the transfer of alphabetic writing technology to the Greek culture.1 The Phoenician script did not encode vowels, and so, some unused symbols were reassigned to Greek vocalic sounds, in Latin becoming [ Α Ε Ι Ο V ].2 Contact between the Greek and Etruscan cultures in the late 8th century BCE allowed the Etruscans to adapt the archaic Western Greek alphabet to the needs of their language. By the late 7th century BCE, the Etruscan alphabet was in turn adapted by the Romans, who modified letter forms and spellings as the spoken language changed over the centuries: e.g. creating [ G ] while all but eliminating [ K ] and deleting the unused [ Z ]. By the 1st century BCE, the desire to write words of Greek origin phonetically drove the adoption of the Greek characters [ Y , Z ] and the use of digraphs to represent aspirated Greek consonants [ PH , TH , CH ].3 In its post 1st century BCE form, the Latin alphabet was able to closely, but not perfectly, represent the range of sounds present in the dialect of Latin spoken by the educated elite of Rome.4 Phoenician (9th BCE) ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Western Greek (8th BCE) 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Archaic Etruscan (6th BCE) 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D P E F G H I J K L N M O Archaic Latin (7th BCE) 7 8 9 : ; < = > @ A B C D E F H I J K L N Archaic Latin (3rd BCE) A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Ϙ R S T V X Classical Latin A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z The names of the letters were: ā, bē, cē, dē, ē, ef, gē, hā, ī, kā, el, em, en, ō, pē, qū, er, es, tē, ū, ix, ī Graeca, zēta. Claudius (princeps 41-54 CE) introduced three new letters [ Ⅎ , Ↄ , Ⱶ ], but they were quickly abandoned after his reign.5 In the Medieval period, new letters were created [ J , U ], miniscule (small cursive) letters were fashioned from the Uncial capital letters to conserve writing materials, spaces were placed between words, and punctuation added to make texts more accessible to less skilled readers. For convenience, modern scholars largely use the Medieval writing conventions, although the use of [ J ] for the consonantal [ I ] is infrequent. We will be primarily concerned with the educated pronunciation of the Classical Latin of the 1st century CE.6 Between the 1st century CE and the 5th century CE, a series of sound changes resulted in the markedly different pronunciation (and orthography) of Latin in the Post-Classical period, resulting in a separation of the literary and the spoken language by the Medieval period. The fragmentation of the Imperium Romanum, coupled with many centuries of sound change, further differentiated the regional dialects of Vulgar Latin into French, Spanish, Italian, etc. Remember, a Latin word is a sequence of sounds, NOT a sequence of letters. The sound inventory (all of the possible sounds) of Classical Latin included these categories of phonemes:7 1 There was nothing inevitable about the Greek language being written in a modified form of the Phoenician script. 2 Two already extant symbols for Greek writing [ Φ Ψ ] are absent from Latin, as is [ Ω ] which had not yet been created at the time of the transfer. Two archaic letters that dropped out of use in some Greek areas [ Ϝ Ϙ ] continued to be used in Latin. The letters [ Υ Ζ ] were readopted from the Attic alphabet for writing words of Greek origin, and were placed at the end of the alphabet. 3 A Digraph is the use of two characters to represent a single phoneme (sound). 4 The Latin alphabet lacked characters for the velar nasal (ng) and did not consistently distinguish between long and short versions of the vowels; for didactic purposes, many introductory Latin texts mark long versions of the vowels with a macron: [ ā , ē , ī , ō , ū ]. 5 The letter digamma inversum [ Ⅎ ] represented a consonental [ V ], and was analogous to the Greek letter digamma [ Ϝ ]. The [ Ⅎ ] is solidly attested in inscriptions, but the forms and functions of the other two letters are less certain. The letter antisigma [ Ↄ ] represented the cluster ( ps ) and was meant to replace [ BS / PS ], and was analogous to the Greek letter psi [ Ψ ]. The letter H dimidia [ Ⱶ ] represented a vocalic sound intermediate to ( i ) and ( u ). 6 Multiple socioeconomic and regional dialects of Latin existed contemporaneously, notably the Latin of the non-elite – Vulgar Latin. 7 A phoneme is unit of sound that can be distinguished meaningfully from all other sounds within a language. The exact pronunciation of a phoneme may vary in different phonetic contexts without creating a meaningful distinction to native speakers.

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