Humez Alexander, Humez Nicholas. Latin for People: Latina Pro Populo

the other celestial spheres moved

in

circular orbit, and the case forms

of

a nomen (noun

or

adjective) were radii

in

the upper right-hand

quadrant

of

a circle.

The nominative case

was

considered to be the vertical radius; the

others, oblique radii, that is, neither vertical nor horizontal. The

nominative

was

therefore known as the "upright" case (casus rectus)

and the others,

as

the "oblique" cases (casus obliqui).

The term case (casus) comes from the verb

"to

fall," the idea

being that when

you

ran through the complete set

of

case fonns

of

a

nomen, you started from straight up and down in the nominative

and fell precipitously through the vocative, genitive, dative, accusa-

tive, and (in Latin) ablative, coming to a crashing halt at fourteen

past the hour, and

not

a moment too soon. This makes the upright

case a contradiction in terms,

of

course,

but

what right-thinking

Pythagorean, having come this far,

is

going to quibble? -

The process

of

running-or

falling-through the complete set

of

case forms for a nomen was called "declining":

to

decline

is

to

turn

away from,

in

this instance, to turn away from the nominative and

make a break for it along the perimeter. To turn down, we might

say. In any event,

if

Latin has

five

declensions, this means that there

are

five

possible tracks around the nominal circle.

We

will have a

look at two

of

them here.

The first declension

is

probably so named because it

is

the most

straightforward and, therefore, the one

you

get

to

hear

about

first

in

a Latin grammar. Samples

of

first declension nouns are:

SINGULAR

FEM

NOM

matella

insula

VOC

matella

insula

GEN matellae

insulae

DAT matellae

insulae

ACC

matellam

insulam

ABL matella

insula

21

PLURAL

NOM

matellae

VOC

matellae

GEN

matellirum

DAT

matellis

ACC

matellis

ABL

matellis

Matella,

matellae

chamber pot;

insula,

insulae

island.

insulae

insulirum

insulis

Matell-

and

insul-

are stems;

-a,

-ae,

-am,

-a,

-ae,

-ae

,

-arum,

-is,

-as,

and

-is,

the set

of

endings

of

the first declension. Since a

number

of

these are identical

in

appearance, the question

imme-

diately

arises:

when someone

says

matellae,

for example, how do

you

know

which

case

form

it is,

as

it could equally

well

be genitive

singular

(of a chamber pot), dative singular (to a chamber pot),

nominative plural (chamber pots), or vocative plural

(0

chamber

pots!)? The answer

is to

have

a look at the rest

of

what that

some-

one

is

saying

and

see

which reading makes the

most-or

any-sense.

Some

examples:

insula

non

in

Gallia-

(est). (The)

island

is not in Gaul.

insula

is

in

the nominative

singular

because it's the subject;

Gallii

is

in

the ablative singular because it's the object

of

the

preposition

in;

and est is

in

parentheses

because

literate speakers

of Latin would probably not

have

bothered to put it

in

a sentence

like

this, but would

have

left it understood.

Agricolae

matellae

in

Gallii (sunt).

The

farmer's chamber pots

are

in

Gaul.

(The alternate reading ''The chamber pots' farmers

are

in

Gaul,"

while

thinkable, is

less

likely.)

Agricolae

is

the genitive

singular

of

agricola

(farmer),

and

matellae

is

the nominative plural

of

mat

ella.

Puella

matellam

agricolae

dat.

The

girl

gives

the chamber pot to the

farmer.

Puella

is

nominative singular,

being

the subject;

matellam

is

accusative

singular

because

that's the

case

that direct objects

11

get

to

be in in Latin; and agricolae is in the dative because

the

farmer is being given something. (Dative comes from the verb

"to

give,"

of

which

dat

is a form.)

The so-called second declension is a little more complicated than

the rust,

but

not

much.

We

mentioned earlier

that

Latin nouns are

either masculine, feminine,

or

neuter in grammatical gender. Most

of

the nouns

of

the

rust

declension happen

to

be feminine in gender,

the tiny number

of

exceptions, such as agricola (farmer) and MUta

(sailor), being words

that

designate male people. All nouns

of

the

rust declension, regardless

of

gender, are declined in the manner just

shown. The second declension

is

made

up

of

both

masculine and

neuter nouns and these are declined slightly differently from each

other:

SINGULAR

MASC

NOM

mundus

VOC

munde

GEN

mundi

DAT

mundo

ACC

mundum

ABL

mundo

PLURAL

NOM

mundi

VOC

mundi

GEN

mundorum

DAT

mundis

ACC

mundos

ABL

mundis

Mundus,

mundi

world; bellum, belli war.

23

NEUT

bellum

belli

bello

bellum

bello

bella

bellorum

bellis

bella

bellis

Mund- and

bell-

are stems, and the only appreciable difference

between masculine and neuter nouns

of

this declension

is

to

be

found in the nominative, vocative, and accusative case endings.

It

is

a general feature

of

neuter nouns

that

they have the same ending

for the nominative, vocative, and accusative, making less work for

the student

of

Latin, which

is

all

to

the good.

Neuters are

not

unique in having the same ending for

the

nomina-

tive and vocative. Most Latin nouns and adjectives make

no

such

distinction. In fact, the only ones which

do

have separate case

endings for the nominative and vocative are those

of

the second

declension, like

mundus, which end in -

us

in the nominative singular

and -e in the vocative singular. And

not

all such

-us

forms obey this

rule: those ending

in

-ius

in the nominative singular, like

fi1ius

(son), have a different vocative form.

"0

son" is 0 ji/i, and that's

that. So, for all practical purposes, the only time

you

have

to

go

to

the

bother

of

learning a vocative ending

is

for masculine nouns and

adjectives

of

the second declension.

This

is

not quite all there

is

to the second declension, however,

as

witness the following:

SINGULAR

NOM

adulter ager

VOC

adulter

ager

GEN adulteri

agri

DAT adultero

agro

ACC

adulterum

agrum

ABL adultero

agro

PLURAL

NOM

adulteri

agri

VOC

adulteri

agri

GEN adulterorum

agrorum

DAT adulteris agris

ACC

adulteros agros

ABL

adulteris agris

Adulter, adulteri adulterer;

ager,

agri

field.

24

Nouns

of

the adulter type might be said

t6

differ from those like

mundus in not having any visible (or audible) ending in the nomina-

tive and vocative singular. Nouns like ager

don't

seem to have any

ending in the nominative and vocative singular, and there

is

a

further wrinkle: the

e

of

the stem seems

to

disappear when

we

arrive at the genitive singular and

is

never heard

of

again. How you

know whether to decline a noun that ends in

-er

in the nominative

like adulter or like ager

is

simple: you look it up in the dictionary

where the nominative will be followed

by

the genitive singular

form, which tells all. Thus, socer, soceri (father-in-law) versus

cancer, cancri{crab). Fortunately, most second-declension nouns

are like mundus,

mundi

and bel/um, belli.

Adjectives

of

the first and second declensions are perfectly

straightforward once you've encountered their nominal cousins.

Mostly, they are like triquetrus, triquetra, triquetrum (three-

cornered).

SINGULAR

MASC

FEM

NEUT

NOM

triquetrus triquetra triquetrum

VOC

triquetre triquetra triquetrum

GEN triquetri triquetrae

triquetri

DAT triquetra triquetrae

triquetra

ACC

triquetrum triquetram triquetrum

ABL

triquetra triquetra triquetra

PLURAL

NOM

triquetri

triquetrae

triquetra

VOC

triquetri

triquetrae

triquetra

GEN

triquetrarum

DAT triquetris

triquetris

ACC

triquetras

triquetra

ABL

triquetris

The ones that aren't like

these-and

most

ani-are

either like

liber, libera, liberum (free)

or

else like taeter, taetra, taetrum (foul,

abominable).

2S

NOM

liber

VOC

liber

GEN liberi

NOM

VOC

GEN

etc.

liberi

h"beri

h"berorum

etc.

NOM

taeter

VOC

taeter

GEN taetri

NOM

VOC

GEN

etc.

taetri

taetrorum

etc.

SINGULAR

h"bera

liberae

etc.

PLURAL

liberae

h"berae

liberarum

etc.

SINGULAR

taetra

taetrae

etc.

PLURAL

taetrae

taetrarum

etc.

h"berum

liberi

etc.

h"bera

b"berorum

etc.

taetrum

taetri

etc.

taetra

taetrorum

etc.

A hint and two reminders about adjectives, then some vocabulary.

First, the hint: when you have a noun

that

could be declined one

way

or

another, the dictionary puts you onto the right one

by

giving the nominative singular and genitive singular forms; for ad-

jectives, the dictionary simply gives the masculine, feminine, and

neuter forms

of

the nominative singular from which

you

can deduce

all

you need

to

know. Usually. (When there

is

anything exceptional

in

the declensi

on,

they generally tell

you

in the dictionary as a point

of

interest.)

26

The

two

reminders: adjectives

"agree"

with

the

nouns

they

modify

in

number

and

gender

and

case, which means

that

if

you

want

to

modify, say, a masculine singular

noun

appearing

in

the

ablative,

then

you

need an adjective

of

similar persuasion,

as,

in

agrO

triquetro

(in

a three-<:ornered field). Again, adjectives can be

used substantively, as though.

they

were nouns: boni.

mali.

ellaelri

(the

good,

the

bad,

and

the

abominable

(people])

or

bona,

mala,

el

laelTa

(the

good, the

bad,

and

the

abominable [things]).

Vocabulary

The vocabulary is given as

it

would

be

in

the

dictionary, listing

the nominative

and

genitive singular forms for nouns and. the mascu-

line, feminine, and

neuter

nominative singular for adjectives. Words

are given

in

their

order

of

appearance

in

this chapter; they appear

alphabetically

in

the

Glossary

at

the

end

of

the

book.

malella.

malellae

(f.) chamber

pot

insula.

insulae

(f.) island

non

not,

no

in

in,

on

(with

the

ablative).

Latin has

another

in

which

means

"into,

against" with

the accusative.

Gallia.

Galliae

(f.)

Gaul

esl is

agricola,

agricolae

(m

.) farmer

sunl

(they)

are

puella.

puellae

(f.) girl

dat gives

nauta,

nautae

(m.)

sailor

mundus. mundi

(m.)

world

27

bellum. belli

(n.)

war

fi/ius./,7ii (m.)

son

adulter,

adulteri

(m.)

adulterer

ager,

agri

(m.)

field

socer.

soceri (m.) father-in-law

cancer,

cancri

(m.) crab

triquetrus.

triquetra,

triquetrum

three-<:ornered

liber.

libera,

liberum

free. In

the plural,

liberi is the cus-

tomary word for "children."

In

the singular

and

with a

capital

L,

Liber is Bacchus.

Finally,liber

is

not

to

be

confused with

liber,

libri

(m.)

book.

taeter,

taetra,

taetrum foul,

abominable, noisome

bonus,

bona,

bonum good

malus,

mala,

malum bad. Not

to

be confused with

malum,

mali (n.) apple.

('t

and

sed

but

locus,

loci (m.) place, location

idoneus,

idonea,

idontum fit

for. suitable for. When A

is

suitable for B, idoneus

I. Translate into English

agrees with A in number,

gender, and case, and B

appears in the dative. Thus,

in

loco idoneo matellis in a

place suitable for chamber

pots.

fi7ia,

fi7iae

(f.) daughter

super

on,

above (with the

accusative)

sub

under (with the ablative)

Britannia,

Britanniae

(f.)

Britain

a.

Bellum

in

Gallia

malum,

sed

in

matella

taetrum.

b. Liberi liberi

adulteri.

c.

Munduslocus idoneus

insulis.

d.

Nauta

agricolae

cancrum

dat;

agricola.

malum

nautae.

e.

Agricolae

fi7ia

bona

agriJrum

dat

socero.

f.

Filius

naulae

super

insulam;

insula,

sub

matellii

g.

Mundus

adulteri triquelrus.

h.

Brilannia

insula

non

idonea

bello.

II. Translate into Latin

a.

An island is

not

a suitable place for an adulterer.

b. The fields are under the farmers and the world is under the

fields.

c. A father-in-law does not

give

good things to an adulterer.

28

d. Books are good; but children, noisome.

e. In England, an adulterer gives the girls good books;

but

in

Gaul, crabs.

f. 0 sons and daughters

of

Gaul, the apples

of

England are foul!

g. The sailor's son

is

in a place suitable for sailors' sons.

h. Gaul

is

not a three-cornered island.

29

CHAPTER

III

Evens

and

Ends

When

the Pythagoreans decided that it would be handy

to

dis-

tinguish between those numbers which could be divided by two and

those which

COUldn't,

they termed the evens

"perfect"

numbers; and

the odds, "uncommon, extraordinary." The Latins spoke

of

equal

(piir) and unequal (impar) numbers, and we speak

of

even and

odd,

the implication always being that

if

it can

be

divided

by

two,

it's

great, and

if

it can't, there's something wrong with it.

30

Humez Alexander, Humez Nicholas. Latin for People: Latina Pro Populo

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