AN INTRODUCTION

TO THE

LATIN TONGUE.

The Latin Letters are thus written:

Capitals.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVXYZ.

Small, or common. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv xyz.

Of these Letters, six are named Vowels; a, e, i, o, u, y. The rest are called consonants.

A vowel makes a full and perfect sound of itself, as e. A consonant cannot be sounded without a vowel, as be. Consonants are divided into liquids, double letters, and

mutes.

The liquids are l, m, n, r: The double letters are x, z: The remaining letters are called mutes.

A syllable is a distinct sound of one, or more letters, pronounced in a breath.

A diphthong is the sound of two vowels in one syllable. There are six diphthongs, ae, ai, au, ei, eu, oe.*

* Besides these six we meet with ua, ue, ui, uo, sounded in one syllable, occurring only after the consonants, g, q, or s; but they want one distinguishing property of diphthongs, for diphthongs are naturally long in quantity, while these are sometimes long and sometimes short. And some consider that in these combinations u should be considered a consonant, and written v.

PARTS OF SPEECH.

The Parts of Speech are Seven:
Noun, Pronoun, Verb, declined;

Adverb, Conjunction, Preposition, Interjection, undeclined.

OF A NOUN.

NOUNS are of two kinds, Substantives and Adjectives. A substantive expresses by itself alone the object of which we are speaking; as, homo,* a man; ōrātor, an orator; liber, the book.

An adjective always requires to be joined to a substantive, of which it shows the nature or quality; and is either a common adjective, as bonus puer, a good boy; or a participle (formed from, and being part of a verb) as, furens fœmina, a woman raging.

NUMBERS OF NOUNS.

NOUNS have two numbers; the singular, and the plural.

The singular speaketh but of one; as păter, a father: The plural speaketh of more than one; as, patres, fathers.

CASES OF NOUNS.

NOUNS have six cases in each number:

The nominative, the genitive, the dative, the accusative, the vocative, and the ablative.

The nominative case names the subject of a sentence, and marks the quarter from which an action proceeds; as, magister docet, the master teaches.

The genitive case denotes connection between two objects, and in English is commonly translated by "of," or by 's; as, doctrina magistri, the learning of the master, or, the master's learning.

The dative case denotes that with reference to which the subject (named by the nominative case) acts; or in

A crescent (~) placed over a vowel denotes that the syllable is short; a straight line () denotes that it is long.

reference to which it possesses this or that quality: and in English it is commonly expressed by the sign "to" or "for," pointing out the person to whose advantage or disadvantage the thing spoken of tends; as, do librum magistro, I give the book to the master; patriæ suæ idoneus, useful to his country.

The accusative case expresses the object, whether person or thing, affected by the action spoken of; as, amo magistrum, I love the master; condo domum, I build

a house.

The vocative case is used in addressing people or things; as, O magister, O master.

The ablative case serves to denote the person or thing from whom or from which anything is taken; and also many other relations of substantives, which are expressed in most other languages by prepositions, such as, "in," "with," "from," or "by." Also, the word "than" after an adjective of the comparative degree is often a sign of the ablative case; as, cum magistro, with the master; in Italia, in Italy; vir fortior Cæsare, a man braver than Cæsar.

GENDERS AND ARTICLES.

The GENDERS of nouns are three; the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter.

Some substantives are called common, being such as denote an occupation or quality common to both males and females, and admitting adjectives of either the masculine or feminine gender to be joined with them, according as the subject is male or female; as, meus parens or mea parens, "my parent," according as the father or mother is spoken of.

Some are called epicene, being such as have only one grammatical gender, which comprehends both sexes; as, hic passer, this sparrow; hæc aquila, this eagle; without regard to the difference of sex.

Some are called doubtful, being such as are sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine, without regard to the actual sex of the animal spoken of; as, hic anguis or hæc anguis, this snake.

A 2

DECLENSION OF NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE.

THERE are FIVE declensions of substantives, distinguished by the ending of the genitive case.

THE FIRST DECLENSION.

The first declension makes the genitive case singular to end in æ, and has the nominative case ending in ă, of either the masculine or feminine gender; as, scrība, a scribe; via, a way; or, (in the case of words derived from Greek, being mostly proper names) in as or es of the masculine, and in è of the feminine gender. These last make the genitive singular to end in ēs.

One or two feminine substantives in ă, derived from masculines in us, make the dat. and abl. plural in ābus as well as in is; as, filia, a daughter; filiabus or filiis.

Also feminine proper names ending in ă, derived from the Greek, are used in Latin (especially by the poets) with either accusative an or am; and an, when used, follows the quantity of the Greek accusative, so that we find Maiăn, Electran.

*Horace in his Satires uses this vocative case with ă.