The Greek & Latin Roots of English Read Online Free PDF Page B

dog the
    have no meaning at all.
    Both Latin and Greek, however, are inflected languages. That means that the functions of words within a particular sentence are determined not by word order, as in English, but by various endings that are placed on each word.
    In Latin,    canis = dog
                vir = man
                mordeo = I bite
    If we want to say “The dog bites the man , ” we can write:
    Can i s vir um mord et , or
    Can is mord et vir um , or
    Mord et vir um can is , or
    Vir um can is mord et .
    No matter how we arrange the words, the meaning of the sentence is always the same, because the ending (inflection) of each word determines its function in the sentence. If we want to change the meaning of the sentence, we have to change the endings of the words.
    If we want to say, “ The man bites the dog ,” we can write:
    Can em vi r mord et , or
    Can em mordet vi r , or
    Mord et vi r can em , etc.
    What has changed in these different Latin sentences? Can you explain why these changes have occurred?
Inflection
All Indo-European languages (including English) were originally highly inflected, although English has lost most of the distinctive endings. We can see the persistence of inflection in English, however, in such changes in form as I, my, me; he, his, him; goose, geese; sing, sang, sung; teach, teaches, taught . What grammatical change does each of these different forms indicate?
    LATIN NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES
    The changes in the endings of nouns and adjectives are determined by declension . Each change of form that occurs is called a case . There are six cases in Latin, each one expressing a possible function of a noun, pronoun, or adjective in a sentence, as in the example of femina (woman):
    femina = woman
      
     
Case
Sing. Form
Function
Example
Plural Form
Nominative
femin a
subject
The woman carries a book. 1
femin ae
Genitive
femin ae
possessive
I carry the woman's book.
femin arum
Dative
femin ae
ind. object
I give a book to the woman.
femin is
Accusative
femin am
direct object
I see the woman.
femin as
Ablative
femin ā
means/agent
It was done by the woman.
femin is
Vocative
femin a
direct address
Woman, look at this!
femin ae
    There are five declensions (that is, five different sets of endings) in Latin; every noun and adjective belongs to one of these five declensions. Each declension is identified by the ending found in the genitive (possessive) case.
     
The first declension is identified by -ae in the genitive case:
    femina, femin ae = woman, of the woman
    porta, port ae = door, of the door
    nauta, naut ae = sailor, of the sailor
The second declension is identified by - i in the genitive case:
    vir, vir i = man, of the man
    amicus, amic i = friend, of the friend
    bellum, bell i = war, of the war
The third declension is identified by -is in the genitive case:
    rex, reg is = king
    mens, ment is = mind
    urbs, urb is = city
The fourth declension is identified by -ūs in the genitive case:
    manus, man ūs = hand, of the hand
    cornu, corn ūs = horn, of the horn
The fifth declension is identified by -ei in the genitive case:
    fides, fid ei = faith, of the faith
    dies, di ei = day, of the day

    Marcus Aurelius, last of the “good” Roman emperors (161–180 CE). While on campaign, he composed a work of philosophy, The Meditations , that was grounded in Stoic teachings. (Vatican Museum)
    There are very few nouns and no adjectives that belong to the fourth and fifth declensions.
    FINDING THE STEM OF A LATIN NOUN OR ADJECTIVE
    The reason why it is so important to understand how declensions work is that almost all English derivatives from Latin nouns and adjectives are formed from the stem of the word. The stem of a noun or adjective is the genitive case minus the case ending.
     
Genitive Case
Stem
feminae
femin-
nautae
naut-
portae
port-
viri
vir-
belli
bell-
regis
reg-
mentis
ment-
urbis
urb-
manus, manūs
man-
fidei
fid-
    LATIN VERBS
    Just as nouns and adjectives are inflected, so