An exposition of some of the laws of the Latin grammar

Preface

i number of years ago, viz., in the year 1839, the author of the ensuing pages was induced to have printed privately a small work, embracing the substance of part of a course of lectures which he annually delivered to his classes on the general doctrines of the etymology, and on the inflectional forms and some parts of the syntax of the Latin language. Causes beyond his control prevented him from then carrying out his original design of adding another part ; and the task, thus laid aside, was never resumed.

The work to which reference has been made being intended merely to aid the hearers of the writer's own lectures, a few copies only were printed. These having been long since exhausted, and the work, besides being called for by the wants or the convenience of his pupils, having met with the approbation not only of some learned men among his personal friends, whose opinion he highly valued, but of some, also, whose accurate scholarship and sound judgment he knew, without having the pleasure of their personal acquaintance and friendship, the author prevailed upon himself to reprint it, and, at the same time, having found publishers willing to undertake the issue of a book promising little, if any, pecuniary reward, to offer it to the public. , t To make it somewhat more worthy of any attention it may receive from the reader, the portion before printed has been revised, and in a considerable measure re- written ; and an additional chapter has been introduced, devoted to the structure and signification of the verb.

The time which the author could devote to the task which he assigned himself being very limited, he can not

IV PREFACE.

indulge the hope that he has escaped avoidable faults ehhei in the form or substance of what he has written. Yet he has not ventured to publish hastily-formed opinions, nox such as he does not, in his humble judgment, think worthy of being placed before the reader. And although he is conscious that in aiming to state his views and the grounds of them succinctly, and without always elaborately unfolding them, he may have made his pages too condensed for hasty readers, he hopes that no careful student, who deems the subject worth serious consideration, will find the reading either difficult or wholly unprofitable.

The work is not designed to take the place of the systematic practical grammars, either large or small ; but aims rather, if it may be permitted the writer* to say so much, to come in to the aid of both, and to set forth a rational arrangement and explanation of some, of the more prominent phenomena in the inflections and syntax of the Latin language. If successful in accomplishing its object, it will be a contribution, however limited and humble, to the scientific exhibition of the facts and principles belonging to these two departments of the grammar.

Yet to suppose that the writer did not intend these pages to be a practical aid in the acquisition of a knowledge of the language, would be wholly to misinterpret his views. The very object at which he has aimed is to guide the student to eminently practical results. This he has striven to reach by appealing more to his observation and reason, and less to his memory ; by encouraging him in the difficult and seemingly endless task of mastering the thousand special rules for the use of the language, by an attempt to show him how a multitude of these may often be reduced to a common principle ; by thus assisting him, at the same time that the memory is relieved of part of a burden heavy to bear, to gain both a clearer and a more comprehensive view of the laws which govern the inflection of words and of the mutual relations of the various parts of discourse, and

PREFACE. V

enabling him to discover order and harmony where he may have before seen only confused heaps of incongruous materials ; and, lastly, by accustoming him to study the language as a branch of the inductive philosophy, and so securing the best discipline of the mind, together with the safest and largest useful results. The experience of many years spent in the practical duties of teaching has satisfied the author that more may be taught in this way in the came time, and more accurately, at least to those who have some maturity of mind ; and, what is of infinitely more moment than any mere accumulation of knowledge, that the student, meantime, acquires a sharpness of attention, a carefulness of observation, and a desire thoroughly to comprehend the relations of things, that can not fail to be fruitful of good to an amount that empirical methods can never attain.

Although this work is not designed for beginners, yet, assuming it to be true that the same general doctrines that form the last results of scientific inquiry, and that constitute the base of the most perfect system of truths in any department of knowledge, should comprehend the earliest teachings as well as the last, and that the method of the first and simplest acquisitions should, in kind at least, be the same with the latest and most complicate ; in a word, if a beginner should, according to his strength and capacity, be so taught that what he learns, and the way in which he learns it, shall be of a piece with his after acquirements, and in harmony with the modes of investigation which a true philosophy and the study of maturer years demand, then the writer would humbly hope that what he offers, if it contain valuable truth, may not be unacceptable or useless to teachers even of the first elements.

The only apology which the author deems it necessary to offer for the liberty which he has taken of departing from the usual arrangement, and of connecting what he had to sav of the syntax with the inflectional forms, will be found

VI PREFACE.

in the origin of the work 'in the practical duties of the lee ture-room. The reader is presumed to know the usual inflections, and there is here offered him some help toward the right understanding of their etymological structure and syntactical value. This is given when the forms present themselves, without pretending to furnish a systematic view of all the doctrines of grammar.

The author, regretting the absence of some desired helps, and confessing that he has been more anxious to ascertain the truth of what he has written than its conformity with the opinions of others, has taken pains to acknowledge, by proper references, the sources from which he has derived information and aid, as well as to cite the authorities by which he would fortify his own independently formed conclusions. He could not always, without uselessly encumbering his pages with citations, note the compiler who had helped him to an appropriate example. It would, in fact, often be difficult to say, the same examples being employed by successive grammarians, to whose industry originally he is indebted. In the chapter on the verb, the borrowed examples are most commonly derived from the grammars of Weissenborn and Krueger, to whom, moreover, he has already acknowledged in the text his obligations for valuable assistance afforded by their collection of materials; even where their use of them could not be adopted.

University of Virginia, March 15 th

Virginia, > 1852. *

Table Of Contents

Faga

Preface iii-vi

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER

CHAPTER I. Definition of Grammar, general and special 22

Parts of Speech, their number, &c 22-3

Nouns, substantive and adjective : Participles ; Pronouns ; Numerals,

defined 23

Verbs, definition of 24

Particles, viz., Prepositions, Adverbs, Conjunctions, and Interjections,

defined - 24

CHAPTER II. Nouns, substantive and adjective, definition, classes, &c 25-6

Cases, definition of, signification, &c 26-39

Nominative 27

Vocative ib.

Genitive 27-32

Accusative 33-4

Ablative 34-9

General view of the Inflection of Nouns, with their Classes or Declensions 39-4U

Signs of the Cases, general View - 43-4

Form of the Nominative Case 44-8

Form of the Genitive Case 48-9

Form of the Dative Case singular 49-50

Form of the Ablative Case singular, and of the Dative and Ablative

Form of the Accusative Case 53-6

Declension 1 56-8

Declension II 58-60

Declension III 60-7

VUl CONTENTS.

Declension IV 67-8

Declension V , 68-9

Prepositions, nature and office of. 70-4

^Apposition 74-5

CHAPTER IIL

Noun Adjective, agreement, &c 75-6

Comparison of Adjectives, considered as to form, signification,

and construction 76-87

CHAPTER IV. Pronouns, definition and classification of. 88-90

Substantive or Personal Pronouns 90-1

Adjective Pronouns :

1. Possessive 91-4

2. Demonstrative, including Demonstrative Adverbs 94-118

3 Relative and Interrogative, including Relative and Interrogative Adverbs 118-140

Compound Relative and Interrogative, independent and

correlative 140-6

Correlative Demonstratives 146-153

4. Indefinite, including some Adverbs 153-167

CHAPTER V. The Verb, definition of; Verb proper and Verbals 167-8

Kinds of Verbs ; active and neuter ; Voices 1 69-71

Verbals, definition of; Infinitive, Gerund, Supine, Participle 171-4

Verb proper, definition of its parts, viz. :

1. Moods : a. Indicative ; b. Subjunctive ; c. Imperative.

2. Tenses, signification in the Indicative, and as influenced by

the Subjunctive, &c 174-223

Inflection of the Verb proper; Radical; Classes or Conjugations ; Anomalous Conjugation ; Persons and Numbers, signs of, and

their Etymology ; Connecting or formative Vowel 223-241

Formation of the Tenses, viz. :

Perfect and Preterit 246-258

Formation and signification of the Verbals, yiz.;

Infinitive .-, 264-70

Participles 270-280

Gerund 280-82

Supines ..... 2S3

AN EXPOSITION

OF SOME OP THE

LAWS OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.

Objects of Etymological Inquiries. — Different Ways in which the Signification of a Word may be Varied. — Means by which Euphony is preserved. — Powers of the Letters, and the Laws of their Interchange.

It is designed to embrace in this chapter a brief view of some of the leading doctrines of etymology, considered in its more extended sense, as comprising the laws or principles whicn govern the formation and composition of words. The method of exhibiting and explaining the grammatical inflection of words which has been adopted in the ensuing chapters, renders necessary a constant reference to these principles, with which the student is presumed to be acquainted. Being equally applicable to the formation and composition of words in other respects also, as well as in their grammatical inflections, the doctrines presented in this chapter may be considered as introductory to the subject of the etymology generally. It may be proper to add, that although the illustration of the etymological structure of the Latin language chiefly is had in view, and although it may very well happen that a number of things may be omitted which a full treatise on etymology should contain, yet the general doctrines here taught would be equally deducible from other languages, and be abundantly confirmed by a more extended comparison of languages than falls within the scope of the present design.

The end had in view in etymological inquiries is not merely to determine the true forms of words, and how they arise, but also to ascertain their proper signification, of which the form is only the sign. The former object is subordinate to the latter, and the tw4 can hardly be well dissociated. In languages having grammatical inflections, the sense indicated by the forms which the etymologist investigates may either be proper to a word itself, regarded as unconnected with other words, or it may express *fae relations which

A

X AN EXFOSITION OF SOME OF Tills

an object or action represented by a word sustains to other objects in discourse. The former case belongs to the province of the lexicographer, the latter to that of the grammarian.

That the separate departments of etymology may be more clear Iy distinguished, it will be proper to mention the several chief ways in which the signification of a word may be varied, and what is the office of the etymologist in regard to eaah. And with respect to this question, it may be observed in general, that there are two orincipal modes in which words may vary their signification, first without, and secondly with a change of form.

1. 1. The same word, without undergoing any essential variation of form, obtains a variety of significations more or less closely allied, and supposed to flow from one meaning, regarded as the source of all the rest. This is called the primary or original sense, and those springing from it are named secondary, derivative, metaphorical, &c. Thus virtus means primarily " manhood," secondarily " bravery," " virtue," &c. ; poena (Greek apoine, Horn. II., A., v. 13) signified originally " a redemption price," secondarily " the requital of an injury," "punishment." In saying that words changed their signification without undergoing any essential change of form, it was intended to except such changes as may take place in passing from one language or dialect to another, so far as they introduce no additional significant element. Thus the Latin pang-o, Greek peg-numi; Latin nov-us, Greek ne-os (nef-os) ; Latin super, Greek huper, Sanscrit upari, ancient German ubar, Gothic ufar, Persian eber and seber ; Latin quartus, Greek tetlara,$ansQrittschatur y tschatvar, iEolic Greek pisures, Doric Greek tettor ; Latin coquo, English cook, Greek pepto; Latin quinque, Greek pente, Sanscrit pantscha, afford examples of words apparently different as seen in different languages, but really agreeing in every thing essential. Now it happens by no means uncommonly that the primary sense of a word in a language has not been retained in it, and must be sought in some related language. The business of the etymologist is to trace such a word through its various forms, and to compare the significations which it may have obtained under each ; and this can not be done successfully without adhering strictly, all through the investigation, to the laws of this branch of philology, and without attending at the same time to the form and to the sense of the word which is the subject of inquiry.

2. In determining the primary signification of a word, and for this purpose searching out its various forms, the etymologist is not wont to confine himself, as might perhaps be supposed from what has been said above, to the instances in which it has the same form, unaug. mented by such modifications as affect its radical elements ; but, on the contrary, collects and compares all the forms, however they may differ from one another, which contain these radical parts ; for he is aware that the primary sense is sometimes preserved in the compound and derivative, while it has been lost in the simpler forms Thus com-pag-es, l a fastening,' ' a bolt,' re-pag-ulum, « a bar,' fur nish the primary sense of the root pag, which does not at first ap peai in pax (=pac-s), ' peace,' and in pac-tum, * a covenant.' Indeed, a very little observation satisfies one of the fact, that in the multiplied forms which constitute a family of words, whether found in the same or different languages, a certain part, very commonly consisting of a single syllable, remains in every important feature the same. Thus in pang-o, pac-tum, pax (pac-s), com-pag-es, re-pagulum, Greek peg-numi, while other parts are changed, pag remains essentially the same ; so in gno-sco or no-sco, no-men, no-tus, no-bilis, co-gno-men, i-gno-tus, i-gn-arus, Greek gi-gnd-sko, gno or no continues to be the same ; so, again, in gens (z=gent-s), gen-er, gen-itus, Greek gi-gn-omai, gen-os, n-a-scor (=gen-a-scor), n-a-tus, n-a-tura, gen, gn, n, are only varieties of the same rQOt. To such a form, which, throughout all the combinations into which it may enter, remains essentially the same, the name of root or stem is given. And as, in like manner, one sense common to all, and which may be regarded as the parent of the rest, is found to pervade the meanings presented by the often numerous derivatives which spring from this simple root, it is convenient and proper to consider this common and primary notion as belonging to the root. Thus the common sense which runs through the words cer-no, Greek kri-no, cer-tus, cri-men, cri-ticus, dis-cri-men, is the act of ' perceiving,' and hence 1 distinguishing,' 'judging,' 'deciding,' &c. ; and this is considered to reside in the root cer or cri. Of course it is not necessary to suppose that the root ever existed in the naked and uncomoined state in which it is presented to the eye when separated from the additional forms with which it is found associated ; it i&true, however, that some roots, as in prepositions, &c, are retained in use in their simplest state. It is of especial importance, in seeking afte. the primary signification of a word, by comparing together a numbei of forms in which it occurs, to determine the simple form or root. This can be correctly done only by separating it from all the other forms which may be associated with it, but which are not essential to it ; a task to be accomplished by the application of etymological principles.

4 AN EXPOSITION OF bOME OF THE

II. The second way in which a word changes its signification is that in which it undergoes at the same time a modification of form.

1. To this may be referred the case in which a variation in the form and sense of a word is produced by composition with another word : e. g. prudens = pro-videns ; ignosco = i-gnosco ; aspicio = ad' spicio. In entering into composition, one or both of the words may suffer some change of form ; and although the signification which belongs to the compound may sometimes differ from what would seem to be suggested by either or both of the component parts, yet it will seldom happen that a knowledge of the words which enter into a compound will fail to help to a clearer apprehension of the meaning conveyed by the compound itself. Thus prudens, above mentioned, signifies « prudent,' « wary,' ' having forecast,' and this signification readily springs from that of the parts of which it is made up : pro, ' before,' « forward,' and videns, l seeing ;' ignosco sig nifies « I pardon,' « forgive,' a meaning perfectly consistent with that of i, Greek a, Sanscrit a, l not,' and gnosco, ' I perceive,' « take cognizance of.' It is the business of the etymologist to ascertain the component parts of such words, and then to determine the relation which the meaning of the compound bears to that of the separate parts which go to form it.

2. The form of a word may be changed, with a corresponding change of sense, by the addition of various terminations and prefixes : thus dic-o, i I say' or * I am saying,' dic-ebam, 1 1 was saying ;' rex (reg-s), ' a king,' * one who rules,' rec-tum {reg-tum), 4 right,' properly < that which is made straight.' This change may affect the signification of the word itself, considered as unconnected with other words of a sentence ; e. g. aur-um, i gold,' aur atus, l gilt,' aur-eus, ' golden :' or the relation which the object expressed by the word itself bears to other objects in a sentence, or the precise manner of affirmation intended by the speaker ; e. g. aur-um, l gold,' aur-i pretium, ' the worth of gold ;' leg-o, ' I read' or « I am reading,' ut leg-am, * that I may read,' &c. In either case, the addition of other letters or syllables to the root may be attended by changes either in the root or in the parts added, or in both at the same time ; thus scrib-o, scrip-si (scrib-si) ; reg-o, rezi (reg ti), rectum {reg-tum). It becomes, therefore, the business of the etymologist to mark such changes, and the principles according to which they occur ; and also the change in sense which the addition of any ending or prefix may produce. Of the two varieties of changes here mentioned, the former belongs to the department of the lexicographer ; and it hardly need be suggested how important an auxiliary a knowledge of what it embraces must prove in the study of a language, whether we regard facility or accuracy in acquiring it.

It enables the learner, on the one hand, to acquire words by classes rather than by individuals, and, on the other, to apprehend their meaning more perfectly. The latter variety belongs to the grammar, and constitutes that part of it which is commonly called the accidence or etymology. From the nature of the forms embraced in this variety, the endings and prefixes which it comprises being employed to express the relations which words bear to each other in a sentence, it is at once obvious that a knowledge both of the forms and of their signification is of very great importance in the acquisition of a language. That part of the grammar which is called the syntax is largely occupied in explaining what is expressed by the terminations and prefixes belonging to this variety. And this being so, it would seem very much better that the learner should be taught from the first, at least practically, the leading and most common meanings conveyed by the inflectional endings and prefixes of words ; for the latter being the signs, and the former the things signified, the two ought not to be severed ; they can not be ultimately, and the attempt to acquire the two separately only serves to multiply unreasonably the' labor and discouragement which must more or less attend the effort to acquire a language. Farther, the very structure and arrangement of the Latin, as of other languages, require, if w T e would so read it as to receive the very impressions the writer would convey, that the words should be read in the order in which they stan£ arranged by the author, so that not only each word as it meets the eye shall suggest to the mind the appropriate idea it was intended to express, but more, that the inflectional endings, aided or not by particles, as the case may be, shall at once indicate the relations which the words to which they belong sustain to other words in the sentence. Viewed in this light, the etymology stands in the same relation to the syntax that anatomy does to physiology, the former demonstrating the form and structure of words, the latter their functions.

In speaking of the case in which words change their signification without an alteration of their form, and of the primary and secondary meanings of such words, occasion was taken to mention, in a general way, what is understood by the stem or root of words. It may now be added that in a word which has undergone inflections, but without having been previously augmented by terminations affecting its general sense, the simple root is commonly found by removing the prefixes and inflectional endings, such as the signs of tJ AN EXPOSITION OP SOME OF THE

the cases, tenses, moods, &c, which serve the purpose of marking the relations which the word has to others in the sentence, the etate of the action of the verb as to time and completedness, the manner of the affirmation, &c. If any changes have taken place in the root in consequence of such inflectional endings or such prefixes being added, the original form is of course to be restored ; e. g. pe-pig-i, pac-tum, pax (pac-s), com-pag-es, im-pac-tus, all present the root pag or peg. In pang-o, the n, which has been introduced for euphony, must be removed, and the single root pag remains as in other examples. Again, if any addition, as of another word, has been made, affecting the sense of the word itself, this must be removed together with any change which it may have occasioned in the root ; e. g. co-gno-men furnishes the root gno, seen also with the loss of the g in no-sco, no-bilis, &c. From this, the simple root, must be carefully distinguished what is sometimes called the inflectional root, by which is meant the form, whether simple or compound, to which the inflectional endings are attached ; e. g. in the words nomen, nomin-is y facilior, facilior-is, the inflectional roots, always found by removing the case or tense endings and prefixes, are nomin, facilior, while the simple or etymological roots are no or gno. and/ac. So in vivaria, vivari is the inflectional, viv the simple root. In wholly simple words, the etymological and the inflectional root will be the same ; e. g. leg-i, scrib-o, scrip-si.

When two or more words are united to form a compound, or when a termination or prefix of any kind, whether inflectional or other, is added to a root, it is required that the parts which more immediately come together shall be adapted to each other in sound ; that such changes shall be made at the point of junction, in either or both of the parts uniting, as may be necessary to prevent the ear from being offended by harsh and dissonant, and the organs of speech from laboring with difficult and incompatible sounds ; in other words, that the law T s of euphony shall be observed. The following are some of the means by which euphony is preserved in this class of formations :

a. The union of two single consonants to form a double one : e. g. dux = duc-s ; rex == reg-s ; coxi = coqu-si ; traxi = trach-si, &c. In this case the only change is in the mode of writing, the sign x taking the place of cs, gs, qus y and chs.

b. The interchange of consonants : e. g. erec-tum = ereg-tum, from reg-o ; con-ducere = com-ducere ; al-licio = ad-licio } &e.

c. The introduction of a consonant to avoid a hiatus, or the concurrence of two vowels : e. g. pro-d-est = pro-est, from pro-sum : pro*

£-ire = pro-ire. Or ,*/ supply a sign for an accidental sound which does not form a part of the word properly speaking, but which results from the pronouncing of certain consonants together; and in this case there must of course be a correspondence between the letter introduced and those which precede and follow : e. g. em-p-tus, from em-o ; sum-p-tus, from sum-o. In fra(n)g-o, from the root frag or freg, as seen in freg-i, frag-men, &c ; in pi(n)g-o, from the root vig ; in ta(n)go, from tag or teg, and others, n is assumed as a means of softening the hard sound of g. Or, lastly, for mere euphony, and to bring together forms which would not otherwise conveniently unite : e. g. mags-imus (maximus), from the root mag, and imus, the ending of the superlative, s being a mere formative insertion.

d. The elision of one or more consonants : e. g. suspensi = suspend-si ; fron-s —fronds ; dens ■= dents ; gigas — gi-gants. So metimes a consonant is omittted merely because in pronunciation it is not distinctly uttered : e. g. fo-mentum =fov-mentum, from fov-eo ; ma-lim — mav-lim, properly ma-velim, which again, if fully written, would be mag-velim ; nosco = gnosco, as seen in the Greek gi-gnbsko and in the Latin i-gnosco, &c.

e. The elision of a vowel, which is especially apt to occur when it comes between a mute and a liquid : e. g. mag-nus = mag-inus ; cau-tus = cav-itus ; retrorsum =; retro{uo)rsum ; malim = ma(g)v(e) Urn.

f. The contraction of two vowels into one, either a diphthong or long vowel : e. g. cui—quoi ; qud=quai ; terrce=terrai ; regno=reg~ noi; domi=domoi ; amas=amais, Sec.

But, besides the changes which occur at the point of junction of one word with another, or of a simple or inflectional root with an ending, the root itself may undergo certain changes, which, however, are met with chiefly in passing from one dialect or cognate language to another.

a. One vowel may be put for another, or one diphthong for another or for a single long vowel ; or a long single vowel may take the place of a diphthong: e. g. includere, from in and claudo ; abditus from ab and datus ; discerpta, from dis and the verb carpo ; dirigo from di and rego ; vicus=Greek oikos (anciently Soikos) ; vinum—: Greek cinos (anciently foinos). In the Latin language such changes are more commonly met with in compounds, but also occasionally in simple words : e. g. egi, from ago ; fregi, from frango, &c.

b. One consonant takes the place of another. This likewise occurs most frequently in passing from one dialect to another, or from »*ie language to another with which it is cognate ; but is also seen in comparing the later and more ancient forms of the same laiv guage : e. g. bis—duis ; duo==Eng\ish. two, German zwei, &c.; septem = Greek hept a; sex=^ Greek hex; coquo=Greek pepto ; quis=Greek is, kos and pos in kozos,pdids, koi,poi, &c, English who.

c. A consonant is struck out, sometimes merely because it is not heard in pronunciation : e. g. notus^=gnotus, novi=gnovi, from gn&- sco, as seen in i-gnosco ; prudens=providens.

d. A vowel is struck out : e.g. nil=nihil ; gn-atus or n-atus, from the root gen, as seen in gen-us, Greek gen-os, and in gen-i-tus, from gi-gn-o, Greek gi-gn-omai=gi-gen-omai.

e. Letters exchange places, or, in technical language, a metathesis occurs : e. g. porrectus=prorectus ; porro—proro ; English for and fro ; Latin and Greek pro.

The changes which have been noticed, but which may not include all that occasionally take place, do not occur arbitrarily, but are to be referred to certain laws, which, so far as they regard changes made to effect harmony or avoid harsh combinations of letters, may be called those of euphony. These laws are determined in the same way with the principles of any other science, viz., by carefully observing what in this respect really occurs in language, and deriving from thence the general facts or principles to which the individual instances belong. So far, the laws of etymology may be merely practical ; but it is true that we may advance a step farther, and with some certainty assign the rational ground of these laws. And this must be sought in the physical constitution of our vocal organs, and in the capacity we have for deriving pleasure or the opposite emotion from certain combinations of sound. If, again, this observation be just, it follows that the laws of euphony, and of etymology generally, being in fact founded on organization, are indeed universal, compassing the infinitely multiplied forms in which man, wherever resident, conveys his thoughts and emotions. They may be modified by a variety of causes, as climate, local associations, the habits and occupations in which men may live ; but in their general and essential features they are as uniform as are the physical structure and mental endowments of man.