Dictionary Forms of Nouns

When looking at a Latin dictionary, it is helpful to know how the dictionary lists its words. As discussed in Latin Sentence Structure, Latin nouns change endings based on their function in a sentence. Dictionary listings of Latin words can help one determine which endings those words use. Let's take, for instance, this dictionary listing for pecus, a Latin word for a cattle.

pecus, pecudis - (f.) cattle

First we see pecus. This is the nominative form of the noun, the form of the noun used when it is the subject of the sentence. Moreover, this is singular.

The next thing we see is pecudis, the genitive singular form of pecus. There are many uses for the genitive case, one of which being that it serves as a template for the other forms of pecus. One knowledgeable in Latin noun endings can determine from these two forms that the dative singular form of pecus will be pecudī, the accusative singular will be pecudem, the ablative singular will be pecude, and so forth. Don't worry if you don't understand what we're talking about here -- we will cover it soon. For now, just know that the second form listed here, the pecudis form, the genitive singular, is instrumental in figuring out what the other forms of the same noun is.

This manner of listing is also crucial when the dictionary lists two nouns that have the same nominative form. As an example, look at this dictionary listing for an equally valid alternate pecus.

pecus, pecoris - (n.) herd of cattle

These two nouns have very similar meanings and identical nominative singular forms. The only way we can distinguish between these nouns is the second dictionary form, the genitive singular. Whereas endings such as pecudis, pecudī, pecudem... tell us that we're referring to a cattle, endings derived from pecoris (pecorī, pecus, pecore...) tell us that we're referring to an entire herd of cattle.

So what about the next thing we see? In the first dictionary listing we have a (f.), and in the second one we have a (n.). What do those mean? Each Latin noun has a grammatical gender (which are separate from actual genders). These genders are masculine (m.), feminine (f.), and neuter (n.). Again, more on that later.

After all of that, we reach the end, which is our definition. Don't be surprised if the same word has more than one definition -- even when the definitions seem completely different.

Latin Sentence Structure

Now that the history of Latin and its alphabet and pronunciation are out of the way, we can get to the language itself.

Let's think about English first. The sentence "The girl greets the boy" is different from "The boy greets the girl." The difference is made possible by the order of the words in the sentence. English expects that each word will be in a certain place in the sentence depending on its function in that sentence. English students are taught that for a sentence to make sense, it must be structured like [noun] [verb] [direct object] [indirect object and/or preposition], or at very least, [noun] [verb]. "Billy jumps" makes sense to us. "Jumps Billy" only makes sense in a poetic context where meter is of the essence.

In Latin, each word has an ending that determines its grammatical function in its clause or sentence. As such, we don't need sentence structure to tell us what the words in the sentence are doing -- the words are doing that job themselves. Latin sentence structure is incredibly flexible.

Let's do some examples:

1. We could say puella salit, where puella means girl (in the sense that the girl is doing the action described the verb) and salit means he/she/it jumps or he/she/it is jumping. Together we get "a/the girl jumps" or "a/the girl is jumping." Notice that Latin (for the most part) does not include articles like a, an, or the, so the right article to use is determined by context.

However, we can switch out these words. We can say salit puella and it still means "a/the girl jumps" or "a/the girl is jumping."

2. We can say puella puerum salutat, where puella still means girl (in the sense that the girl is committing the verb), puerum means boy (in the sense that the boy is having the verb committed on him), and salutat means he/she/it greets or he/she/it is greeting. We then get "A/the girl greets a/the boy" or "A/the girl is greeting a/the boy."

Puella will always be the one doing the action and puerum will always receive the action. Therefore, we can write puerum puella salutat, or salutat puerum puella, or salutat puella puerum, or puella salutat puerum, and so forth and it will always mean "A/the girl is greeting a/the boy" or "A/the girl greets a/the boy."

3. Because verbs have endings and forms which contain information, Latin can have sentences that simply contain a verb. If we've been talking about a girl, we can say "salutat," and we can infer that it means "She greets."

Latin authors will change the sentence order for various reasons. If they're writing poetry, they may change the order to better fit the poetic meter. Perhaps they want to emphasize a particular word by putting it at the beginning.

While there is no set-in-stone rule for Latin sentence structure, one convention used (particularly in an educational setting) is to use the order [noun] [direct object] [indirect object and/or preposition] [verb].

The Modern Position on the Latin Alphabet and Pronunciation

Thanks to the Renaissance, the Latin we teach today most nearly resembles Classical Latin. Latin students are generally taught classical pronunciation. The alphabet resembles the classical alphabet -- for the most part.

• i/j - Latin students aren't generally taught the letter j. Instead they are taught that i is both consonantal and vocalic. Mottoes, however, may replace the consonantal i with a j. An example of this is Alabama's state motto: audemus jura nostra defendere -- "We dare to defend our rights." This is particularly true if the motto or phrase represents a Christian organization.
• u/v - Whereas students are taught that i is both consonantal and vocalic, students are taught to use consonantal v and vocalic u.
• w - Really the only time you'll see a w in Latin is in taxonomy (a scientific name named after Wagner, for instance, could be wagnerii)

Ecclesiastical Latin Alphabet and Pronunciation

In the Middle Ages, Latin was only for the educated. Due to the prominence of the Roman Catholic Church at the time, Latin primarily served religious purposes. The Catholics decided that Latin as it applied to their churches would sound best with an Italian accent, so they took Latin and made their own dialect of it, known as Ecclesiastical Latin or Church Latin. This Ecclesiastical Latin dialect differs significantly from classical dialects.

VOWELS

• a - ah, like father (never like the ey sound in say)
• e - eh, like red (never like the ey sound in say)
• i - ee, like feed (never like the ih sound in pin)
• o - o from the back of your throat, like orb (never like the oh sound in go)
• u - oo, like soon (never like the uh sound in sun)
• y - ee, like feed

Note that Ecclesiastical Latin has no long or short vowels.

CONSONANTS

• b - b, like by
• c - ch, like chair, when before e, ae, oe, i, and y. Otherwise it makes a k sound, like car.
• d - d, like dad
• f - f, like fun
• g - j, like giraffe, when before e, ae, i, and y. Otherwise it makes a g sound, like go.
• h - k, like car, only in the words nihil and mihi (and their compounds). Otherwise it is silent.
• j - y, like yes (never like the j sound in jam)
• k - k, like car
• l - l, like love
• m - m, like may
• n - n, like nut
• p - p, like pun
• q - only before u, qu makes a kw sound like quiet
• r - slightly rolled r
• s - s, like say
• t - t, like tell
• v - v, like vase
• x - ks, like box
• y - ee, like feed
• z - dz, like ads

LETTER COMBINATIONS

With a few exceptions, diphthongs were usually pronounced with each vowel sounded separately.

• ae - eh, like red
• cc - t-ch, like cat chase
• ch - k, like chrome
• ei - ey, like hey, only in an interjection. Otherwise, each vowel was sounded separately.
• gn - ny, like nyoom
• oe - eh, like red
• sc - sh, like shack
• th - t, like time
• ti - tsee, like Patsy, before a vowel and after any letter except s, t, and x.
• xc - ksh, before e, ae, oe, i, and y.

Note that j was added to the Latin alphabet (as opposed to the classical alphabet) in the Middle Ages. Medieval Latin speakers avoided blending the sounds of any two letters, instead preferring to emphasize both letters. They would often replace the diphthong ae with the letter e (e.g. classical familiae became medieval familie). Occasionally they would exchange single consonants with double consonants (e.g. classical Africa became medieval Affrica) and then pronounce both consonants separately. Likewise, double consonants were often contracted to single consonants.

Classical Latin Alphabet and Pronunciation

The alphabet that English and Romance languages use today is known as the Latin alphabet. The Romans used (most of) the same letters we use today, and their pronunciation is somewhat similar to ours. The biggest difference between Classical Latin pronunciation and English pronunciation is in the diphthongs and consonant clusters.

VOWELS

• a - uh, like about
• ā - ah, like father
• e - eh, like pet
• ē - ey, like they
• i - ih, like sit
• ī - ee, like see
• o - o from the back of the mouth, like orb
• ō - oh, like home
• u - uh, like put
• ū - oo, like rule
• y - combined oo-ih sound, like German über (rare, only used in Greek loan words)
• ȳ - combined oo-ih sound for a longer time, like German über (rare, only used in Greek loan words)

Nota Bene: The long marks over certain vowels are macrons, and denote long vowels. They are covered in this post.

CONSONANTS

• b - b, like by
• c - k, like care (never like the s sound in cell or the ch sound in cello)
• d - d, like dad
• f - f, like fun
• g - g, like go (never like the j sound in giant)
• h - h, like hair
• i (consonantal) - y, like yes
• k - k, like kid (rare, only used in Greek loan words)
• l - l, like love
• m - m, like make
• n - n, like no
• p - p, like pun
• q - only present when followed by a u, qu makes a kw sound, like quiet
• r - rolled r sound
• s - s, like say (never like the z sound in raise)
• t - t, like tell (never like the ch sound in mention or the sh sound in nation)
• v - w, like wet
• x - ks, like box (never like the gs sound in exert)
• z - z, like zebra

DIPHTHONGS

• ae (sometimes æ) - ai, like aisle
• au - ow, like house
• ei - ey, like reign
• eu - quick eh-oo sound, not in English
• oe - oy, like oil
• ui - quick oo-ih sound, not in English

CONSONANT CLUSTERS (which differ from the English pronunciation)

• bs - ps, like sips
• bt - pt, like apt
• ch - k, like chrome
• ph - p, like pun
• rr - like two r's, as in cur ran
• th - t, like tell
• tt - like two t's, as in admit ten

Note that there are no j's or w's. In the instance of j (which was pronounced like a consonantal y when it finally joined Latin), the Romans used i. The Romans distinguished between a consonantal i and a vocalic (vowel) i. In place of w, Romans used v. Romans used the character v to both represent the consonantal w sound and the vocalic u sound. They did not use the letter u. Nowadays we distinguish between consonantal v and vocalic u. A really good explanation of why we do this can be found in this Tumblr post.

Macrons and Long Vowels

One of the conventions used to teach Latin is the use of macrons. Macrons are horizontal marks put above vowels to indicate that the vowel is long. The Romans never used macrons this way, nor does modern Latin literature. Macrons really only exist inside of an educational setting. Despite the fact that Latin is taught as a written language rather than a conversational language, research shows that it is important to learn how to pronounce Latin before you can learn the language itself. Therein lies the importance of learning, understanding, and using macrons. Below we see a list of the Latin vowels, short and long, and their pronunciations.

• a (short a) - uh, like about
• ā (long a) - ah, like father
• e (short a) - eh, like pet
• ē (long a) - ey, like they
• i (short i) - ih, like sit
• ī (long i) - ee, like see
• o (short o) - o from the back of the mouth, like orb
• ō (long o) - oh, like home
• u (short u) - uh, like put
• ū (long u) - oo, like rule
• y (short y) - combined oo-ih sound, like German über
• ȳ (long y) - combined oo-ih sound for a longer time, like German über

Again, macrons typically don't appear outside of educational works, but they are important in familiarization of the language's pronunciation.

Latin: A (Linguistic) History - Part II

Latin, like all languages, has changed over time. Today we say there have been seven periods of Latin history, but eight ages. The dates aren't set in stone, but they are an approximation of when each age switched to the next.

OLD LATIN (Birth of Latin-80 BC)
Also known as Archaic Latin, Old Latin is Latin's earliest stage. Rules of grammar were still being formed and kinks were still being sorted out. Below we see the paradigm of cases for the Old Latin word familia.

We still see the effects of Old Latin lingering in future periods of Latin. For instance, the Old Latin phrase pater familias, which means father of the family, contracted to paterfamilias, a word that existed throughout Latin history. Paterfamilias was even assimilated into English vocabulary, meaning the head of the household.

We also see that Old Latin used a lot of o's, which would later turn into u's. For instance, we have this conjugations paradigm of the Old Latin som, which would become sum in Classical Latin.

Eventually, Old Latin resolved itself into a form much more recognizable today: Classical Latin.

CLASSICAL LATIN (80 BC-117 AD)
Classical Latin is marked by the vocabulary and grammar most familiar to us today. Below we see just how much the paradigms above had evolved.

When we first look at the Classical Latin paradigm for familia, it doesn't really seem like Latin evolved. Rather, it looks like Latin took a stem backwards, mutating their forms of words to have little to no distinction. While it's true that these forms are less distinct than their archaic ancestors, it can't really be argued that this was a step backwards for the Romans. They changed their forms of words to be more euphonic (pleasing to the ear). In doing so, they consolidated forms that had a similar purpose. The dative and ablative cases, for instance, have always been considered similar, so there wasn't much need for a distinction between the two.

Wilhelm Sigismund Teuffel conjectured in 1870 that Classical Latin had two ages, divided not by grammar or linguistic changes, but by literature. These ages are the Golden Age and the Silver Age.

• GOLDEN AGE (80 BC-14 AD) - The Golden Age was thought to have two parts itself: the Republican Period (also called the Ciceronian Period) and the Augustan Period. The Republican Period ended after Julius Caesar's assassination, and the Augustan Period ended after Augustus' death. Republican authors include Cicero, Julius Caesar, Lucretius, Cato the Younger, and Catullus. Augustan authors include Virgil, Horace, Livy, and Ovid. Each of the Republican and Augustan authors are taught extensively in modern Latin classes.
• SILVER AGE (14 AD-117 AD) - The Silver Age lasted from the death of Augustus to the death of Trajan. Notable Silver Age authors include Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Quintilian, Martial, Juvenal, and Tacitus. While these authors aren't taught so extensively today as the Golden Age authors, they are well-known.

VULGAR LATIN (117 AD-900 AD)

Classical Latin was the era of lofty Latin and great literature. However, when the Roman Empire started to decline in the third century AD, Latin should have gone down with it. The biggest reason Latin stuck around was because of how immense the Roman Empire had been. Different regions began to modify and specialize their dialects of Latin until they had a bunch of different languages. These were the Romance languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Unfortunately, as most Vulgar Latin speakers were illiterate, there is very little in the way of Vulgar Latin writings.

MEDIEVAL LATIN (900 AD-1300 AD)

Medieval Latin is the Latin of the Middle Ages, the Latin that was taken over and used by the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church made their own dialect of Latin now known as Church Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin, in which they decided that Latin liturgies sounded better with an Italian pronunciation. C's, which used to make a k sound now made a ch sound. V's, which sounded like w's now sounded like the modern v sound. Medieval Latin speakers also added the letter j and often consolidated the diphthong ae into e.

RENAISSANCE LATIN (1300 AD-1500 AD)

When the Renaissance rolled around, Latin had already changed drastically from its classical period. Diphthongs had been eliminated from Latin, and t's and c's sounded indistinguishable. The Renaissance sparked an interest in classical Greek and Roman cultures, and Renaissance-era writers started calling for a return to the ways of Classical Latin. Latin once again became the language of science and culture. The Renaissance set the stage for Latin to be the international language of science it is today and for Classical Latin (rather than Medieval Latin) to be taught in schools still to this day. Renaissance Latin is the primary reason why Latin is associated with scholarship and sophistication.

NEW LATIN (1500 AD-1900 AD)

Then we hit the New Latin (also called Neo-Latin) period. In the New Latin period, French and English arose as the most popularly spoken languages (hence why the most influential language of a time is called the lingua franca, Latin for the French language). Latin remained the standard for negotiations, business, and law. As French grew in power, Latin became more and more obsolete.

MODERN LATIN (1900 AD-present)

To this day, Latin is considered a "dead language"--no one's native tongue. Traces of Latin still remain in our more complicated vocabulary, and phrases are often directly incorporated into law jargon (such as ad hominem and habeas corpus), and used as mottoes for families, nations, and universities (E pluribus unum, crescat scientia vita excolatur). Latin is used extensively in the field of taxonomy. Latin enthusiasts also work to keep Latin up-to-date by using classical methods of Latin word formation to create Latin neologisms for modern conveniences (such as interrete for the Internet, telephonum for telephone, and tostrum for toaster).