12/31/92

CHAPTER 3

"Second Declension; Masculine Nouns and Adjectives;
Word Order"


THE SECOND DECLENSION

A declension is a pattern of endings for the different cases and
numbers which a noun falls through.  Latin has five declension,
though the great majority of nouns fall into the first three.  In
this chapter, you'll learn one part of the second declension.
(You'll get the other part of the second declension in Chapter 4.)
Let's look again at a paradigm for the first declension endings and
compare them to endings of the second declension.  Decline the noun
"puella, -ae (f)".

              puella, -ae (f)           amicus, -i (m)

     Nom.     _______________              amicus

     Gen.     _______________              amici

     Dat.     _______________              amico

     Acc.     _______________              amicum

     Abl.     _______________              amico

     Voc.     _______________              amice


     N/V.     _______________              amici

     Gen.     _______________              amicorum

     Dat.     _______________              amicis

     Acc.     _______________              amicos

     Abl.     _______________              amicis

As you can plainly see, "-a-" is the dominant vowel of the first
declension.  With the exception of the dative and ablative plural,
all the case endings have an "-a-" in them.  Now let's compare the
first declension with the second.  Although it's a little more
difficult to see in places, the dominant vowel of the second
declension is "-o-".  Once you see this difference between the
first and second declension, you can detect some of the
similarities.

     (1)   the accusative singular of both declensions adds "-m" to
           the thematic vowel: "-am" and "-um" (originally "-om").
     (2)   the ablative singular is just the long thematic vowel:
           "-a-" and "-o-".
     (3)   the genitive plural is the ending "-rum" added to the
           thematic vowel: "-arum" and "-orum".
     (5)   the dative and ablative plural are formed alike:

           First Declension:    "a-" + "-is" = "-ais" = "-is"
           Second Declension:   "o-" + "-is" = "-ois" = "-is"

     (6)   the accusative plural in both declensions is the thematic
           vowel + "-s:" "-as" and "-os".

     So let's set out the cases endings for the second declension:

                 SINGULAR                     PLURAL

     Nom.  ____________________        ____________________

     Gen.  ____________________        ____________________

     Dat.  ____________________        ____________________

     Acc.  ____________________        ____________________

     Abl.  ____________________        ____________________

     Voc.  ____________________        ____________________



2ND DECLENSION NOUNS IN -ER AND -IR; STEM CHANGES

As I said, this is the basic pattern of endings for nouns of the
second declension, and all second declension nouns will basically
use these endings.  There are second declension nouns, however,
which do not follow this pattern precisely, but which use slight
variations of it.  To begin with, not all second declension nouns
end in "-us" in the nominative singular.  Some end in "-er" and one
common noun ends in "-ir".  So go back to the blank for the
nominative singular and add the variant nominative endings "-er"
and "-ir".

Let's have a look at a second declension noun that ends in "-er" in
the nominative singular: "puer, -i (m)" (boy).  Just to review, how
do you know that this noun belongs to the second declension?  The
answer is the genitive singular ending listed as the second entry.
It's "-i", the genitive singular ending of the second declension.
So what will the form of "puer" be in the genitive singular?
That's easy too. It'll be "pueri", (stem + "-i).  Now let's decline
"puer" through all its cases in both numbers.

                       SINGULAR                        PLURAL

     Nom.        ____________________           ____________________

     Gen.        ____________________           ____________________

     Dat.        ____________________           ____________________

     Acc.        ____________________           ____________________

     Abl.        ____________________           ____________________

     Voc.        ____________________           ____________________

     Let's try another second declension noun which ends in "-er"
in the nominative singular: "ager, agri (m)" (field).  The
nominative is the "-er" type you saw in "puer", but look at the
genitive singular.  Instead of just giving you an abbreviation for
the genitive singular ending -- "-i" -- the dictionary is telling
you something more.  Here you have a full form, "agri", for the
genitive entry of the noun.  The case ending obviously is "-i", so
the noun belongs to second declension.  If you take off the
genitive singular ending "-i" you're left with "agr-", and what's
that?

     We need to pause here and refine what we mean by a "stem" of
a noun.  As you probably recall, the stem of a noun is the basic
form of the noun to which you then add the case endings.  But
despite the attractive notion that the "stem" of a noun is the
nominative singular minus the case ending, a stem of a noun is
really the form which is the root of all cases except the
nominative singular.  This is not to say that the nominative
singular will never be the true stem of the word.  In some
declensions it is.  But not always.  Look at "ager" again.  The
stem of the word is found not by looking at the nominative entry,
but by dropping the genitive singular ending from "agri", leaving
"agr-".  So the true stem of this word is "agr-", not "ager-".
Hence we say that "ager" is a stem changing noun, or that it has a
stem change.  This is because the stem is not apparent in the
nominative entry.  Let's decline "ager, agri (m)".  Remember, the
stem is "agr-":

                       SINGULAR                        PLURAL

     N/V.        ____________________           ____________________

     Gen.        ____________________           ____________________

     Dat.        ____________________           ____________________

     Acc.        ____________________           ____________________

     Abl.        ____________________           ____________________

     Can you see now why it's important that a dictionary begin to
decline the noun for you by giving you the genitive singular?  If
you weren't given "agri", after "ager", you wouldn't know the
declension of the noun, nor would you know that "ager-" is not the
true stem.  If a noun is not a stem-changing noun, then the
dictionary will simply put the genitive ending in the second entry.
But if it's a stem changing noun, the dictionary must indicate
that.  Examine the following nouns and see how the dictionary
conveys the necessary information.

           ENTRY                STEM           MEANING

           gener, -i (m)        gener-         son-in-law
           magister, -tri (m)   magistr-       teacher
           socer, -i (m)        socer-         father-in-law
           liber, -bri (m)      libr-          book
           vesper, -i (m)       vesper-        evening
           signifer, -i (m)     signifer-      standard bearer

     The noun "vir, -i (m)" represents another class of second
declension nominative singular endings.  Is there a stem change
indicated in the genitive singular?  No, there isn't, so it behaves
just like "puer".  Decline it.

                       SINGULAR                        PLURAL

     N/V.        ____________________           ____________________

     Gen.        ____________________           ____________________

     Dat.        ____________________           ____________________

     Acc.        ____________________           ____________________

     Abl.        ____________________           ____________________


NOUNS ENDING IN -IUS

Nouns whose stem ends in an "-i-" need a closer look. "Filius, -ii
(m)" is a second declension noun and the stem is "fili-" ("filius"
minus the "-i" of the genitive singular).  But the second entry has
an extra "-i".  What's that all about?  Don't be disturbed.  Often
when a stem ends in an "-i-" the dictionary likes to reassure you
that despite its odd appearance, the genitive singular form really
ends with two "i's": "filii".  Similarly, the dative and ablative
plurals: "filiis".  It may look odd, but there was a noticeable
difference in the way the two "i's" would have been pronounced.
The first is short, the second is long, so "filii", would have be
pronounced "FEE leh ee".  But in fact even the Romans weren't very
comfortable with this arrangement, and often the "i's" were
simplified to one long "-i-" to "fili" or "filis".  To be
consistent, Wheelock always uses the double "i".

     In the vocative singular, however, the "i" at the end of the
stem does cause a change.  "Filius" is an "-us" ending second
declension noun so the vocative singular should be "filie".  But
short "i" and short "e" are so similar in sound that some
simplification was inevitable.  The final form is not "filie" but
"fili".  So also in the name "Virgilius": not "Virgilie", but
"Virgili".  Decline "filius, -ii (m)".

                       SINGULAR                        PLURAL

     Nom.        ____________________           ____________________

     Gen.        ____________________           ____________________

     Dat.        ____________________           ____________________

     Acc.        ____________________           ____________________

     Abl.        ____________________           ____________________

     Voc.        ____________________


ADJECTIVES

Let's review for a moment.  You remember that adjectives are words
which qualify nouns, and that an adjective will "agree" with the
noun it modifies.  By "agreeing" we mean that it will have the same
number, gender, and case as the noun it's modifying.  You also know
that an adjective must be able to modify nouns of all three
genders, and that to modify a feminine noun an adjective uses the
case endings from the first declension.  For example, translate and
decline "great wisdom".  "Wisdom" in Latin is "sapientia, -ae (f)",
a feminine noun of the first declension, as you can tell from the
entry.  "Great" is the adjective modifying "wisdom" so it must
agree in number, gender and case with "sapientia".  The stem of the
adjective is "magn-", and the case endings you must use are those
of the first declension, since "sapientia" is feminine.

                                SINGULAR

                     great                     wisdom

           N/V. _______________           _______________

           Gen. _______________           _______________

           Dat. _______________           _______________

           Acc. _______________           _______________

           Abl. _______________           _______________

                                PLURAL

           N/V. _______________           _______________

           Gen. _______________           _______________

           Dat. _______________           _______________

           Acc. _______________           _______________

           Abl. _______________           _______________

     What happens when an adjective needs to modify a masculine
noun?  To modify a masculine noun an adjective uses the case
endings from the second declension.  That's fine and good, but we
have a problem.  Which of the three singular nominative forms of
the second declension do they use: "-us", "-er", or "-ir?"  The
answer is that some adjectives will us "-us" and some will use
"-er".  (None use "-ir".)  All the adjectives we'll be looking at
for the next two chapters use the "-us" ending and decline after
that pattern.  In chapter five you'll get the "-er" type, so I'll
postpone discussion of that kind until then (although there's
nothing really very complicated about it).  Let's suppose you want
to modify the noun "poeta, -ae (m) with adjective for "great?"
Look up "great" in the dictionary and write down what you see.
(Make sure you look it up!  I'll wait right here.)

                great           ______________________________

Now what kind of an entry is this?  The convention for listing an
adjective is different from that for a noun.  The first entry tells
you how an adjective modifies a masculine noun, the second tells
you how it modifies a feminine noun, and the third how it modifies
a neuter noun (and we'll learn about that in the next chapter).  So
let's look at the first entry: "magnus" tells you that the
adjective uses the "-us" type endings from the second declension to
modify a masculine noun; the "-a", which stands for the nominative
singular of the first declension, tells you that it uses first
declension endings to modify feminine nouns; the "-um" tells you
which endings to use for neuter nouns.  Now, how did you find the
stem of "-us" type nouns of the second declension?  Do you
remember?  You simply drop off the "-us" ending, and that's the
stem.  What's the stem of the adjective "magnus, -a, -um?"  I hope
you guessed "magn-".  So an entry like this is a short-hand way of
saying this:

                  MASCULINE       FEMININE         NEUTER

                     -us             -a              -um
                     -i              -ae
                     -o              -ae
                     -um             -am
                     -o              -a
                     -e              -a
     magn-  +
                     -i              -ae
                     -orum           -arum
                     -is             -is
                     -os             -as
                     -is             -is

So decline "great poet".  (WARNING: Remember that agreement means
same number, gender, and case; not form which look alike!)



                 SINGULAR                            PLURAL

           great           poet               great          poets

Nom.   ____________    ____________       ____________
____________

Gen.   ____________    ____________       ____________
____________

Dat.   ____________    ____________       ____________
____________

Acc.   ____________    ____________       ____________
____________

Abl.   ____________    ____________       ____________
____________

Voc.   ____________    ____________       ____________
____________


APPOSITION

Consider this English sentence: "Daniel, my brother, you were older
than me [sic]".  You can easily see that "brother" is giving you
more information about "Daniel"; that is, "brother" is modifying or
qualifying "Daniel".  In this sense, at least, "brother" is acting
like an adjective.  But since "brother" is a noun, not an
adjective, it cannot qualify another noun in quite the same way an
adjective does.  We call this modifying relationship between nouns
"apposition".  We would say "brother" is in "apposition" to
"Daniel".

     In Latin also, nouns can be set in apposition to each other
for modification.  So one noun is modifying another noun --
something like an adjective modifying a noun.  But, obviously a
noun cannot agree with the noun it's modifying the same way an
adjective does.  And why not?  Nouns all have gender inherent in
them, so a noun can never change its gender to a agree in gender
with a noun it's modifying.  But it can agree with the noun it's
modifying in case, and it will.  In Latin, when a noun is in
apposition to another noun, the noun doing the modifying will agree
with the modified noun in case.  "Gaium, meum filium, in agris
video". (I see Gaius, my son, in the fields.)  "Gaium" is
accusative because it's the direct object of the verb "video".
Therefore the word for "son" must also be in the accusative case,
since it's telling us more about Gaius, and Gaius, as the object of
the verb "to see", is in the accusative case.


VOCABULARY PUZZLES

de + abl.; in + abl.      Like English, prepositions in Latin will
                          take the noun they're governing in a case
                          other than the nominative.  We wouldn't
                          say in English "with I" or "to she:" we
                          say "with me" and "to her". But in Latin,
                          some prepositions will have to be
                          followed by the accusative case; others
                          by the ablative case. (And some can be
                          followed by both, though the meaning
                          changes slightly.)  Therefore, whenever
                          you learn a preposition, you must also
                          memorize the case it takes.

pauci, -ae                This is an adjective, but unlike others
                          adjectives, the word for "few" has no
                          singular forms.  (That's logical.)  So
                          the dictionary starts its listing in the
                          nominative plural.  As you can see, the
                          "-i" and the "-ae" endings are the second
                          and first declension nominative plural
                          endings.  So this adjective declines like
                          "magnus, -a, -um" with the exception that
                          it has no singular forms.

meus, -a, [-um]           The adjective means "my", and it agrees
                          with whatever is being owned. The stem is
                          "me-". It has an irregular vocative
                          singular ending.  Instead of "mee", you
                          have "mi".  So it's "mi amice" for "Hey,
                          my friend".

Romanus, -a, [-um]        This is an adjective, but it can be used
                          as a noun.  Like "American".  It's an
                          adjective -- like "American Pie" -- but
                          it can also be used for a person: "she's
                          an American", or "The Americans are
                          coming".  Hence, "Romani" can mean "the
                          Romans", and "Romana" can mean a "Roman
                          woman".  On the other hand, we can also
                          say "Romana patria": "the Roman
                          fatherland"; or "Romani libri": "Roman
                          books".

