Classical Languages - Latin - Foundations

Foundations

This page covers what a reader needs before the first paradigm: how classical Latin is written and pronounced, how its syllables and accent work, and the principle on which the whole language is built, inflection. Detail on each form is deferred to the Morphology pages; this page gives only the frame.

Alphabet and pronunciation

The alphabet

The classical alphabet has 23 letters:

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z

• K is rare and survives mainly in a few words such as Kalendae.
• Y and Z were added in the first century BC to write Greek loanwords.
• J, U and W do not belong to the classical alphabet. The Romans used I both as a vowel and as a consonant, and V both as a vowel (u) and as a consonant (w). Modern editions differ in how they represent this. This site writes the vowel as u, the consonant as v, and uses i for both the vowel and the consonant, never j.
• Inscriptions were cut in capitals only. Lower case, punctuation and word spacing are later conventions.

Which pronunciation?

This site uses the restored classical pronunciation: the sounds scholars reconstruct for educated speech of the late Republic and early Empire (see W. Sidney Allen, Vox Latina). It is the pronunciation that matches the language of Caesar, Cicero and Vergil. Ecclesiastical (Italianate) pronunciation, with its soft c and g, is a later development and is outside the scope of this section.

Vowels

Every vowel is either long or short. Length changes the duration of the sound, and in careful speech its quality as well. A long vowel is marked in this grammar with a macron.

Letter	Long	Short
a	ā as in father	ă the same sound, shorter, as in Italian casa
e	ē as in French été, without a glide	ĕ as in pet
i	ī as in machine	ĭ as in pit
o	ō as in German so, without a glide	ŏ as in pot
u	ū as in rule	ŭ as in put
y	like French u or German ü (Greek words only)

Every vowel is sounded. A final -e is never silent: mare has two syllables, ma-re.

Diphthongs

Spelling	Sound
ae	as ai in aisle
au	as ow in how
oe	as oy in boy

The diphthongs ei, eu and ui are rare (cui, huic, heu).

Consonants

Most consonants are as in English. The points that differ:

Letter	Sound	Example
c	always as k, never soft	Cicerō = Kikero
g	always hard, as in get	gēns
gn	probably ngn	magnus
h	a light breath, as in hat	homō
i (consonant)	as y in yes	iam, Iūlius
v	as English w	vīvō = weewoh
qu	as kw	quis
gu, su before a vowel	gw, sw in some words	lingua, suāvis
s	always voiceless, as in sit, never z	rosa
r	trilled	rēx
x	as ks	dux
ti before a vowel	always t + i, never sh	nātiō = na-ti-o
b before s or t	as p	urbs = urps
ch, ph, th	k, p, t followed by a breath of h, not f or English th (Greek words)	philosophia

Double consonants are pronounced double. In anna the n is held for twice the usual length: an-na, not a-na. This matters for syllable length (see the next section).

Authentic example

Vēnī, vīdī, vīcī.

I came, I saw, I conquered. (Caesar's report after Zela, as given by Suetonius)

Restored pronunciation: WAY-nee, WEE-dee, WEE-kee. Compare the Italianate VEH-nee, VEE-dee, VEE-chee.

Common pitfalls

• Pronouncing c before e or i as s or ch (Caesar is KAI-sar).
• Pronouncing v as English v.
• Pronouncing ae as ay or ee.
• Pronouncing -tiō as -shio.
• Silencing a final -e.

Vowel quantity, syllables, accent

Quantity

Quantity is the length of a vowel or syllable. It is not decoration: it distinguishes words and forms.

Short	Long
mălum evil, misfortune	mālum apple
lĭber book	līber free
ŏs bone	ōs mouth
venit he comes	vēnit he came

Macrons are a modern editorial device, not part of Roman spelling. Dictionaries mark them. In this grammar a vowel without a macron is short.

Long by nature and long by position. These are different things:

• A vowel is long by nature when it is inherently long (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) or part of a diphthong.
• A syllable is long by position when its short vowel is followed by two consonants (or x or z). The vowel itself remains short and is not marked with a macron. In mon-strum, the syllable mon is long, but the o is short.

Rules of thumb for vowel quantity

• A vowel before another vowel (or h) is short: deus, via, nihil. There are exceptions, such as fīō and the genitive diēī.
• A vowel before ns or nf is long: cōnsul, īnferō.
• A diphthong is always long.
• Otherwise quantity must be learned from the dictionary together with the word.

Syllables

A Latin word has as many syllables as it has vowels or diphthongs. Division follows these rules:

1. A single consonant between vowels goes with the following vowel: pa-ter, ho-mo, vi-a.
2. Two or more consonants are divided so that the last one goes with the next syllable: mag-nus, ter-ra, mon-strum.
3. A stop followed by l or r (bl, br, cl, cr, dr, gr, pl, pr, tr) generally stays together with the next vowel: pa-trem, ce-le-bris.
4. Compounds are divided at the join: ab-est, ad-eō.

The last three syllables of a word have names: the ultima (last), the penult (second to last) and the antepenult (third to last).

Accent

The rule of accent depends entirely on the penult:

1. Two-syllable words are accented on the first syllable: PA-ter, RO-sa.
2. Longer words are accented on the penult if it is long (by nature or by position): a-MĪ-cus, fi-DĒ-lis, per-FEC-tus.
3. Otherwise on the antepenult: DO-mi-nus, HO-mi-nis.
4. The accent never falls on the ultima (apart from rare exceptions).

Enclitics (-que, -ne, -ve) are attached to the preceding word, and the accent moves to the syllable before them: vi-RUM-que, not VI-rum-que.

The accent is marked in neither Roman texts nor modern editions. Scholars debate whether it was mainly a pitch or a stress accent. A moderate stress on the accented syllable is a safe working choice. Note that Latin verse metre depends on quantity, not accent, which is why quantity is learned first.

Worked example

Caesar, Gallic War 1.1:

Gallia est omnis dīvīsa in partēs trēs.

All Gaul is divided into three parts.

Word	Syllables	Accent
Gallia	Gal-li-a	GAL-li-a (penult li is short, a vowel before a vowel)
omnis	om-nis	OM-nis (two syllables)
dīvīsa	dī-vī-sa	dī-VĪ-sa (penult long by nature)
partēs	par-tēs	PAR-tēs (two syllables)
trēs	trēs	one syllable

Common pitfalls

• Accenting by the English pattern rather than by the penult rule.
• Treating accent and quantity as the same thing (a long vowel is not necessarily accented).
• Ignoring double consonants (anna, terra, Gallia).
• Assuming a vowel is long because its syllable is long by position.

Parts of speech and inflection

The parts of speech

Traditional Latin grammar recognises eight parts of speech:

Part	Inflected?	Notes
Noun	declined	names a person, place, thing or idea
Pronoun	declined	stands in for a noun
Adjective	declined	describes a noun and agrees with it
Verb	conjugated	action or state
Adverb	no	modifies a verb, adjective or adverb
Preposition	no	governs a case
Conjunction	no	joins words or clauses
Interjection	no	exclamation

Latin has no articles. Rēx may mean king, a king or the king; context decides.

The principle of inflection

English tells you who does what by word order: Brutus loves Caesar is not Caesar loves Brutus. Latin tells you by endings:

Brūtus Caesarem amat.

Caesarem Brūtus amat.

Amat Brūtus Caesarem.

All three mean Brutus loves Caesar, because Brūtus (nominative) is the subject and Caesarem (accusative) is the object, wherever they stand. To say Caesar loves Brutus, the endings change: Brūtum Caesar amat.

A Latin word is built from a stem, which carries the meaning, and an ending, which carries the grammar. Word order is therefore free and is used for emphasis and style, not for grammar. (The usual unmarked order places the verb at the end of the clause; see Syntax.)

Declension: nouns, pronouns, adjectives

Nouns, pronouns and adjectives change their endings according to three categories:

• Case, the function in the sentence:

  Case	Basic function
  Nominative	subject
  Genitive	possession, of
  Dative	indirect object, to or for
  Accusative	direct object
  Ablative	means, separation, by, with, from
  Vocative	direct address

  A remnant of a seventh, the locative, survives for place (Rōmae, at Rome).

• Number: singular or plural.

• Gender: masculine, feminine or neuter.

Nouns belong to one of five declensions, each with its own set of endings. Full treatment is on the Nouns page.

Conjugation: verbs

A verb changes its ending to show:

• Person and number (first, second or third; singular or plural),
• Tense (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect, future perfect),
• Voice (active or passive),
• Mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative).

Besides these finite forms there are non-finite forms: infinitives, participles, gerund, gerundive and supine. Verbs belong to one of four conjugations. As a first illustration, the present active of amō shows the personal endings:

	Singular	Plural
1st	amō	amāmus
2nd	amās	amātis
3rd	amat	amant

Dictionary forms

Latin words are listed in dictionaries by fixed forms, which you must learn together:

• Nouns: nominative, genitive, gender. rēx, rēgis, m. (king)
• Verbs: four principal parts. amō, amāre, amāvī, amātum (to love)

The nominative and genitive reveal a noun's declension and stem; the principal parts reveal a verb's conjugation and most of its forms.

Common pitfalls

• Reading a Latin sentence in English word order instead of identifying the endings first.
• Forgetting that one ending can have several jobs: -ae can be genitive singular, dative singular or nominative plural. Context and the rest of the sentence resolve this.
• Looking for articles.
• Confusing case (the function of a noun) with tense or mood (features of verbs).

Self-test

1. Mark the long and short syllables and the accent of: amīcus, dominus, perfectus, virumque.
2. How do lĭber and līber differ?
3. Explain why the syllable mon in monstrum is long even though its vowel is short.
4. Which of the six cases would you expect for the subject of a sentence? For a direct object?
5. What are the endings of the present active of amō in the third person, singular and plural?
6. Why do Brūtum Caesar amat and Caesar Brūtum amat mean the same thing?

Answers

1. a-MĪ-cus (penult long by nature); DO-mi-nus (penult short, accent on antepenult); per-FEC-tus (penult long by position); vi-RUM-que (accent shifts before the enclitic).
2. Lĭber means book and līber means free; length distinguishes the words.
3. The syllable is long by position: the short o is followed by two consonants (n and s).
4. Nominative; accusative.
5. -t (singular) and -nt (plural): amat, amant.
6. The endings, not the position, mark the roles: Brūtum is accusative (object) and Caesar is nominative (subject) in both.

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