the personal pronouns in Latin; the formation of īdem, eadem ..., Lecture notes of Latin

Download the personal pronouns in Latin; the formation of īdem, eadem ... and more Lecture notes Latin in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Chapter 11: Pronouns Chapter 11 covers the following: the personal pronouns in Latin; the formation of īdem, eadem, idem, meaning “the same”; and as usual at the end of the lesson we’ll review the vocabulary which you should memorize in this chapter. But before we begin, a brief warning: this chapter requires a great deal of memorization. Many of the forms you’ll learn here are irregular, or at least, they may seem to be at first. However, there are in fact patterns underlying many of the apparent irregularities and, wherever these patterns exist, I’ll point them out to help you in your memorizing. But the sad fact is, you’ll need to spend a good deal of time studying and memorizing these important and common pronoun forms. Get to work now. You’ve been warned. Personal Pronouns. “Personal” in grammar means “relating to person,” that is, first, second, or third person. In English, those persons are represented by pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, and so on. These are forms we’ve already studied in relation to verbs. Now we’ll look at them independently as pronouns. In other words, what we’re studying in this chapter is how Latin treats these forms, not as verb endings but as nouns, the way they decline through cases as nouns do in Latin. Or to put it another way, remember how we studied that “boy” in Latin goes puer, nominative singular (subject); pueri, genitive singular, “of the boy;” puero, dative singular, “to/for the boy.” You do remember that, right? I’m going to pretend you said yes. Now we’re going to study the Latin equivalent of the pronoun “I” and its comrades do the same ─ in other words, the way Latin says: nominative “I,” genitive “of me,” dative “to me,” and so on; and its second-person counterpart: “you,” “of you,” “to you;” and the third person: “he,” “she,” “it,” “his,” “hers,” “its,” and so on, along with their plural counterparts. So let’s get to it. And no better place to begin than with what’s most important in the world: me! I mean, of course, the first-person singular pronoun. With that introduction, it should come as no surprise that the Latin first-person singular pronoun begins ego. It’s where we get the word “ego.” Let’s decline this pronoun together. Here it is: ego, mei, mihi, me, me. Let’s say it again: ego, mei, mihi, me, me. And to the right on the diagram is its second-person comrade. Let’s say that together too: tu, tui, tibi, te, te. Let’s now say them both: ego, mei, mihi, me, me, tu, tui, tibi, te, te. Keep saying these until you’ve memorized them or your tongue is bleeding, or both. And here is the translation of these forms: ego means “I” as subject, mei “of me,” mihi “to/for me,” me “me” as direct object, me “me” as the object of a preposition. The same holds true for the second person singular tu, so no need to belabor that translation. I think you get the point. But I bet you’re wondering ─ or at least I hope you are ─ why Latin would have a nominative singular for “I” and “you” at all. Aren’t those pronouns embedded in the verb? Why would you need to say ego, when amo and video by their very nature indicate first person singular? Good question! And the answer is these pronoun forms like ego and tu are emphatic. In other words, they’re used to emphasize the subject, not explain what the subject is the way nominative personal pronouns function in English. In English we have to say “we” if we want to indicate that “we” is the subject. But that same information is embedded in every Latin finite verb. So the Romans didn’t use their nominative personal pronouns to explain what the subject is; rather, they used them to emphasize it. For instance, if we said in Latin tune amas? “Are you in love?” In this 2 case, the Latin speaker would be emphasizing the subject, “you,” by including the Latin nominative personal pronoun tu. I can’t leave ego and tu without talking a little linguistics. If linguistics bores you, stick your fingers in your ears for the next two minutes. Because personal pronouns are commonly used forms in Indo-European languages, they reveal some interesting features of the evolution of those daughter languages which developed out of the mother tongue that Latin and English share: Proto-Indo-European. Originally, the Latin word ego and the English word “I” were the same word. Both evolved from a form that looked like ego ─ so Latin actually changed the form of this pronoun very little ─ but in English the inherited -g- transformed at some point into a /kh/ sound. This ended up as a form that sounded like /ik/ which is still the Dutch word for “I,” cf. German ich. English eventually dropped the -k-, lengthened the i-, and we ended up with our first-person singular personal pronoun. The same interchange between -c- and -g- can be seen in our word “cold” and the Latin word gelidus, both from an Indo-European base that means “frozen.” Also, English “kin” and Latin gens come from a single Indo-European word that meant “family.” A comparable pattern of change explains tu in Latin and “thou,” the archaic English form of “you.” Indo-European t- remained as t- in Latin, but in English it evolved into th- ─ thus, tu and “thou.” They were once the same word. You can see the same pattern in the word for “mother:” Latin has mater, English has “mother.” Likewise, the word for “tooth,” where Latin has dentes, English has “teeth.” Linguistics break over. You can take your fingers out of your ears. Let’s return to the declension of ego and tu. Their genitive singular forms, mei and tui, show the same -i ending seen in second declension. No -ius here. These are personal pronouns, not demonstratives. And these genitive forms of the personal pronouns will have a characteristic that may seem very odd to you: they do not show possession. The personal possessive adjectives meus and tuus perform that function. So there’s no need to have another way of saying “belonging to me” or “belonging to you” other than meus and tuus, “my” and “your.” So then, you’re probably saying to yourself, “If these forms don’t show possession, how are genitive forms like mei and tui used?” Well, possession is not the only use of the genitive. There are other uses, for instance, an objective genitive. For example, “love of me” ─ it’s called objective because the genitive operates as the implicit object of the verbal sense inside the noun ─ “Love of me” implies “Someone loves me.” Another use of the genitive that doesn’t show possession is the partitive genitive, as in “some part of me.” Wheelock discusses both on page 50, footnote 4. Was that too much? I have the sense I’ve lost some of you. And I don’t want to threaten your love of Latin by throwing too much grammar at you too fast. If that’s the case, sorry. If you got what I just said about objective and partitive genitives, great! But if not, don’t panic. You’re not responsible for knowing these uses of the genitive right now. Those are dragons we’ll slay when we get to a different dungeon. Returning to the declension of ego and tu, the dative case forms are mihi and tibi ─ not much I can do to help you memorize those other than to point out they look like each other. Sorry. Memorize them. At least the last two forms won’t be that complicated. Me and te are the accusative and ablative forms of these pronouns. Me ─ come on ─ looks like “me.” And te, well you’re just going to have to memorize that one. 5 runs into -dem and contracts to īdem. When the neuter nominative singular id does the same, it contracts to idem. Thus the long mark on the i- in īdem, the masculine nominative singular form is mandatory. The accusative singular features another irregularity caused by appending -dem to the end of is, ea, id. Attaching -dem to the end of eum, the accusative singular masculine form of is, ea, id, produces a consonant cluster -md- which will almost always change to the more pronounceable -nd-. The same will happen in the accusative singular feminine where *eamdem will turn into eandem. As expected, there’s another mandatory long mark here: the ablative singular feminine eādem which distinguishes this form from the nominative singular feminine. And well, let’s look at the plural. Do you see a form that looks like the ablative singular but doesn’t have a long mark on the -a-? That’s right, the neuter nominative and accusative plural. No need to recite them. There are no real surprises here except for one minor irregularity in the genitive plural: *eorumdem will become eorundem for the same reason that the accusative singular is affected. The genitive plural feminine *earumdem will become earundem. And just to prove how hard it is to say *earumdem, I had to record it six times, make that seven, before I got it right ─ or wrong ─ depending on your perspective. You try it. It’s really hard to make your mouth go -md- but I do it out of love for my students. And here’s something else I do out of love for my students: I make you review the pronoun forms we just covered. Let’s take a little test. Remember, tests are the way teachers say they love their students and there’ll be a whole section of love like this on the second test. Here’s how love works: I’m going to give you an English sentence with a word highlighted in red. Together we’ll work out what would be the Latin for that word. During any of this review feel free to pause the presentation to look up forms and think about what the answer should be. Here’s the first sentence: “She gave me everything I needed.” That’s first person singular. What pronoun does Latin use for the first person singular? Ego. And how is “me” functioning in that sentence? The indirect object. What case is the indirect object in Latin? Dative. Therefore the correct form of the pronoun would be mihi. Next sentence: “The author of this book is right here.” In this case, let’s use hic, haec, hoc. The first question you should ask yourself is: is “this” functioning as a pronoun or an adjective? In other words, does “this” have something to modify? It does: “book.” Therefore hic, haec, hoc will get its number, gender and case from “book.” What case and number would “book” be if this sentence were Latin? Genitive singular. And what gender is the word “book” in Latin? Liber, libri, m. Therefore the correct form of hic, haec, hoc is huius. Next sentence: “Everyone admires her.” Let’s use is, ea, id. What number and gender is “her”? Feminine singular. That should be obvious. How is “her” functioning in the sentence? It’s the direct object. What case is the direct object in Latin? Accusative. So what is the accusative singular feminine of is, ea, id? Eam. Next sentence: “Everyone admires her courage.” “Her” again, and we’ll use is, ea, id again too but notice that here “her” is functioning in a very different way: it shows possession. What case in Latin shows possession? That’s right: the genitive. And “her” is again what gender and number? Feminine singular. But this sentence involves an important rule you should remember: 6 that to show possession with first- or second-person personal pronouns Latin uses meus, tuus, noster, vester, but there is no such personal possessive adjective for regular third-person pronouns. You have to use the genitive of one of the demonstrative forms. So what is the genitive singular feminine of is, ea, id? Eius. Don’t forget that archaic genitive singular ending - ius which shows up in the declension of a number of demonstrative forms. Next sentence: “Did these gifts come from y’all?” What’s the second-person plural personal pronoun? Vos. “From” indicates what case in Latin? Ablative. “You” would be the object of the preposition ex or ab or de. They all take the ablative. So what is the ablative form of vos? Vos, vestrum, vobis, vos… vobis. Next sentence: “Nothing excuses that.” “That” sounds pretty negative to me. Let’s go with iste, ista, istud. Is “that” singular or plural? Singular. And what gender is “that”? Neuter. How does it function in its sentence? It’s the direct object. So it should be what case? Accusative. What’s the accusative singular neuter of iste, ista, istud? That’s right: istud. Neuter nominatives and accusatives are always the same. Next sentence: “You and I have the same character.” What’s the Latin word for “same”? Īdem, eadem, idem. Is īdem serving here as a substantive or a regular adjective? In other words, does it have something to modify? It does: “character.” So it’s a regular adjective. What’s the Latin word for “character”? Good: mores, morum, the plural of mos, moris. How is “character” functioning in the sentence? It’s the direct object. So what case will it be? Accusative. And what gender is the word mos? Mos, moris, m. So what is the accusative plural masculine of īdem, eadem, idem? Eosdem. Next sentence: “Both guys love the same woman.” What’s the Latin word for “same”? Īdem, eadem, idem. Is “same” functioning as a substantive here? Yes: since an adjective in the feminine gender implies the word “woman” you don’t need a noun here, you simply use the feminine gender. And what number is “woman”? Singular. How is “the same woman” functioning in the sentence? It’s the direct object. So what case will it be in Latin? Accusative. So what is the accusative singular feminine of īdem, eadem, idem? Eandem. Next sentence: “The needs of another person are not your sons’ responsibility.” What is the Latin word for “another”? Alius, alia, aliud. What part of speech is “another” in this sentence? That is, is it a noun? A verb? It’s an adjective. Does it have a noun to modify? Or is it a substantive? It does have a noun to modify: “person.” So it’s a regular adjective not a substantive. That means we’ll have to diagnose the grammar of the equivalent noun in Latin for “person” ─ the same thing we did with “this book” and “same character.” Let’s start with case. How is “person” functioning in this sentence? “Of another person.” It shows possession. What case should it be in? The genitive. Is person singular or plural? It’s singular. To know the gender of the word you have to know the Latin vocabulary item. What’s the Latin word for person ─ the term the Romans used when they wanted to say “human being” without making reference to a specific gender? “Human being,” hint, hint. That’s right: homo, hominis. What gender? Masculine. So what is the genitive singular masculine of alius? Alterius. It’s irregular because the Romans didn’t like to say *aliius, remember? 7 Let’s stay on the same sentence but look at a different word: “your,” and let’s assume the “you” is plural. What Latin word would you use to say “belonging to you all”? Remember the rule: in the first and second person you use a possessive adjective like meus or tuus. What is the possessive adjective for the second person plural? That’s right: vester, vestra, vestrum. So, as an adjective, it’s either a substantive or it’s got a noun to modify. Which is it? The latter. It has a noun to modify: “sons’.” How is “sons’” functioning in this sentence? What does s’ mean in English? Good: a plural possessive. “Sons” are obviously masculine so what number gender and case should the adjective be in order to agree with “sons’”? That’s right: genitive plural masculine. So what’s the genitive plural masculine form of vester? Remember: it contracts. Good: vestrorum. Last sentence, a short but sneaky one: “Only one of us agrees with you.” What is the Latin word for “one”? Unus, -a, -um. What number and gender is “one”? “One” is obviously singular and because you can’t tell the gender of “one” you use common gender, that is, masculine. How does “one” function in this sentence? It’s the subject. So what case will it be? Nominative. So what is the nominative singular masculine of unus? Duh, unus! Even from this side of the microphone I could hear you got that one. Staying with the same sentence, “of us.” What is the Latin word for “us,” that is, “we”? Nos. English “of” is equivalent to what case in Latin? Genitive. In this case, what kind of a genitive? Does this genitive show possession? Could you say “our” instead of “us”? “Our some” like “our house”? No, that would make no sense. Is it an objective genitive? In the same way “love of us” implies “someone loves us,” could you say “some of us” implies “someone summing us”? No, that makes even less sense. So is it a partitive genitive? Does “some of us” refer to only “a part of us”? Why, yes it does. That makes sense. What is the partitive genitive form of nos? Nostrum. Noster is the adjective, nostri is the objective genitive. Here you must have nostrum. One last word: “with you.” What’s the Latin word for “you,” let’s say singular? Tu. English “with” is the equivalent of what case in Latin? Ablative. And what preposition means “with” in Latin? Cum. So what’s the ablative form of tu? Te. Cum te, right? Wrong. Remember that this preposition acts like a post-positive when its object is a personal pronoun in the first or second person. The correct answer is tecum. That’s enough pronoun torture for a while. I have to stop now. If I whip you too long, it aggravates the bursitis in my wrist. And that’s it. That’s the… no, it’s not the end. Wait… We haven’t done the vocabulary. How long is this chapter going to go on? It’s like Dracula. It just won’t die. Okay, use your happy voice. Now let’s look at the vocabulary for Chapter 11. My, oh my, would you look at that? There’s some good news. We’ve already done most of the vocabulary in Chapter 11 like ego, tu, is, īdem, no need to go on and on about them. We already did. The next word, nemo, another pronoun meaning “no one” or “nobody” has an irregular declension. Here it is: the nominative is nemo; the genitive is nullius, clearly borrowing its