The Latin Legacy

317

I
II
in

SING
PLUR
SING
PLUR
SING
PLUR

NOM
rosa
rosae
dommus
dommi
dux
\

(rose)

(master)

(leader)
> duces

ACC
rosam
rosas
dominum
dominos
ducem
}

IV
V

SING
PLUR
SING
PLUR

NOM ACC
fructus (fruit)
fructvm
> fructus
dies diem
>• dies

canum (of the dogs), dentium (of the teeth) Words of the same class with
identical endings may suffer other modifications, as shown in the
following list

NOMINATIVE
GENITIVE
NOMINATIVE
GENITIVE

SING
SING
SING
SING

lex (law)
legis
miles (soldier)
imhtis

judex (judge)
judtcis
pulvu (dust)
pulvens

conjux (husband)
conjugis
tempus (ume)
tempons

nox (night)
noctis
opus (work)
opens

pes (foot)
pedis
sermo (speech)
sennoms

There are still classical scholars who speak of Latin as an "orderly"
or "logical" language Professor E P Morris is much nearer to the
truth when he writes (Principles and Methods in Latin Syntax}.
"The impression of system comes, no doubt, from the way in which
we learn the facts of inflexion For the purposes of teaching, the gram-
mars very properly emphasize as much as possible such measure of
system as Latin inflexion permits, producing at the beginning of one's
acquaintance with Latin the impression of a series of graded forms and
meanings covering most accurately and completely the whole range of
expression But it is obvious that this is a false impression, and so far as
we retain it we are building up a wrong foundation Neither the forms
nor the meanings are systematic A glance at the facts of Latin
morphology as they are preserved in any full Latin grammar, or in