PLURAL a fixed place, and the displacements of the Indo-European movable accent, of which some traces are found in Greek, have entirely disap peared in Latin. Moreover, the Indo-European variation of the quality or quantity of stem vowels, a phenomenon called ablaut or vowel gradation, which is not preserved intact in any one language, leaves but few traces in Latin. The Indo-European noun was composed of a stem, to which was added an ending which, concurrently with the vocalic variations of the stem, marked at once the number, gender and case. Since the vocalic variation of stem was almost entirely eliminated in Latin, Latin declension is to be recognized by the endings. The Latin grammarians laid down five types of declension according to the relation between the nominative and genitive: This distinction is very artificial, although it is always taught. The following paradigm shows the case-endings of the five declensions: 6. The Verb.—The conjugation of the Latin verb depends entirely upon the contra distinction of two stems, that of the present and that of the perfect. Related to the latter is the stem of the verbal adjective in -to-, which serves notably to form the perfect of the passive and of deponents. The contradis tinction did not, at least originally, imply an entirely temporal idea, but merely an action viewed as uncompleted or completed respec tively. Moreover, the two stems were at first independent of one another, but, as the lan guage developed, they were gradually linked to gether (conjungere) as parts of the same sys tem and parallel temporal forms based upon each of the two stems appeared.
In the conjugation of the verb there are two voices: active and passive. The active, indi cates a fact, an action, a state pure and simple. The passive has a double meaning: 1, imper sons], with the meaning of the indefinite sec ond or third person; and 2, a middle-passive, expressing, as in Greek, that the subject is in terested in the action expressed by the verb, often with a reflexive sense. A certain number of verbs of middle or active meaning have only passive endings; these are called deponents.
As regard forms, the conjugation of the verb distinguishes personal and non-personal forms. The former, which are the more important, comprise the tenses and moods provided with personal endings; the latter, declinable or in declinable forms which by their origin and their morphology are attached to the substantive.
Personal forms comprise three moods: in dicative, or mood of reality or affirmation; im perative, which serves to give orders; and sub junctive, or mood of subordination, which marks will and anticipation and in Latin also wish, possibility and condition. Each of the
stems has three tenses in the indicative: present, imperfect or past, and future; the imperative has no past and the subjunctive no future or future perfect. Each of these tenses has two numbers: singular and plural; there is no dual. Each of these numbers has three persons: first, second and. third (except the imperative which has not the first).
Non-personal forms compsise: a, verbal substantives: infinitive (present and perfect in the two voices), gerund and supine which form a sort of declension of the active infinitive; and b, verbal adjectives: participles (present and future active, perfect and future passive).
Latin has not merely one conjugation, but it is difficult to find a satisfying classification. The distinction into four conjugations, imagined by le Latin grammarians and still in use in the teaching of Latin, takes into account only the present and even here unites two different formations. In the perfect it is even altogether improper. But the division into thematic and non-thematic or athematic verbs is equally un satisfactory. The four conjugations now gen erally adopted in teaching are those whose stem ends in -a (first conjugation), -e (second con jugation) and -i (fourth conjugation), together with the third conjugation which includes, among others, all those verbs whose stem ends in a consonant and requires a thematic vowel to join it to the personal or tense endings. There are quite a few verbs which do not fit into these artificial categories, such as sum (9 am"), volo (9 wish"), fero bear"), etc.
The personal endings of all the tenses (in dicative and subjunctive) in the active voice except the perfect indicative are: Person. Singular. Plural.
1 or -m -mus 2 3 4 -nt The personal endings of all the tenses (indica tive and subjunctive) of the present stem in the passive and in deponents are: Person. Singular. Plural.
1 -r 2 -ris or -re 3 -tur -ntur The personal endings of the perfect indicative tense in the active are: Person. Singular. Plural.
1 -1 -imus 2 -isti -istis 3 -it -grunt, The personal endings of the tenses (indicative and subjunctive) of the perfect stem in the passive and in deponents are formed by the narticiole and the auxiliary verb.