Chapter 6 Morphology
I. Gender in Nouns - Nouns are an essential part of grammar in all languages and are necessary in all sentences. They make up part of the kernel section of the sentence chart. Nouns only can have one function at a time in a single sentence, but can give us a lot of information, whether they are English nouns or Latin nouns.
A. Semantic Meaning:
Exemplum: navigator means "someone who steers a ship" in English and Latin.
B. Number (i.e. Singular or Plural):
Exemplum: Navigator is a singular noun; navigators (English) or navigatores (Latin) is a plural noun.
C. Gender (i.e. masculine, feminine, or neuter)
Exemplum: Navigator is masculine in Latin, but could be masculine or feminine in English. This is because in Latin, there were no female navigators, so the noun was always masculine.
II. Gender in English Nouns - In English most nouns have natural gender, or logical gender. It makes sense to say that a girl is feminine, a boy is masculine, and a table is neuter.
III. Gender in Latin Nouns - In Latin, some nouns also have natural or logical gender. It is also logical to say that a puella is feminine, and a puer is masculine.
However, unlike in English, some Latin nouns have grammatical gender, which is based on the noun's suffix. A couple examples of Latin nouns that have grammatical gender are pictura and ramus. A pictura is feminine, even though it isn't a girl; a ramus is masculine even though it isn't a boy.
Why? What about a pictura makes it feminine? What about a ramus makes it masculine? It all lies in the suffixes of the nouns. Here are some guidelines to follow when trying to figure out the gender of a SINGULAR Latin noun:
When you see a singular noun ending in.... you know you probably have a....
Here are some guidelines to follow when tring to figure out the gender of a PLURAL Latin noun:
When you see a plural noun ending in.... you know you probably have a....
NB: There are a couple exceptions to every rule. We know four nouns that end in -a, but they are masculine. This is because they have natural or logical gender. The four nouns are:
NB: Almost all of the nouns you will study throughout your time at Decatur will be masculine or feminine. You will not officially learn about neuter nouns until Chapter 15.
IV. Gender and Adjectives - Sometimes you can't determine a noun's gender from its suffix alone. When noun endings become more complicated than -us and -a, you can't just guess to determine gender. In this case, the best way to figure out a noun's gender is to find the ending of an adjective that modifies it. If the adjective ends in -a, the noun it modifies is feminine. If the adjective ends in -us, the noun it modifies is masculine. If the adjective ends in -um, the noun it modifies is neuter. Here are some examples:
A. Semantic Meaning:
Exemplum: navigator means "someone who steers a ship" in English and Latin.
B. Number (i.e. Singular or Plural):
Exemplum: Navigator is a singular noun; navigators (English) or navigatores (Latin) is a plural noun.
C. Gender (i.e. masculine, feminine, or neuter)
Exemplum: Navigator is masculine in Latin, but could be masculine or feminine in English. This is because in Latin, there were no female navigators, so the noun was always masculine.
II. Gender in English Nouns - In English most nouns have natural gender, or logical gender. It makes sense to say that a girl is feminine, a boy is masculine, and a table is neuter.
III. Gender in Latin Nouns - In Latin, some nouns also have natural or logical gender. It is also logical to say that a puella is feminine, and a puer is masculine.
However, unlike in English, some Latin nouns have grammatical gender, which is based on the noun's suffix. A couple examples of Latin nouns that have grammatical gender are pictura and ramus. A pictura is feminine, even though it isn't a girl; a ramus is masculine even though it isn't a boy.
Why? What about a pictura makes it feminine? What about a ramus makes it masculine? It all lies in the suffixes of the nouns. Here are some guidelines to follow when trying to figure out the gender of a SINGULAR Latin noun:
When you see a singular noun ending in.... you know you probably have a....
- -a, -s, or -x feminine noun
- -us masculine noun
- -um (when it is a subject) neuter noun
Here are some guidelines to follow when tring to figure out the gender of a PLURAL Latin noun:
When you see a plural noun ending in.... you know you probably have a....
- -ae or -es feminine noun
- -ī masculine noun
- -a (when it is a subject) neuter noun
NB: There are a couple exceptions to every rule. We know four nouns that end in -a, but they are masculine. This is because they have natural or logical gender. The four nouns are:
- Auriga (charioteer)
- Nauta (sailor)
- Agricola (farmer)
- Poeta (poet)
NB: Almost all of the nouns you will study throughout your time at Decatur will be masculine or feminine. You will not officially learn about neuter nouns until Chapter 15.
IV. Gender and Adjectives - Sometimes you can't determine a noun's gender from its suffix alone. When noun endings become more complicated than -us and -a, you can't just guess to determine gender. In this case, the best way to figure out a noun's gender is to find the ending of an adjective that modifies it. If the adjective ends in -a, the noun it modifies is feminine. If the adjective ends in -us, the noun it modifies is masculine. If the adjective ends in -um, the noun it modifies is neuter. Here are some examples:
- Pater iratus - masculine - angry father
- Mater amata - feminine - beloved mother
- Soror laeta - feminine - happy sister