PRINCIPLES

OF THE

ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX

OF THE

LATIN LANGUAGE:

UPON THE ANALYTIC PLAN OF ROOT AND ADJUNCI's.

INTRODUCTION.

ALL will agree that he is a good Latin and Greek scholar, who has acquired a knowledge of the roots of all the declinable words in those languages, together with the adjuncts, which can be associated with each radical, and understands their import and use, in giving to the noun, pronoun and adjective, gender, number, and case-and to the verb, voicc, number, person, conjugation, mood, and tense and has acquired a knowledge of the indeclinable parts of speech, with the ability to give every word its true syntax, or relation to the other word or words in the sentence, by which it is, in reality, "constituted a part of speech."

In the following pages, we have endeavored to make such a disposition of some sixty lines of Virgil's Eneid, (and the second chapter of Matthew, from the Greek Testament,) as will combine and illustrate all these principles under one general view, and will guide the learner to a knowledge so desirable.

The ingenious student will find the root (which is sometimes a more remote one than is found in the text), placed in the first column; the definition in the second; while the syntax (showing by what word it is governed, or with what it agrees), occupies the third column; leaving the terminations, pointing out the etymology, to close the line

The root and termination of every declinable word, in the text, are clearly pointed out, by the prefixes and suffixes being printed in Italics, while the root appears in ROMAN SMALL CAPITALS.

Thus we have endeavored to make the rough path easy and inviting to the beginner, at the commencement of his journey; and to invite the man of letters again to revisit those literary fields, and to place in his hands something. that shall recall those juvenile days in classic hall, free from religious intolerance, political villainy, and a cold and heartless world, and to fix the principles of this noble language indelibly upon the mind.

The plan of Latin forms, originated by Mr. GROSVENOR, is a very happy method of disposing of the tedious and prolix declensions and conjugations, which hang like an incu bus over the student, and no doubt will be welcomed by the learner. This Table was published by Mr. Grosvenor, at Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1831. Parts of the Ta ble have been copied into other grammars. CLINTON said, that he who made two blades of grass grow where only one was known to grow before, deserved the everlasting gratitude of his country. And if this be true, surely he who has condensed to a single page the long and cumbrous conjugations, of some sixty or eighty pages, ought to have his memory perpetuated by a monument more lasting than brass or marble—he should live in the hearts of all friends of improvement in literature. We have, in this work, arranged this Table in an improved form, and prepared an original Table of the Greek Verb, which will be found in their proper places. From this arrangement, the student will be able to commence parsing at once, and will find on the same page-yea, in the same line-a Virgil, a Dictionary, and a Grammar, which will present to the eye of the scholar, all that Virgil, Cicero, Tacitus, or Demosthenes could inform him about their mother tongue.

That the person into whose hands this work may fal., may, by a careful and critical examination of the princi ples here laid down, (which are as immutable as the language itself, on which they are grounded.) speedily find himself able to read, write, and speak the language, with the facility and accuracy of a native Roman, or Gre cian is the sincere wish of THE AUTHOR.

LATIN GRAMMAR.

A BRIEF VIEW OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH The Parts of Speech in Latin are eight:

1. Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, and Verb-declined.* 2. Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, and Interjectionundeclined.

vir.

DEFINITIONS

1. A Noun is the name of a person, place, or thing: as,

2. An Adjective expresses the quality or extension of the noun: as, vir bonus.

3. A Pronoun stands for the noun: as, vir qui.

4. A Verb expresses the existence or action of the noun. as, vir est.

5. An Adverb expresses the manner in which the noun exists: as, vir ibi est.

6. A Preposition governs some case of a noun: as, ad

virum.

7. A Conjunction connects words or sentences: as, arma que virum.

8. An Interjection is a virtual sentence: as, heu !

REMARKS

Words are called parts of speech, because they are all referred, either directly or indirectly, to the noun; and, as their existence as a part of speech depends on this relation to the noun, so the case of a noun is merely that correlative relation which the noun and pronoun have to other words

• A declinable word contains a root, and generally one termination;

15. ARM-a. CAN-0.