INFLECTION

Latin is an inflected language.

Inflection is a change made in the form of a word to show its grammatical relations.

Inflectional changes sometimes take place in the body of a word, or at the beginning, but oftener in its termination:—

1. vōx, a voice; vōcis, of a voice; vocō, I call; vocat, he calls; vocet, let him call; vocāvit, he has called; tangit, he touches; tetigit, he touched.

Terminations of inflection had originally independent meanings which are now obscured. They correspond nearly to the use of prepositions, auxiliaries, and personal pronouns in English.

Thus, in vocat, the termination is equivalent to he or she; in vōcis, to the preposition of; and in vocet the change of vowel signifies a change of mood.

Inflectional changes in the body of a verb usually denote relations of tense or mood, and often correspond to the use of auxiliary verbs in English:—

1. frangit, he breaks or is breaking; frēgit, he broke or has broken; mordet, he bites; momordit, he bit.

Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections are not inflected and are called Particles.

The body of a word, to which the terminations are attached, is called the Stem.

The Stem contains the idea of the word without relations; but, except in the first part of a compound (as, arti-fex, artificer), it cannot ordinarily be used without some termination to express them.

Thus the stem vōc- denotes voice; with -s added it becomes vōx, a voice or the voice, as the subject or agent of an action; with -is it becomes vōcis, and signifies of a voice.

A Root is the simplest form attainable by analysis of a word into its component parts.

Such a form contains the main idea of the word in a very general sense, and is common also to other words either in the same language or in kindred languages.

Thus the root of the stem vōc- is voc, which does not mean to call, or I call, or calling, but merely expresses vaguely the idea of calling, and cannot be used as a part of speech without terminations. With ā- it becomes vocā-, the stem of vocāre (to call); with āv- it is the stem of vocāvit (he called); with āto- it becomes the stem of vocātus (called); with ātiōn- it becomes the stem of vocātiōnis (of a calling). With its vowel lengthened it becomes the stem of vōx, vōc-is (a voice: that by which we call). This stem vōc-, with -ālis added, means belonging to a voice; with -ŭla, a little voice.

Roots had long ceased to be recognized as such before the Latin existed as a separate language. Consequently the forms which we assume as Latin roots never really existed in Latin, but are the representatives of forms used carlier.

The Stem may be the same as the root: as in duc-is, of a leader, fer-t, he bears; but it is more frequently formed from the root—

1. By changing or lengthening its vowel: as in scob-s, sawdust (SCAB, shave); rēg-is, of a king (REG, direct); vōc-is, of a voice (VOC, call).
2. By the addition of a simple suffix (originally another root): as in fugā-, stem of fuga, flight (FUG + ā-); regi-s, you rule (REG + stem-ending e/o-); sini-t, he allows (SI + ne/o-).
3. By two or more of these methods: as in dūci-t, he leads (DUC + stemending e/o-).
4. By derivation and composition, following the laws of development peculiar to the language. (See §§ 227 ff.)

The Base is that part of a word which is unchanged in inflection: as, serv- in servus; mēns- in mēnsa; īgn- in īgnis.

The Base and the Stem are often identical, as in many consonant stems of nouns (as, rēg- in rēg-is). If, however, the stem ends in a vowel, the latter does not appear in the base, but is variously combined with the inflectional termination. Thus the stem of servus is servo-; that of mēnsa, mēnsā-; that of īgnis, īgni-.

Inflectional terminations are variously modified by combination with the final vowel or consonant of the Stem, and thus the various forms of Declension and Conjugation (see §§ 36, 164) developed.