Theme Vowels in Latin Verbs and Nouns, and How They Are Taught

1.Introduction

The inflection of both nouns and verbs in Latin are rather expansive. Both have a large number

of affixes which in turn often affect the root. They also share theme vowels. Theme vowels are a

very interesting point of morphological inflection in Latin. As we discussed in class, theme

vowels can be defined as: a vowel added to a root to form a stem. Theme vowels primarily occur

in languages of Indo-European descent and, of course, Latin is no exception to this. Latin Verbs

are the clearest examples of theme vowels, however I posit that nouns also often have theme

vowels although far less consistently than do verbs. Along with this, I find that the way Latin is

taught to students and the way Latin textbooks are written lends evidence to the presence of

theme vowels not just in verbs but also in nouns. In Latin verbs certainly have the clearest

occurrence of theme vowels, however they are harder to parse out from nouns. The way that verb

and noun suffixes are taught, and the way that authors of Latin textbooks seek to make said

affixes easier to understand are a good first step in understanding the theme vowels in Latin. In

this essay, I will be primarily referring to the two Latin textbooks, Ecce Romani and Oxford

Latin Course College Edition, I have personal experience using, as well as my own experience

over 7 years of learning Latin. I will be looking at the broad existence of theme vowels in Latin

and how theme vowels are explained (or not explained) in textbooks across both verbs and

nouns. Starting with Latin verbs, I will examine how the textbooks and teaching lend credence to

the existence of theme vowels within said verbs. Then I will examine nouns, and how they are

decidedly less clear. Finally I will compare how both nouns and verbs are explained in textbooks,

what works and what does not.

2.Verbs

Latin verb inflection has quite a few parts resulting in each verb having a large paradigm. In

Latin, verbs can fall into four conjugations simply called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Each of the

conjugations has a set of suffixes, each suffix indicates whether a Latin verb is Active or Passive;

The verb’s mood of Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative, Infinitive, and as Participles; the verb’s

tense, number, and person. Imperative and Subjunctive verbs can be the following tenses: present

‘he walks’, future ‘he will walk’, imperfect ‘he was walking’, perfect ‘he walked’, pluperfect ‘he

had walked’, and future perfect ‘he will have walked’. Similarly, they can be split into singular or

plural of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd persons. Imperative verbs only make the distinction between singular

and plural. Infinitive verbs only distinguish between present, future, and perfect. Participles are

broken down into: present, future, gerund, and supine. Some verbs are considered to be

deponent, these verbs either have no subjunctive, or the active is written as the subjunctive.

Finally there is a list of irregular verbs which do not follow the patterns followed by the rest of

the verbs. Verbs themselves, once they have been inflected can be broken into a stem and a

suffix. On the stems of 1st, 2nd, and 4th conjugation verbs there are theme vowels indicating

which conjugation said verb belongs to. Based on the conjugation of a verb, the following affix

will inflect to match its respective conjugation. This combination of meanings attached to each

suffix leads to most verbs having a massive paradigm of around 136 forms, very few of which

show syncretism. In Latin dictionaries and textbooks, verbs are (usually) listed as: the [pres, 1st,

sg act ind], the [act inf], the [perf 1st sg act ind], and the [perf 1st sg pas ind] e.g. audio, audire,

audivi, auditus sum.1

1
Balme, Maurice George, and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, 1988.
http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA28996248.
 The stems of Latin verbs in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th conjugations each have a definitive

theme vowel whilst third conjugation verbs attach the suffixes directly onto their root. First

conjugation verbs have the theme vowel /a/. As an example of first conjugation verb with the/a/

theme vowel, we have the verb par-a-mus; prepare-thm.1-1pl.ind.act.pres. ‘we prepare’. To

further build on the pattern of theme vowels representing the conjugation, second conjugation

verbs have the theme vowel /e/. For example, the second conjugation verb with a /e/ theme

vowel mon-e-mus; remain-thm.2-1pl.ind.act.pres. ‘we remain’.2 Fourth conjugation verbs also

share a common theme vowel of /i/. As an example of a fourth conjugation verb there is

aud-i-mus; hear-thm.4-1pl.ind.act.pres. ‘we hear’.3 Third conjugation verbs usually have no

theme vowel, resulting in them breaking down somewhat more simply. As an example we have

the verb duc-imus lead-1pl.Ind.act.pres. ‘we lead’.4 When only looking at this form of a third

conjugation verb, it appears as though they just share the theme vowel of fourth conjugation.

This is not the case, as across the various tenses there is no consistency hence saying the root has

no theme vowel. For example there are duc-imus; lead-1pl.ind.act.perf. ‘We led’, or duc-am

lead-1sg.ind.act.fut. ‘I will lead’.

When students are being taught Latin, they often are just told that there are four

conjugations, and it is left at that. In high school, that is how I was taught, my textbook’s tables

of verb endings simply listing out the conjugations and their endings.5 On the other hand, the

Latin textbook that I was taught from here at Grinnell has a more detailed table. The table in the

aforementioned textbook actually makes the appearance of theme vowels quite clear. For

2
Balme, Maurice George, and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, 1988.
3
Balme, Maurice George, and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, 1988.
4
Balme, Maurice George, and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, 1988.
5
Lawall, G. (ed.) Ecce Romani: A Latin Reading Program, Books I-III. Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ. .
2000.
example, I will show the section of the table that shows the suffixes for present active indicative

verbs.

Active
Indicative
1st conjugation 2nd conjugation 3rd conjugation 3rd -io conjugation 4th conjugation
stems in -a stems in -e consonant stems stems in -i
present
singular 1 par-o mone-o reg-o capi-o audi-o
2 para-s mone-s reg-is capi-s audi-s
3 para-t mone-t reg-it capi-t audi-t
plural 1 para-mus mone-mus reg-imus capi-mus audi-mus
2 para-tis mone-tis reg-itis capi-tis audi-tis
3 para-nt mone-nt reg-unt capi-unt audi-unt
Stem def. prepare remain rule take hear
fig.16

This figure actually gives quite a large amount of insight into the patterns of the theme vowels,

and how this method of pedagogy seeks to explain the conjugations of verbs. With this table, it is

made clear that the specific conjugations have their own pattern that they follow, something fully

unclear in the textbook I was given in high school. Figure 1 provides data that is consistent with

the idea of a theme vowel being used to indicate what conjugation a verb is. Compared to the

way that I was taught in highschool, with a table that simply lacked the fourth row7, the inclusion

of this fourth row is key. It provides the student with an understanding of why the conjugations

are separate, and why the patterns exist. Rather than just arbitrarily memorizing which words fit

into which conjugation a student can look for the specific theme vowel, in this case just labeled

as the end of the root, to figure out which ending that a verb will take. This is important because,

6
Balme, Maurice George, and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, 1988.
7
Balme, Maurice George, and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, 1988.
whilst many of the affixes are similar across the conjugations, there are enough exceptions which

make the ability to quickly identify conjugation important. Along with that, several words share

the same root whilst being in different conjugations and having different meanings. In Ecce

Romani the charts are wildly simpler, with no row listing the stem endings, and even lacks the

hyphens demarcating the endings from the roots. I find it rather interesting that adding in the

element of a theme vowel, which at first glance might seem to make the situation more

complicated, actually makes the conjugations easier to parse through. The inclusion of

inflectional properties helps to clarify and de-obfuscate the patterns. This is very important,

especially once a student passes the time when they exclusively use a textbook, as the fact that

each verb’s paradigm is so large, any tricks to figuring out said verb’s meaning is going to be

incredibly helpful in speeding up translation and increasing grammatical comprehension. Largely

because there are some situations where the same suffix across different conjugations has

different meanings (i.e. different tense/aspect/mood), something encountered far more often once

you move beyond textbooks and into the corpus of authentic Latin.

3.Nouns

Nouns fall into something quite similar. I have not been able to find any scholarship that

recognizes any theme vowels in noun inflection, but I think that there is a definitive pattern that

shows the existence of theme vowels in nouns, which assists in finding out which declension a

noun falls into. In Latin dictionaries, and textbooks, nouns are almost always listed as the

nominative singular form, the nominative plural form (sometimes only the suffix), followed by

the gender e.g. puella, puellae, f. girl. In comparison to verbs, the paradigm of nouns is rather

smaller. They can fall into one of five declensions simply called 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Each

of the nouns caninflect into one of five main cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and
ablative; along with these there exists the special cases of vocative, and locative, though these

are not included in the main tables as they are usually syncretic with other forms of the nouns.

All five declensions also contain singular and plural variations. The declensions of nouns in

Latin also carry information on the gender of the noun. 1st and 5th declension nouns are almost

exclusively feminine, 2nd and 4th declension can be masculine or neuter, whilst 3rd declension

nouns can be any gender. In the case of nouns, I think that it will be helpful to start with the table

used to list out all of the endings relative to their respective declensions. This will help to show

the patterns of where theme vowels show up in nouns, and where they do not.

1st declension 2nd declension 3rd declension

stems in -a stems in -o stems in consonants
feminine masculine neuter masc. & fem. neuter
singular
nom. puell-a colon-us bell-um rex litus
gen. puell-ae colon-i bell-i reg-is litor-is
dat. puell-ae colon-o bell-o reg-is litor-i
acc. puell-am colon-um bell-um reg-em litus
abl. puell-a colon-o bell-o reg-e litor-e
plural
nom. puell-ae colon-i bell-a reg-es litor-a
gen. puell-arum colon-orum bell-orum reg-um litor-um
dat. puell-is colon-is bell-is reg-ibus litor-ibus
acc. puell-as colon-os bell-a reg-es litor-a
abl. puell-is colon-is bell-is reg-ibus litor-ibus
definition girl farmer war king letter
3rd declension 4th declension 5th declension
stems in -i stems in -u stems in -e
masc. & fem. neuter masc. neuter feminine
singular
nom. nau-is mare grad-us corn-u r-es
gen. nau-is mar-is grad-us corn-us r-ei
dat. nau-i mar-i grad-ui corn-u r-ei
acc. nau-em mare grad-um corn-u r-em
abl. nau-e mar-i grad-u corn-u r-e
plural
nom. nau-es mar-ia grad-us corn-ua r-es
gen. nau-ium mar-ium grad-uum corn-uum r-erum
dat. nau-ibus mar-ibus grad-ibus corn-ibus r-ebus
acc. nau-es mar-ia grad-us corn-ua r-es
abl. nau-ibus mar-ibus grad-ibus corn-ibus r-ebus
definition boat ocean step horn thing
Fig.28

The table implies the existence of theme vowels similarly to the way fig.1 does by including the

row saying ‘stems in -a’. However, I do not find this table to be nearly as clear as to when there

is the presence of theme vowels. This is not to say that they do not have theme vowels, just that

they are not present for every declension. It appears to me that 1st, 4th and 5th declension nouns

have consistent theme vowels. 2nd and 3rd declension nouns do not seem to be consistent

enough to have what I would be confident in calling theme vowels. It seems easiest to identify

the theme vowel in the genitive case for 1st, 4th, and 5th declension nouns. The table is also

internally inconsistent when compared to the verb table; in the noun table the proposed stem

endings are attached to the suffix whilst they are attached to the root in the verb table. The first

declension noun puellae9 can be broken down in two ways; one which follows the pedagogical

method where what can be called the theme vowel is part of the affix, and one where the theme

vowel can be separated from the affix. The first method looks like: puell-ae girl-1dec.gen.sg

‘girl’: and with the second puell-a-e girl-1decl.-gen.sg ‘girl’, and with this method the /a/ and /e/

8
Balme, Maurice George, and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, 1988.
9
Balme, Maurice George, and James Morwood. Oxford Latin Course, 1988.
would be separate elements that are merged when speaking due to phonology. Nouns of the 4th

and 5th declensions break down in the same manner to have [-u] and [-e] as theme vowels

respectively because said vowels recur very consistently through the declensions unlike in the

2nd and 3rd.

Interestingly, plural dative and ablative seem to be the most consistent exceptions to the

rule of attaching the theme vowel before an affix, in 1st and 4th declension the theme vowels are

absent in these situations. Within all declensions, the plural dative and plural ablative suffixes are

syncretic with each other, leading to the paradigms of all regular nouns to show syncretism

across these cases. This adds to the factors causing nouns to have significantly smaller paradigms

than verbs. It is also interesting the consistency of the suffixes across declensions and cases with

specific regards to the dative plural and ablative plural. 1st and 2nd declension both share [-is]

for the situations whilst 3rd and 4th declension share [-ibus].

4.Pedagogy

Fig. 2, from the appendices of the Oxford Latin Course, I think actually makes parsing through

the endings of nouns harder, unlike with the verbs. The fact that what it labels as the stem

endings for 2nd and 3rd declension are in no way really consistent across the suffixes of each

given declension only serves to confuse the already somewhat confusing distinctions between the

declensions. With the verb table, the labeling of the stem endings (the theme vowels) adds to the

readability and comprehension of verb suffixes. When I was initially learning Latin, I was told to

just memorize which declension a noun fell into, which actually worked surprisingly well. On

the other hand, being told to just memorize the verbs was far more difficult for me. The first time

I was taught, the chart for verbs lacked the indication of stem endings as did the chart for nouns.

When I was taking an introductory level Latin course here at Grinnell, the textbook I was taught
from had the tables that I reproduced in this paper. In the case of the verbs, given the consistency

all the way through the massive paradigms for each verb, I think that the inclusion was

immensely helpful in figuring out which conjugation a verb fell into. On the other hand, because

of the inconsistency both across nouns, the multitude of irregularities, and the internal occasional

lack of theme vowels, I think the inclusion actually only served to muddle things in the way that

they are presented by the Oxford Course. I do not think this has to be the case.

In my opinion, the tables could be remade to point out the patterns clearly to students.

The verb table would make a distinction between the theme vowel, and the suffix. Splitting the

verbs into three morphemes rather than the standard two would make the pattern of the theme

vowels even more clear, as well as indicating to students that said vowel in said location in fact

does represent the conjugation. As well, adding color coded highlighting to indicate the root,

theme vowel, and suffix would add to clarity. For this table, red is the root, yellow is the theme

vowel, and green is the suffix.

Active
Indicative
1st conjugation 2nd conjugation 3rd conjugation 3rd -io conjugation 4th conjugation
Theme v. -a Theme v. -e consonant stems Theme v. -i
present
singular 1 par-o mon-e-o reg-o capi-o aud-i-o
2 par-a-s mon-e-s reg-is capi-s aud-i-s
3 par-a-t mon-e-t reg-it capi-t aud-i-t
plural 1 par-a-mus mon-e-mus reg-imus capi-mus aud-i-mus
2 par-a-tis mon-e-tis reg-itis capi-tis aud-i-tis
3 par-a-nt mon-e-nt reg-unt capi-unt aud-i-unt
Stem def. prepare remain rule take hear
Fig.3
The noun chart could be improved in a very similar manner. By breaking the words into their

three morphemes (root, theme vowel, and suffix), and clarifying the theme vowels for the

declensions that appear to actually have them. For this table, red is the root, yellow is the theme

vowel, and green is the affix. The bolded darker yellow is occasions where the vowel has been

phonetically modified to show a different case, while I have marked them here as they are in

textbooks, the diacritics were absent in historical Latin.

1st declension 2nd declension 3rd declension

Theme v. -a
feminine masculine neuter masc. & fem. neuter
singular
nom. puell-a colon-us bell-um rex litus
gen. puell-a-e colon-i bell-i reg-is litor-is
dat. puell-a-e colon-o bell-o reg-is litor-i
acc. puell-a-m colon-um bell-um reg-em litus
abl. puell-ā colon-o bell-o reg-e litor-e
plural
nom. puell-a-e colon-i bell-a reg-es litor-a
gen. puell-a-rum colon-orum bell-orum reg-um litor-um
dat. puell-is colon-is bell-is reg-ibus litor-ibus
acc. puell-a-s colon-os bell-a reg-es litor-a
abl. puell-is colon-is bell-is reg-ibus litor-ibus
definition girl farmer war king letter
3rd declension 4th declension 5th declension
Theme v. -u Theme v. -e
masc. & fem. neuter masc. neuter feminine
singular
nom. nau-is mare grad-u-s corn-ū r-e-s
gen. nau-is mar-is grad-u-s corn-u-s r-e-i
dat. nau-i mar-i grad-u-i corn-ū r-e-i
acc. nau-em mare grad-u-m corn-ū r-e-m
abl. nau-e mar-i grad-ū corn-ū r-ē
plural
nom. nau-es mar-ia grad-u-s corn-u-a r-e-s
gen. nau-ium mar-ium grad-u-um corn-u-um r-e-rum
dat. nau-ibus mar-ibus grad-ibus corn-ibus r-e-bus
acc. nau-es mar-ia grad-u-s corn-u-a r-e-s
abl. nau-ibus mar-ibus grad-ibus corn-ibus r-e-bus
definition boat ocean step horn thing
Fig.4

To further compare the pedagogy of teaching Latin verbs and nouns, I will explain how each is

usually taught, and what a linguistic analysis can do to make that learning easier. In my

experience, Latin verbs are taught as two morphemes. The first being the stem and the second

being the affix. In highschool, we just had to memorize the forms as one single unit. The theme

vowel was always just treated as a part of the stem, only once I got to my college textbook was it

stated that the stem endings were distinct. I think that this could be taken a step farther, to teach

the theme vowels for verbs. This would help with the recognition of patterns within the

conjugations, and to better identify conjugation on sight. The ability to identify conjugation on

sight might not seem initially important based on the similarities of endings, however as it is

something that students are often quizzed on, easier identification is universally helpful. Nouns

are in a similar boat to verbs in how they are traditionally taught. They are usually explained as

two morphemes, the stem and the affix. Nouns are also usually introduced one declension at a

time, going 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd io, 4th, then 5th. I think that when the 1st, 4th and 5th declensions

are introduced, it would be helpful to also be taught about the theme vowels. Often identifying

the declension of a noun on sight is difficult, but if theme vowels are pointed out it helps with

rapid sight identification. I believe that the teaching of theme vowels in Latin nouns and verbs

will assist in the understanding and comprehension of students learning Latin.