1 HK THIRD DECLENSION • CONSONANT STEMS 101
Sabīnī recūsāvērunt, sed per dūrās magnāsque castellī portās properāvērunt quō[1] Tarpēia dūxit et mox intrā validōs et altōs mūrōs stābant. Tum sine morā in[2] Tarpēiam scūta graviter iēcērunt; nam scūta quoque in sinistrīs bracchiīs gerēbant. Ita perfida puella Tarpēia interfecta est; ita Sabīnī Capitōlium occupāvērunt.
LESSON XXXIX
THE THIRD DECLENSION • CONSONANT STEMS
230. Bases and Stems. In learning the first and second declensions we saw that the different cases were formed by adding the case terminations to the part of the word that did not change, which we called the base. If to the base we add -ā in the first declension, and -o in the second, we get what is called the stem. Thus porta has the base port- and the stem portā-; servus has the base serv- and the stem servo-.
These stem vowels, -ā- and -o-, play so important a part in the formation of the case terminations that these declensions are named from them respectively the Ā- and O-Declensions.
231. Nouns of the Third Declension. The third declension is called the Consonant or I-Declension, and its nouns are classified according to the way the stem ends. If the last letter of the stem is a consonant, the word is said to have a consonant stem; if the stem ends in -i-, the word is said to have an i-stem. In consonant stems the stem is the same as the base. Ini-stems the stem is formed by adding -i- to the base. The presence of the i makes a difference in certain of the cases, so the distinction is a very important one.
232. Consonant stems are divided into two classes:
- I. Stems that add -s to the base to form the nominative singular.
- II. Stems that add no termination in the nominative singular.
