Latin has a number of suffixes starting with-t- that are appended to verbs and other parts of speech, including for example-tus(forming participles from verbs and adjectives from nouns) and-tās(forming abstract nouns from adjectives). The formation of words not built on the Latin verb will be covered in its own section at the end.
Suffixes starting with-t- are used to mark certaininflected forms of verbs, and also to derive other words using verbs as a base:
Words ending in any of these suffixes are usually built on a shared (i.e.syncretic) verbalstem. This stem can be found in a verb's fourthprincipal part, which is often given as the accusativesupine: for example,amō, present infinitiveamāre, perfect activeamāvī, supineamātum. Therefore, this stem can be called the "supine stem".[n 1]
The description above treated-t- as the first consonant of the listed suffixes. However, this consonant is commonly interpreted instead as the final consonant of the supine stem. That is, words formed on the verbal supine stem, such asamātor,scrīptiō, can be divided either asamā-tor, scrīp-tiō or alternatively asamāt-or, scrīpt-iō. The second division emphasizes that the sequencesamāt-, scrīpt- are shared between all words built on this stem of the verb. When this division is used, the suffixes would instead be analyzed as starting with vowels (-im,-iō,-ūra, etc.)[2][3][n 2]
Latin verbs can becategorized into four conjugation classes (1st through 4th) based on whether their present active infinitive (or second principal part) ends in-āre/-are, -ēre, -ere or-īre. The major patterns for forming the supine stem based on a verb's conjugation class are described below.
1st-conjugation verbs generally retain the long vowel of the present stem before the consonant-t-. Over 95% form a supine stem ending in-ā-t-:[4]
However, a few 1st-conjugation verbs forms their supine with short-i-. Many of these also form their perfect in-u- as opposed to the usual-ā-v-:
A few attacht-suffixes directly after their root-final consonant, forming aconsonant cluster. These likewise form their perfect in-u-:
2nd-conjugation verbs most commonly form their supine stem in-i-t-, with short-i-. Their perfect stem is in this case formed in-u-:
Some 2nd-conjugation verbs attacht-suffixes directly after their root-final consonant, forming aconsonant cluster:
A small number of 2nd-conjugation verbs form their supine stem in-ē-t-. These verbs generally also form their perfect stem in-ē-v-, and have a monosyllabic stem: that is, they contain only a consonant or consonant cluster before-ē- (possibly preceded by a prefix): e.g.fleō, flēre, flēvī, flētum; prefixedim-pleō, im-plēre, im-plēvī, im-plētum anddē-leō(“to blot”),dēlētrīx.
Most3rd-conjugation verbs show root supine stems.[5] This often results in the formation of aconsonant cluster wheret-suffixes are attached directly after the root-final consonant:
Others use short-i-. As in the 1st and 2nd conjugation, their perfect stem is in this case commonly formed in -u:
A few use a long vowel also found in the perfect stem:
Root-finalu gives long-ū-:
4th-conjugation verbs often retain the long vowel of the present stem (as in the1st conjugation), forming their supine stem in-ī-t-:
However, a number of 4th-conjugation verbs instead attacht-suffixes directly after their root-final consonant, forming aconsonant cluster:
When at-suffix directly follows a consonant, the verb stem may show additional predictable or unpredictable changes due tocluster reduction.
This formation pattern is most frequent with verbs from the3rd-conjugation and4th-conjugation but includes some verbs from the 1st and 2nd conjugation.
The consonantsc l n p regularly remain unchanged before suffix-initial-t-:
Root-finalb andg are regularly devoiced top andc respectively. If the root ends in a short vowel directly followed byg, this vowel is usually lengthened (due toLachmann's Law) but sometimes remains short (especially after the high voweli, as incōnstrictus fromcōnstringō orfictus fromfingō):
Root-finalh becomes-c-, because it goes back to Proto-Italic*ɣ:
Root-finalqu is unrounded to -c-. Likewise, root-finalngu is devoiced and unrounded to -nc-, and the preceding short vowel is lengthened regularly before the resulting-nct-:
The verbsloquor,sequor and derivatives instead replace-qu- with-cū-, which might have analogically been altered by other verbs from the 3rd conjugation ending inuō (see above):
Root-finalv merges with the preceding vowel, yielding the diphthong -au- in the case ofav, or the long vowels -ō- and -ū- in the case ofov anduv/u.
(Compare alsolavatus →lautus →lōtus.)
Alternatively, it can be replaced with -c-:-ct- is the regular outcome of*-gʷt- (with devoicing and unrounding), and intervocalic*-gʷ- regularly became Latin-v-.
Some verbs that seem not to have originally contained*gʷ developed a supine stem in -ct- by analogy:
Intervocalicr in Latin has multiple origins. It can go back either to original Proto-Indo-European*r, or to Proto-Italic*z from original*s. Original*r regularly forms-rt-:
In contrast,-r- from Proto-Italic*z (original*s) regularly forms-st-:
When root-final-rr- comes from original*-rz-, the supine is also regularly formed with-st-, from simplification of older*-rst- (comparetestis, withtest- from*terst-):
Because of the sound change of rhoticism, relatively few verb roots end in-s- in Latin itself. Original*s was preserved after consonants other than Proto-Italic*r or Proto-Italic*l, including in the cluster[ks] which is spelled as-x-: hence
Another rare example shows preservation of-s- in the present stem after the consonant-n- (originally anasal infix):
Even though-st- would be the regular formation for roots with this shape, a number of Latin verbs with present stems that end in-s- do not form their supine stem regularly, but instead showanomalous sigmatic forms.
The consonant cluster -mt- of some3rd-conjugation verbs can be resolved as -mpt-:
Sometimes the supine stem is formed with the consonant-s- instead of-t-. The use of-s- is regular afterd ort, and can sometimes occur after other consonants.
Therefore, thedeverbalt-suffixes listed above haveallomorphs starting with-s-:-sum/-sū,-sus,-sūrus,-sitō,-sō,-suriō,-sim,-siō,-sūra,-sor,-strīx,-strum/-stra,-sōrius,-sōrium,-sum.
Root-finald ort/tt fuses with thet of the suffix, giving-ss- after a short vowel,-s- elsewhere:-cs- is spelled-x-. (In older Latin,-ss- was also used after long vowels or diphthongs.) Similarly tog-final roots,d-final roots sometimes (but not always) have lengthened vowels in the past participle due toLachmann's Law. Vowels are always lengthened before-ns-:
The use of-s- to form the supine stem was also extended irregularly to some verbs with roots ending in other consonants. Many affected verbs use the sigmatic suffix-s- to form their perfect stem (although this is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition).
Root-finalrg,rc andrqu +t would produce the three-consonant cluster-rct-, but this was rarely kept. The normal phonetic evolution of-rct- in Latin would be-rt- (comparefortis), but many verbs instead form their supine analogically in-rs-, influenced either by the supine stems of other verbs, or by sigmatic perfect stems:
Root-finalrc of4th-conjugation verbssarciō andfarciō and root-finalrq of2nd-conjugationtorqueō give -rt-:
Likewise, root-finallg andlc only rarely yield the three-consonant cluster-lct-. They commonly yield -ls- by analogy, and sometimes -lt-:
Root-finallc of4th-conjugationfulciō and root-finallg of2nd-conjugationindulgeō give -lt-:
Root-finalll andrr of3rd-conjugation verbs sometimes give-lsus and-rsus respectively by analogy. In the case of root-finalll, the -ls- perhaps developed regularly in a few roots that originally ended in-ld- (such assallō; possibly alsofallō, though its original form is uncertain) and then spread to others:
In the case of root-final-rr-, the-rs- may have developed by analogy to roots that originally ended in-rt- or-rd-:
Other verbs are marked by-s- in their supine stem for various historical reasons, often analogy with the perfect:
In some cases, the present stem (also known as the infectum stem) of a verb is marked by an infix, suffix, or vowel change that is not present in the supine stem. In these cases, thet-suffixes can be viewed as attaching to a verb's abstract root, which is sometimes (although not always) seen in other derived words. For example, the verbfingō(“to shape, fashion, form”) has thenasal infix-n- in its present and imperfect forms, but the underlying root of this verb isfig-, seen in the derived wordsfigulus(“potter”) andfigūra(“figure”): the supine stem is constructed on this root, yieldingfig-t- →fict-, without the nasal infix.
The nasal infix can be found before the stop consonantsp b d c g qu. Examples of verbs that contain this infix in the present stem but not in the supine stem include the following:
However, not all verbs with a nasal + stop cluster show this alternation. Some retain (or can retain) the nasal throughout their paradigm:
Some verbs contain the nasal infix before a vowel in the present stem, but not in the supine stem:
The inchoative suffix-scō is restricted to the infectum stem: verbs ending in the suffix either lack other stems altogether, or form them without-sc- (aside from a handful of exceptions):
Some verbs have different vowels or vowel lengths in the present (infectum) stem and the supine stem because ofIndo-European vowel-gradation (ablaut) or other historical processes:
Some verbal paradigms may show additional stem differences:
The origin of the supine stem lies inProto-Indo-European (PIE for short), a reconstructed proto-language that developed intoProto-Italic and eventually to Latin. Unlike Latin, PIE did not have a unified verbal supine stem. Instead, it had various suffixes starting with the consonant*t that are ancestral to Latint-suffixes, such as Proto-Indo-European*-tós (which gave the Latin participle/adjective ending Latin-tus),*-tus (which gave the Latin noun ending-tus), and*-tōr (which gave Latin-tor). These PIE suffixes were attached to verbalroots (roots that convey an action). Thebasic structure for a PIE root is a set of consonants—at least one at the beginning and at least one at the end of the root—with one vowel optionally between the first and last consonants (or consonant clusters). The vowel inside of a PIE verb root generally changes based on grammatical context. This vowel change is called ablaut, and the different forms a root takes, depending on what vowel is inserted, are called ablaut grades. The form of the root that contains the vowel*-e- is called thee-grade, and is conventionally used to refer to the root as a whole. For example, the root that gave rise to Latinvertō is called*wert- (thee-grade form), but this root also existed in the form*wort- (called theo-grade) and in the form*wr̥t- (called thezero-grade). In the zero-grade, no vowel was inserted: instead, all of the consonants of the root appeared next to each other. In zero-grade forms, the consonants*m, *n, *r, *l, *w, *y, *h₁, *h₂, *h₃, were often converted to*m̥, *n̥, *r̥, *l̥, *u, *i, *h̥₁, *h̥₂, *h̥₃ (the syllabic versions of these consonants). The PIE zero-grade was an important source of Latin supine stem forms. For example, the verbal root*wert- gave rise to the PIE adjective*wr̥t-tós (with the zero-grade of the root): this developed by regular sound changes to Proto-Italic*worssos, then Old Latinvorsus, then Latinversus.
PIEt-suffixes were generally attached directly after the final consonant of a root. This formed consonant clusters that were sometimes modified in Latin due tosound changes, depending on the consonant involved (see the following sections). Some changes seen in Latin can already be encountered in various other PIE daughter languages:
One kind of modification was the change of certain PIE consonants to Latin vowel sounds. This caused somet-suffixed forms to naturally evolve to have vowel +[t] sequences in Latin. For example, the agent noun*ǵénh₁-tōr(“parent, begetter”) (root*ǵenh₁-) regularly gave Latingenitor (cognate to Ancient Greekγενέτωρ(genétōr)), with a sequencegenit- that came to be used as the supine stem of the verbgignō(“to bear, to beget”). The passive verbal adjective*ǵn̥h₁-tós(“begotten”), from the zero-grade of the same root, regularly gave Latin(g)nātus(“born; offspring/son”), with a sequence(g)nāt- that came to be used as the supine stem of the verbnāscor(“to be born”).
Similarly, certain PIE vowel-consonant sequences became Latin long vowels. A prominent example of this evolution is verbs of the first conjugation, which come from the PIE suffix*-eh₂yéti: the PIE sequence*-eh₂ evolved into the Latin vowel-ā- that is found in every stem of a typical first-conjugation verb, such asiūrō, iūrā-re, iūrā-vī, iūrā-tum. (Such vowels found in multiple stems of a Latin verb are sometimes called "theme" vowels, although this term must be carefully distinguished from the similarly-named concept ofProto-Indo-European thematic and athematic inflection.)
Although Latin supine stems sometimes evolved by regular phonetic sound changes, many of them instead gained their forms from analogical processes that occurred at a later date than Proto-Indo-European. Because of analogy, Latin verbs normally developed a 'syncretic' supine stem (that is, a common stem shared between allt-suffixed derivatives of a verb): this phenomenon is an innovation compared to PIE, where the ancestors of Latint-suffixes did not regularly share a single stem.
Sometimes a single PIE root gave rise to multiple Latin verbs, as shown by the prior example of*ǵénh₁-tōr(“parent, begetter”) → Latingenitor, synchronically the agent noun of the verbgignō(“to bear, to beget”) and*ǵn̥h₁-tós(“begotten”) → Latin(g)nātus(“born; offspring/son”), synchronically the past participle of the verbnāscor(“to be born”). In the case of the root*ǵenh₁-, the verbsgignō(“to bear, to beget”) andnāscor(“to be born”) ultimately ended up having separate stems in both the present and the supine. On the other hand, a few PIE roots gave rise to multiple Latin verbs that share a single supine stem: for example,videō andvīsō share the supine stemvīs-;tendō andteneōtent-.
Proto-Italic possessed perfect passive participles in*-tos, from Proto-Indo-European*-tós, as well as accusative supines in*-tum, from Proto-Indo-European*-tum. In Proto-Indo-European, the former suffix was regularly attached to the zero-grade, whereas the latter was attached to the e-grade; Latin forms attest to the perfect passive participle stem becoming generalized in most cases.[11]
In Proto-Italic, the verbal supine stem could be either inherited from a PIEt-formation, or analogical. The following general patterns can be described for the three conjugations of Proto-Italic.
The majority of first conjugation verbs followed the "dōnō" pattern, Proto-Italic*dōn-ā-ō →*dōn-ā-t- → Latindonāt-. Verbs of this type were denominative (derived from noun or adjective bases) and ended in a suffix*-āō that came from Proto-Indo-European*-eh₂-yóh₂.
The rare Latin first-conjugation verbs with supine stems in-it-, such asdomō,domitus, were generally not denominative.[4] Many verbs of this type came from Proto-Indo-European roots that ended in the laryngeal*h₂: for example,domō from*demh₂-;sonō from*swenh₂-;tonō from*(s)tenh₂-;vetō from*weth₂-; the first-conjugation present stems may, at least in some cases, go back to causative formations in Proto-Indo-European*...h₂-éye- > Proto-Italic*-ā-. It is plausible that the supine/PPP-stem of such verbs shows the regular development of postconsonantal Proto-Indo-European*...h₂-tos to Proto-Italic*-a-t-os to Latin-itus.
However, Latin-itus would also be the regular result of any other Proto-Italic short vowel + Proto-Indo-European*-tos, and some forms in Italic languages other than Latin instead point to*-e-t-, such as Umbrian𐌀𐌔𐌄𐌜𐌄𐌕𐌀(aseçeta) (hypothesized to be cognate toīnsectus).
See Sihler 1995,[5] Schrijver 1991[12] and Weiss 2009[4] for further discussion.
The Latin second conjugation originated mainly from two Proto-Italic conjugation patterns.
There are conflicting explanations of how these verbs formed their supine/PPP stem in Proto-Italic. Sihler 1995 argues that statives had supine stems in*-ato-, from zero-grade Proto-Indo-European*-h̥₁-to, whereas causatives/frequentatives had supine stems*-ito-, from zero-grade Proto-Indo-European*-i-to.[5] In contrast, Weiss 2009 argues Proto-Italic had-e- in the perfect and supine stem of second-conjugation causatives/iteratives, suggesting this vocalism developed by means of the analogy *kap-ye-: *kap-to-:: *moneye-: *mone-to-; Weiss suggests that the causative/iterative pattern was then generalized to the second conjugation as a whole.[4]
There is some non-Latin evidence for the vowel-e- in second conjugation supine stems, such as Faliscan𐌌𐌄𐌓𐌄𐌕𐌏(mereto) (compare Old Latinmeretōd).
A separate, minor source of second-conjugation verbs was verbs from roots that ended in*eh₁, such as*bʰleh₁-(“to bleat, cry”) > Proto-Italic*flē-ō.
Most 3rd-conjugation verbs show root supine stems.[5]
Certain verbs in*-jō of that same group came to form the Latin 4th conjugation:
Diachronically, a laryngeal consonant between two consonants developed into Proto-Italic*-a-, becoming Latin short-i- (Other Italic languages might sometimes show-e-):
The syncretic power of the Latin supine stem is shown where previously used stems are replaced by entirely new ones. Usually, the whole verbal paradigm and itst-derivatives follow suit: this goes for any possible prefixed derivative of the verb as well. However, because of the originally separate nature oft-suffixes, there exist some exceptional cases in Latin where not allt-suffixed words derived from a verb are built on a shared supine stem:
Some derivatives have retained an earlier stage of the paradigm:
Another category of exceptions to syncretism can occasionally be found before the suffixes-trīx or-trum, because the consonant cluster-tr- sometimes caused unique sound changes:
Some suffixes were not always attached to the supine stem of verbs, but used this base as a more or less common option. For example, some adjectives in-ilis,-bilis and-īvus were formed from the supine stem, while others were formed from a verb's root or its present stem. The productivity of-(i)bilis(“having the power to act or be acted upon”) and-ilis(“〃”) as attaching to the supine stem may not entail any underlying meaning given to it, as adjectives in -bilis and -ilis are early recorded having passive meaning irrespective of the stem they are attached to, though deverbals in -bilis construed on the supine stem are unanimously passive in meaning.[13]
Adjectives with active meaning built on the present stem:
On the supine stem:
Adjectives with passive meaning built on the present stem:
On the supine stem:
Other suffixes that were sometimes but not always attached to the supine stem include-ēla,-uleius.
There are other Latin derivational suffixes that happen to start witht but that are not attached to the verbal supine stem, for example: whereas-tūdō has classically been attached to a few verbal present stems,-tās and-tūs were never appended to verbs.t-suffixes regularly attaching to stems other than a verb's include:-tus(forming adjectives),-tus(forming adverbs),-tūs(forming abstract nouns),-tās and-tūdō.Other parts of speech will show different modifications when appended witht-suffixes, modifications that may or may not be compared with those of verbs.
The adjective-forming suffix-tus is rarely attached directly to non-verbal, consonant-final noun stems. Most of its derivatives contain a long vowel (ā ī ū) before thet that originate partly or fully from the final vowel of the noun's stem, creating the allomorphs-ātus,-ītus and-ūtus. These long vowels, though reminiscent of the vowels found in analogical supine stems, could be of completely different origins:
-ītus and-ūtus might be analogical to older-ātus which freely attaches to any noun ending in a consonant, and nouns of theă- orǒ-stem.-ātus is already seen in Proto-Indo-European*-eh₂tos, stemming from a rebracketing of verbal adjectives ending in*-eh₂tos, compare possibly Proto-Balto-Slavic*bardā́ˀtas and Proto-Italic*farβātos.it is scarce, as far as I know, this could be "convergent evolution", no derivatives of the PIE suffix are given It might also have been rebracketed early within Proto-Italic, from adjectives ending in*-ātos during the dissociation of*-tos as a participial ending.
Analogically with-ātus and-ītus/-ūtus, othert-suffixes attaching to the supine stem used the same process to form derivatives from vowel-ending noun stems:
Following the productive and freely used-ātus, manyt-suffixes attaching to the supine stem were extended with long-ā-: hence-ātor,-ātiō,-ātus(forming abstract nouns)-ātim. Contrary to their base suffixes, these are attached to nouns:
A unique case isaegrōtus in place of expected*aegrātus. No othert-derivatives ending in-ōt- are attested. The ending-ōtus could be an older, non-productive or used analogical suffix; compare-ītus and-ūtus above, and perhapsMonēta.
These suffixes are part of a broader group of Latin suffixes starting with long vowels, such as-īlis,-īcus, etc. Some of these formations are possibly decasuative in origin: that is, built on an inflected case-form of a word instead of being built on its stem. According to Nussbaum (1996 & 1998), endings of early deinstrumentals were as early as in PIE rebracketed as newly productive suffixes.[14]
Possible deinstrumentals:
Other possible decasuatives:
It is sometimes hard to understand why one word would attach suffixes to a case-form and an other would not.Already in PIE, the suffix*-tós may have had a productive allomorph*-h₁tós used after stems ending in short vowels. Compare*-(h₁)seti. The laryngeal coupled with the short vowel would have given long vowels in PIE descendants: these endings were then analogically rebracketed from such words as newly productive suffixes.[14]
Nouns ending in the suffixes-tās and-tūdō, and adverbs ending in the suffix-tus almost always end in-itās,-itūdō and-itus. These can synchronically be analyzed asallomorphs (variant forms) of those same suffixes, or as cases where the suffix is preceded by-ĭ- used as alinking vowel.
Etymologically, this linking-ĭ- is derived from various short vowels. A pre-Latin sound change of vowel reduction turned any short vowel into-ĭ- in a word-internal open syllable. Therefore,-ĭ- is found regularly in compounds and suffixed derivatives ofŏ-stem nouns (second declension nouns), as well as second/first declension adjectives (for which the second-declension stem of the masculine and neuter forms was regularly used as the base of derived words):
Linking-ĭ- is also the phonetically regular outcome of stem-final-ĭ- in compounds and suffixed derivatives of nouns and adjectives that belong to theĭ-stem subcategory of thethird declension:
By analogy, linking-ĭ- also came to be used regularly in compounds and suffixed derivatives of any third-declension noun or adjective, regardless of whether it was originallyĭ-stem or consonant-stem:
Likewise, analogical linking-ĭ- came to be used regularly in compounds and suffixed derivatives of first-declension (ā-stem) nouns:
Though not a productive pattern, some words containt-suffixes attached directly after the final consonant of a noun or adjective root, with no intervening vowel. There are a fair number of examples where the suffixes-tus/-tās/-tūs appear directly after root-finals, and a few cases where they appear directly after a resonant consonant (l n r):
There are also a handful of examples with the plosive consonantsp c:
Both consonant-final nounsūber(“an udder, teat; (figuratively) richness, plentyness”) andfūr(“a thief”) are particular for forming a handful oft-derivatives without the use of any linking vowel:
Of peculiar interest is alsovicissim, an unclear formation.