LATIN

This is a very simple and rudimentary introduction to the Latin case system for those who have no experience of an inflected language. It is not a Latin course, and will eventually form part of my Old French page. The French language developed from Latin, and in its early stages was heavily influenced by the latter's case system.

When we speak of a noun being in a particular case, we mean that its form has changed to show its relation to other words in the sentence. I am assuming that you are familiar with standard grammatical terms; if not, go here. [coming soon].

When I was a bright-eyed and eager eleven-year-old just starting Latin under the formidable gaze of the inimitable Miss Grice at the Ursuline Convent, Westgate, Kent, we amused ourselves with this merry ditty:

Latin is an inflected language. What that means is that the form of words alters to express, for example, possession. When we say John's book we are inflecting the noun John. French makes use of the preposition de to show that the noun is possessive: le livre de Jean. English sometimes uses of in this way, for example, The Heart of the Matter; but the book of John would be impossibly stilted (or sound as if it were referring to a religious text). Apart from this, the only time a noun is inflected in English or French, is to show the plural: a dog, three dogs; un chien, trois chiens.

Without a case system, both English and French make extensive use of prepositions: for, to, by, with, from, etc. Old French, as I have already explained, was heavily influenced by Latin's case system. This meant that there were fewer prepositions, and that word order was much freer (I shall give an example of this later).

The colour-coding system I shall be using to identify the various cases was that used by Miss Grice.

On to The Cases