Page:The Making of Latin.djvu/51

Rh had long ceased, yet the system of Ablaut so created had become charged with grammatical meanings, and new forms could be made upon the pattern so established, and were made, in fact, in many of the branches of Indo-European.

§ In English, we have verbs conjugated like this

which represent the type; for the -in- of the English present has come regularly from an earlier -en-; the -un- of the Partc. represents a Sonant like the n̥ of I.Eu. *tn̥tós; and the -a- of the past tense has come regularly from an earlier -o-.

§ Besides these three common Grades, there were others which appear in Latin only in a few forms. We have the Lengthened grade of the suffix-syllable in Gr. Nominatives like ‘father’ and ‘shepherd,’ beside the Normal form in the Acc. ,, and the Weak form in the Gen. and in derivatives like ‘belonging to one’s father,’ ‘flock.’ The same variety appears also in the Deflected forms, e.g. in the compound Adj. Nom. ‘well-sprung,’ ‘well-minded, cheerful’ beside the Accusatives, just as in the simple nouns, and , ‘mind.’ Examples of the Lengthened forms appear in Old Lat. Nominatives like patēr (later pater, § 95); and the Lengthened Deflected forms appear in Nouns of the Agent in -tōr, later -tor; or of the suffix -es- : -os- in abstract Nouns like odōs, later odor (§ 243). In both