Q about Vitt's Latin Phrase list

[mariek]

<br />I have a question about the format of this Latin-Word-a-Day site.<br />http://mail.minnehahaacademy.net/Lists/latin-phrase/Message/43.html<br /><br />They have words listed like this:<br /><br />feles/felem<br />luna/lunam<br />nox/noctem<br />umbra/umbram<br />etc.<br /><br />I know the first word is the Nominative Singular.<br />The second word looks like the Accusative Singular.<br /><br />My question is... why did they do it that way? Why not do it like the dictionaries by giving the Genitive Singular for the second word?<br /><br />

[Skylax]

Giving the Acc sing would also allow to determine the declension to which the noun belongs before having learned the genitive.<br /><br />But there would be trouble with the neuter nouns of the 3rd decl. : giving tempus, tempus and scelus, scelus wouldn't allow to find back the stems, respectively tempor- and sceler-.

[mariek]

<br />Ah... that would explain why 3rd & 4th decls are explicitly mentioned, like this:<br /><br />os/os (n. singular 3rd)<br />manus/manum (f. 4th)<br />gemitus/gemitum (m. 4th)<br /><br />

[benissimus]

There is also a confusion with 4th declension manus/manum which looks the same as 2nd even with macrons. That method works too, as long as they show the declension, but it is far less efficient, and you have to show the stem separately :-/ I've never seen words classified by nominative/accusative, but I have seen them quite often organized by nominative/ablative.

[mariek]

[quote author=benissimus link=board=3;threadid=555;start=0#4979 date=1061932895]<br />I've never seen words classified by nominative/accusative, but I have seen them quite often organized by nominative/ablative.[/quote]<br /><br />Where?

[Magistra]

You could email Michelle (vitt@minnehahaacademy.net) and ask why she does it that way. She may use the Cambridge Latiin Course which introduces the Nom. & Acc. before the other cases.<br /><br />Magistra