Conjugation of verbs

Here you can discuss all things Latin. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Latin, and more.
Post Reply
citizen
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 10:15 am

Conjugation of verbs

Post by citizen »

Consider the conjugation 2 moveō, movēre, mōvī, mōtum.

I'm confused by two things:

– Why is there no -u- in the perfect active? (mōvuī)
– What happend to the v in supine? (Why not mōvtum/mōvetum?)

I guess this is a pretty basic question and I think I've read somewhere in my books about this, but I can't remember where. Is this assimilation or something? Could someone point me to what I'm missing and what I should read up on?

adrianus
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 3270
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:45 pm

Re: Conjugation of verbs

Post by adrianus »

You have to learn the main parts of the verb because they vary so, as languages do vary.
Discendae sunt partes verborum principales quae varientur, ut sic solent omnes linguae.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

Shenoute
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 12:23 pm

Re: Conjugation of verbs

Post by Shenoute »

I don't think you have missed anything, I would say it is just natural phonological evolution :

- movui, I find hard to pronounce it with two distinct -u- sounds
- -i- tends to be lost before -t-, hence *movitum > *movtum, and it's hard for the -v- to be heard distinctly before -t-

In each case the -v- coalesced with the preceding -o-, the result being -ō-.

citizen
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 10:15 am

Re: Conjugation of verbs

Post by citizen »

I had this assignment in my study book, that I should write down the principal parts of moveo among other verbs I found hard to conjugate even when looking at conjugation tables at Wikipedia at the same time. But what you're saying here is that verbs vary so much that it's not always possible to conjugate them only by knowing the first person singular present active (moneo).

I think this is reasonable, but it seems that this course I'm taking is predominantly about studying declension and conjugation tables and not really doing much reading or trying to increase your vocabulary. Much like the opposite technique of what Ørberg, whose Lingua Latina I'm also reading, advocates.

adrianus
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 3270
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 9:45 pm

Re: Conjugation of verbs

Post by adrianus »

Many principal parts are predictable, some are not. And learning the tables is good.
Plerumque non variant partes principales; aequales sunt. Nonnunquam sunt quaedam inaequales quae variant. Bonum etiam est tabulas conjugationum disci.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

Post Reply