Stress rules for 'ius/ium' nouns.

Latin Learning Latin
1

Salve,

I have a question in relation to stress for second declension nouns ending in “ius” and “ium” in the genitive and vocative.

Some sources, for example Allen and Greenough say to stress the same syllable in the genitive and vocative as in the nominative. So Vergilius with the stress on the ‘gi’ would become Vergili in the genitive and vocative, and keep the stress on the ‘gi’, even though this violates the usual stress rule?

However Vox Latina says:

Similar considerations apply to the trisyllabic genitive and vocative forms of words like Valerius, which, according to Gellius, were both accented in his time (second century A.D.) as Valeri. But this observation is not supported by other writers, and there is no metrical evidence for the penultimate accentuation in Plautus or Terence.

What is the commonly accepted or orthodox way to stress the ius/ium words in the genitive or vocative?

Wheelock uses the later version of latin in which the genitive would be Vergilii, but that still leaves the issue of what to do with the vocative Vergili.

Cheers!

2

Valéri, Vergíli et vocativo et genetivo casu sonuntur, ut solet, nisi fallor, ut alternae formae genetivo casu faciliùs substitui possint, vel huius substituendi causâ. Vestigia autem argumenti postulata demandare non possum. Verò post omnia, ego saltem non peritus sic sono—non licet me plus dicere.

I think Valéri, Vergíli are more orthodox in both vocative and genitive,—in the case of the genitive, either to allow for easy substitutions between Valéri and Valérii, and Vergíli, Vergílii in the genitive, or as a result of such substitutions. But if you asked me for evidence, I couldn’t supply it. So perhaps all I can really say is that I would say Valéri, Vergíli, but I’m not fluent in Latin.

3

Thanks for that Adrianus!

I guess it makes it clearer for distinguishing the vocative and genitive. It’s probably one of those things where the evidence is a bit slim both ways and it comes down to personal preference.

Cheers! :slight_smile: