LINKS
(1) 25.02.24:
subject pronouns
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2024/04/subject-pronouns-it-has-already-been.html
(2) 22.05.25:
Level 1; readings [12] - [15]: review (1a); personal pronouns (1)
https://adckl.blogspot.com/2025/02/220525-level-1-readings-12-15-review-1a.html
Latin seems to
have a staggering array of pronouns. However, the way in which they translate
is generally no different from English i.e. I, me, him, them etc. The focus is
more on how the different pronouns are used in different contexts.
We can divide the
pronouns into two groups i.e. [1] the first / second person pronouns (e.g. I,
me, we, us, you etc.) and [2] the 3rd person pronouns e.g. he, him,
them etc. It is the 3rd person pronouns that take some time to
master.
We will deal here
with the 1st/ 2nd person pronouns.
1st
/ 2nd person pronouns
[1] The nominative
of the subject pronouns is generally not used since the verb ending makes it
clear who is performing the action: ambulō │ I am walking.
However, they are used when there is a need to emphasise and / or make a
contrast, or to clarify, or when the pronoun stands alone. In written English
such a use may be indicated by italics e.g. You may think that but I have
a different opinion.
Ego in Britanniā habitō, sed tū in
Ītalia habitās. │ I live in Britain, but you live in Italy.
Quid agis? Bene,
grātiās agō. Et tū? │ How are you? I’m fine, thanks. And you?
Vōs in agrō laborātis, sed nōs in templō
ōrāmus. │ You (all) work in the field, but we pray in the temple.
[2] tū; vōs:
be careful not to be influenced by other languages where there is more than one
word for ‘you’. In French, for example, the second person pronouns tu
and vous - derived from the Latin tū and vōs - distinguish
not only between talking to one person or more than person, but the
relationship between the person speaking and the person addressed, Fr. tu
only used informally with one person who is, for example, a friend, a family
member or somebody markedly younger whereas Fr. vous is used for all
groups of people and formally to one person who is not known
e.g. a shop assistant, or a stranger in the street. Similar distinctions occur
in Spanish, German and Russian.
The only
distinction made in Classical Latin is whether one person is being addressed
(tū) or more than one (vōs) i.e. the age, relationship or status of the person
/ people being addressed is not a factor. The use of vōs in the way that
French uses vous to one person in formal / respectful situations does,
however, occur in Mediaeval Latin.
[3] mihi
can also be found as mī
[4] the
preposition cum (with) when used with the ablative pronouns is attached
to the end of the pronoun:
mēcum (with
me); tēcum (with you), nōbīscum (with us), vōbīscum (with you [pl.])
pax vōbīscum │
peace (be) with you
[5] the genitive
pronouns: meī; tuī; nostrum, nostrī; vestrum, vestrī
These should not
be confused with the possessive adjectives the endings of which can look
the same:
meus, -a, -um: my
(mine); amīcus meus │ my friend; amīcī meī │ my friends
tuus, -a, -um: you
[sg.] (yours); pecūnia tua │ your money;
In hīs inventae
sunt quīnque imāgunculae mātrōnārum, in quibus ūna sorōris amīcī tuī
(Cicero) │ In this (baggage) were found five little busts of Roman married
ladies, among them one of the sister of your friend
noster, nostra,
nostrum: our(s); patria nostra │ our fatherland
Nam Catōnem
nostrum nōn tū amās plūs quam ego (Cicero) │ For you do not love our
(friend) Cato more than I do
Nunc et nostrī hostēs
ibi sunt (Cicero) │ But now our enemies are there
vester, vestra,
vestrum: your [pl.] (yours); inimīcī vestrī │ your enemies
The possessive
adjectives function like any other adjective, agreeing in case, gender and
number with the noun.
They are by far
more common and not the same as the genitive pronouns below:
[a] meī; tuī
[b] nostrum,
nostrī; vestrum, vestrī
While [a] and [b]
can be used to indicate possession, they generally appear in different
contexts:
objective
genitive
He worked hard for
¦ [i] the love [ii] of his family. (English may also use ‘for’ e.g. He was
motivated by [i] hatred [ii] for his enemies)
In the examples,
the objects of the love and hatred are ‘family’ and ‘enemies’ i.e. He worked hard
because he loved his family, and he was motivated because he hated his enemies.
In Latin, these are expressed in the genitive case, this construction known
specifically as the objective genitive.
amor patriae:
love of / for the fatherland
odium hostium:
hatred of / for the enemies
… ut vōbīscum ¦ dē
[i] amōre [ii] reī pūblicae certent (Cicero) │ …in order to vie with you ¦ in [i]
love [ii] for the republic
Imperātor ¦ [i]
odiō [ii] hostium dūcitur. │ The general is guided ¦ by [i] (his) hatred
[ii] of (his) enemies.
This is where
these pronouns step in:
ūror [i] amōre [ii]
meī (Ovid) │ I burn [i] with love [ii] of / for myself
(stated, unsurprisingly, by Narcissus!)
cāritās tuī
│ affection for you [i.e. not *your* affection]
… utrum contrā nōs
faciat an prō sē, [i] amōre [ii] alterīus an [i] odiō [ii] nostrī. (Seneca the Younger) │ … whether he acts
against us or for himself, and whether [i] because of love [ii] for another or [i]
out of hatred [ii] for us
Habētis ducem [i] memorem
[ii] vestrī │ You have a leader (who is) [i] mindful [ii] of you
partitive
genitive
The alternative
pronouns nostrum and vestrum are used in partitive constructions
i.e. the equivalent of, for example “Which one of us will tell the
king?” and “Many of you may be killed.”
Quis nostrum?
│ Which of us?
Cicero tibi
plurimam salutem dicit. Tu dices utriusque nostrum verbis et Piliae tuae
et filiae (Cicero) │ Cicero pays you his best respects. Please give the
compliments of both of us to your wife (Pilia) and daughter
Mīrum vidērī
nēminī vestrum volō, spectātōrēs (Plautus) │ I don’t want to seem
strange to any of you, spectators.
