1. Chapter I terms And some introductory information

2. Roman alphabet • First developed by the Semites from Egyptian pictographs • Passed from Phoenicians (a Semite tribe), to the Greeks, to the Etruscans to Romans (and still in use today by 100 languages, including English!) • The classical Latin alphabet (i.e., pre-Middle Ages), does not contain the letters j, u, or w. • Romans used the letter i for both i and j sounds and the letter v for both u and v (aka, w) sounds. • Romans had no lower-case letters, which developed just before the Middle Ages.

3. Macrons and Pronunciation • Also called long marks • Indicate a lengthening of a vowel sound • Were not used in Roman writings—we use them today to help beginners understand poetry and pronunciation • Latin is wholly phonetic—that means that it is pronounced exactly the way it’s written

4. Noun terms • Number—whether a noun is singular or plural • Gender—whether a noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter • Case—an indication of how a noun is used in the sentence (e.g., subject, direct object, indirect object, etc.) • Declension—the family that a noun falls into; a noun’s declensions determines its endings; there are 5 declensions

5. 5 noun cases • There are five cases which are used with every Latin noun, given as follows: • Nominative—used for subjects and predicate nominatives • Genitive—used to show possession • Dative—used for indirect objects • Accusative—used for direct objects and some prepositional phrases • Ablative—used for prepositional phrases • A noun in each of these cases will have a different ending, depending on the noun’s declension, number, and gender.

6. Aqua, aquae f.—water