Latin subjunctive

Latin syntax is the part of Latin grammar that covers such matters as word order, the use of cases, tenses and moods, and the construction of simple and compound sentences.

The study of Latin syntax in a systematic way was particularly a feature of the late 19th century, especially in Germany. For example, in the 3rd edition of Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar (1895), the reviser, Gonzalez Lodge, mentions 38 scholars whose works have been used in its revision; of these 31 wrote in German, five in English and two in French. (The English scholars include Roby and Lindsay).

In the twentieth century, the German tradition was continued with the publication of two very comprehensive grammars: the Ausführliche Grammatik der lateinischen Sprache by Raphael Kühner and Karl Stegmann (1912, first edition 1879), and the Lateinische Grammatik by Manu Leumann, J.B. Hofmann, and Anton Szantyr (revised edition Munich 1977, first edition 1926). Among works published in English may be mentioned E.C. Woodcock's A New Latin Syntax (1959). More recently, taking advantage of computerised texts, three major works have been published on Latin word order, one by the American scholars Andrew Devine and Laurence Stephens (2006), and two (adopting a different approach) by the Czech scholar Olga Spevak (2010 and 2014).

The word order of Latin, which was not mentioned at all in Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer (1871), and received seven pages in Gildersleeve and Lodge (1895), has recently been the subject of much attention and some controversy.

Latin word order is relatively free. The verb may be found at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence (although most often at the end); an adjective may precede or follow its noun (vir bonus or bonus vir both mean 'a good man'); and a genitive may precede or follow its noun (hostium castra 'the enemy's camp' or castra hostium 'the camp of the enemy'; the latter is more common). There are also stylistic differences between Latin authors; for example, Devine and Stephens note that while Caesar always writes castra pōnit 'he sets up camp', Livy more often writes pōnit castra. There are however certain constraints; for example, in prose a monosyllabic preposition such as in 'in' generally precedes its noun (e.g. in Italiā 'in Italy'). Moreover, even though adjectives can both precede and follow the noun, there is a tendency for different kinds of adjectives to take different positions; for example adjectives of size usually come before the noun (magnā vōce 'in a loud voice', rarely vōce magnā), while "modifiers that are more important than their noun or that specify it" (e.g. Via Appia 'the Appian Way') usually follow it.

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