Ch 11 · Lesson 9Latin · Chapter 11 · Lesson 9 · Grammar primer
The Gloria: Domine Fili, qui tollis
unigenite, Iesu Christe: four vocatives in three patterns. Then , you who take away, and miserere , a imperative.
The short version
unigenite, Iesu Christe.
Why?Hide
Second-declension nouns in -us make their vocative in -e (, Christe), but nouns in -ius shorten it to -i: gives . Iesus has its own vocative, Iesu. One line of the shows all three patterns.
Miserere is an imperative, not a passive
, miserere .
Why?Hide
Misereor is : passive in form, active in meaning, and its imperative ends in -re. It does not take the accusative: classical Latin puts the person pitied in the genitive (miserere ), church Latin also in the dative (miserere ).
Domine Fili: four vocatives
The addresses God and Christ again and again, and each address is a vocative:
| Word | Nominative | Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| | -us becomes -e |
| | - becomes -i |
unigenite | unigenitus | -us becomes -e |
Iesu | Iesus | Greek-style: -u |
Christe | Christus | -us becomes -e |
| | 3rd declension: no change |
| | keeps -us |
unigenite, Iesu Christe has four nouns in the vocative, with an adjective agreeing, in three patterns. and unigenite sit side by side with different endings because only nouns in -ius shorten to -i; the same rule gives Vergili from Vergilius.
The next line, , , uses nominative forms to address him. Latin allows a nominative in place of a vocative, especially in a title, and is normally used that way.
Qui tollis: you who take away
is a relative pronoun with a second-person verb: you who take away, not who takes away.
| Latin | What it does | English |
|---|---|---|
| | you who take away |
| accusative + genitive | the sins of the world |
miserere | imperative of misereor + dative | have mercy on us |
deprecationem | object of suscipe, from suscipio | receive our prayer |
| | at the right (hand) |
Miserere looks passive. It is the imperative of misereor, a verb: passive in form, active in meaning, and its imperative ends in -. Classical Latin puts the person pitied in the genitive (miserere , have mercy on me); church Latin also uses the dative, miserere .
is an adjective with , hand, left out: the right hand.
Going further: The Gloria and the rest of the guide, when you want them. This lesson does not need them.
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