(i.) The complete loss of the dual number, save for a survival in the
dialect of Praeneste (_C.I.L._ xiv. 2891, = Conway, _Ital. Dial._ p.
285, where _Q. k. Cestio Q. f._ seems to be nom. dual); so _C.I.L._
xi. 6706_5, T. C. Vomanio, see W. Schulze, _Lat. Eigennamen_, p. 117.
(ii.) The introduction of new forms in the gen. sing, of the -_o_-
stems (_domini_), of the -_a_- stems (_mensae_) and in the nom. plural
of the same two declensions; innovations mostly derived from the
pronominal declension.
(iii.) The development of an adverbial formation out of what was
either an instrumental or a locative of the -_o_- stems, as in
_longe_. And here may be added the other adverbial developments, in
-_m_ (_palam_, _sensim_) probably accusative, and -_iter_, which is
simply the accusative of _iter_, "way," crystallized, as is shown
especially by the fact that though in the end it attached itself
particularly to adjectives of the third declension (_molliter_), it
appears also from adjectives of the second declension whose meaning
made their combination with _iter_ especially natural, such as
_longiter_, _firmiter_, _largiter_ (cf. English _straightway_,
_longways_). The only objections to this derivation which had any real
weight (see F. Skutsch, _De nominibus no- suffixi ope formatis_, 1890,
pp. 4-7) have been removed by Exon's Law (§ 11), which supplies a
clear reason why the contracted type _constanter_ arose in and was
felt to be proper to Participial adverbs, while _firmiter_ and the
like set the type for those formed from adjectives.
(iv.) The development of the so-called fifth declension by a
re-adjustment of the declension of the nouns formed with the suffix
-_ie_-: _ia_- (which appears, for instance, in all the Greek feminine
participles, and in a more abstract sense in words like _materies_) to
match the inflexion of two old root-nouns _res_ and _dies_, the stems
of which were originally _rei_- (Sans. _ras_, _rayas_, cf. Lat.
_reor_) and _dieu_-.
(v.) The disuse of the -_ti_- suffix in an abstract sense. The great
number of nouns which Latin inherited formed with this suffix were
either (1) marked as abstract by the addition of the further suffix
-_on_- (as in _natio_ beside the Gr. [Greek: gnêsi-os], &c.) or else
(2) confined to a concrete sense; thus _vectis_, properly "a carrying,
lifting," came to mean "pole, lever"; _ratis_, properly a "reckoning,
devising," came to mean "an (improvised) raft" (contrast _ratio_);
_postis_, a "placing," came to mean "post."
(vi.) The confusion of the consonantal stems with stems ending in
-_i_-. This was probably due very largely to the forms assumed through
phonetic changes by the gen. sing. and the nom. and acc. plural. Thus
at say 300 B.C. the inflexions probably were:
conson. stem -_i_- stem
Nom. plur. *_reg-es_ _host-es_
Acc. plur. _reg-es_ _host-is_
The confusing difference of signification of the long -_es_ ending led
to a levelling of these and other forms in the two paradigms.
(vii.) The disuse of the _u_ declension (Gr. [Greek: hêdys, stachys])
in adjectives; this group in Latin, thanks to its feminine form (Sans.
fem. _svadvi_, "sweet"), was transferred to the _i_ declension
(_suavis_, _gravis_, _levis_, _dulcis_).