3rd Declension: Locative Case

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80. The Locative form for nouns of the 3rd declension ends in the singular in or , in the plural in -ibus.

rūrī in the country
Carthāginī or Carthāgine at Carthage
Trallibus at Tralles1

 

Footnotes

1. The Indo-European locative singular ended in , which became in Latin. Thus the Latin ablative in -e is, historically considered, a locative. The Latin ablative in (from -īd) was an analogical formation (cf. from -ād, from -ōd), properly belonging to i-stems. With names of towns and a few other words, a locative function was ascribed to forms in (as, Carthāginī), partly on the analogy of the real locative of o-stems (as, Corinthī, § 49.a); but forms in also survived in this use. The plural -bus is properly dative or ablative, but in forms like Trallibus it has a locative function. Cf. Philippīs (§ 49.a), in which the ending -īs is, historically considered, either locative, or instrumental, or both, and Athēnīs (§ 43.c), in which the ending is formed on the analogy of o-stems.
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Suggested Citation

Meagan Ayer, Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Dickinson College Commentaries, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-947822-04-7. https://dcc.dickinson.edu/grammar/latin/3rd-declension-locative-case