is
is uit.-lat.
From Proto-Italic *is, from Proto-Indo-European *éy. Cognate with Oscan 𐌉𐌆𐌉𐌊 (izik), Umbrian 𐌄𐌓𐌄 (ere), and further with Lithuanian jis, Proto-Slavic *jь.
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /is/, [ɪs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /is/, [is]
is (feminine ea, neuter id); demonstrative pronoun
- (pronoun) this or that man, woman or thing; he, she, it, they (previously introduced)
- Picks up the subject or object after an intervening clause, to avoid repeating the relative pronoun quī, or substitutes syntactically fronted expressions
- (correlative) that...which; he, she...who, it...that
- (determiner) this or that [man, woman or thing] (as a noun phrase modifier)
- (with genus with nominative or modī with genitive) such a, that sort of [ quotations ▼]
- eiusmodī sermōnēs ― talk of that kind
- Substituting a clause.
- quod eius fierī possit ― as far as [any of that is] possible
- As an internal accusative: for that reason, on that account
- idque gaudeō ― and I'm glad about that
- Used in various prepositional phrases.
- As an internal accusative: for that reason, on that account
Latin is is an endophoric pronoun and determiner, which may be employed either as an anaphora or as a cataphora, meaning it serves as a reference to something preceding or following, respectively, in the text. Unlike a demonstrative such as ille or English this, is does not have a deictic function, meaning it cannot point to a referent in the world, but only one named in the text; nor can it be used exophorically as a 3d-person pronoun such as English (s)he that refers to something not already defined in the context but presumed to be known or deduceable by the addressee. Thus we see it used with first, second and third person.
The exophoric demonstratives/determiners in Latin are hic (proximal, near the speaker), iste (medial, near the listener), and ille (distal, far from both). Note that Latin doesn't have any 3rd-person pronouns, using the aforementioned demonstratives in their place.
Oblique cases are rare in elevated poetry.
Demonstrative pronoun.
| Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nominative | is | ea | id | eī1 iī ī |
eae | ea | |
| Genitive | eius ejus |
eōrum eum |
eārum | eōrum eum | |||
| Dative | eī2 e͡i ēī |
eī2 e͡i ēī eae |
eī2 e͡i ēī |
eīs1 iīs īs |
eīs1 iīs īs eābus |
eīs1 iīs īs | |
| Accusative | eum | eam | id | eōs | eās | ea | |
| Ablative | eō | eā | eō | eīs1 iīs īs | |||
1The nom./dat./abl. plural forms regularly developed into a monosyllable /iː(s)/, with later remodelling - compare the etymology of deus. This /iː/ was normally spelled as EI during and as II after the Republic; a disyllabic iī, spelled II, Iꟾ, appears in Silver Age poetry, while disyllabic eīs is only post-Classical. Other spellings include EEI(S), EIEI(S), IEI(S).
2The dat. singular is found spelled EIEI (here represented as ēī) and scanned as two longs in Plautus, but also as a monosyllable. The latter is its normal scansion in Classical. Other spellings include EEI, IEI.