'GRAMMAROF THE

j%>SQs v^}^ei'(^ dfiini yroioi,

and

hui,

and inis

huic,

o'c cut,

are contracted into one syllable, which

comnioiii^ clone a1 poetry.

Theit

ancients in pronouncing a diphthong uttered the two vowels of which

more distinctly than we do. The word neuter^ in particular, was -pronounced in such a manner that the two vowels in ew, though In this manner we may reconcile the united, were yet distinctly heard. assertion of the grammarian Consentius, that it is a barbarism to pronounce tieutrum as a word of two syllables, with those passages in Latin poetry which necessarily demand the diphthong. Neutiquam in the comic poets has its first syllable always short, as if it were nutiquam, from which we may infer that it was not so much the long diphthong as the two short vowels, that were heard. In like manner the diphthongs ae and oe were pronounced, and hence we find that in the early times ai and oi were pronounced and written in their stead, and that the Latins expressed the Greek ai and ot by ae and oe ; for, if these diphthongs are pronounced in the manner above described, it will be perceived that the difference between the sounds of e and i is but slight. The Greek ei must likewise have been pronounced in such a manner that the two vowels were distinctly heard for the Latins, in whose language this diphthong does not occur, use in its place sometimes e and sometimes i, or either of them indiscriminately. Before consonants we always find i, e. g., eclipsis, Nilus, Clitus, Heraclidae ; and in Latin we must accordingly pronounce and write Polyclitus, and not Polycletus (see my remark on Cic-. in Verr. iv. 3.) Hilotes or Hilotae {Hotae^ for the Greek Before vowels, on the other hand, is E'/XwTfg or E'/Xwrat), and not Helotes. the Greek ei is sometimes changed into e, and sometimes into i ; the e appears, for example, in Aeneas and Medea, and the i in Iphigenia and elegia, whereas Alexandrea and Alexandria, Thucydideus and Thucydidiiis In Cicero the forms Ariopagus and Ariopagitae, are used indiscriminately. are better established than Areopagus, Areopagitae, and the like, which we commonly find in our editions, whereas the form Dareus is much moreconsists;

;

authentic according to theis

MSS.

of Latin authors, than Darius.

This fact

now[ 2.]

generally acknowledged, and does not require here to be supportedIt was,

by

authorities.

however, only by degrees that the pronunciation and orthofixed, and this was mainly the work of the grammarians during the first centuries after Christ. Previously there existed many peculiarities in the pronunciation, which were also adopted in the written language, and some of these' are still retained in the texts of a few of the early writers, such as Plautus, Terence, and Sallust, for historical reasons, or, so to speak, from diplomatic fidelity. But such peculiarities should not be imitated by us, for they were gradually given up by the ancients themselves. With regard to pronunciation and orthography, we must necessarily adhere to the rules which were laid down by the ancient grammarians, who certainly did not derive them from the vulgar idiom of the people, but from the uncorrupt and pure language of the educated classes. In the earliest times the broad pronunciation of the -long i was commonly indicated by ei, but without its being pronounced as a diphthong ei, which is foreign to the Latin language for example, heic for hie, queis for quis (quibus), eidiis for

graphy became

:

idus,

and

in the accusative plural of the third declension

when

it

terminates

in

is

(see 68.), such as omneis, arteis, for omnis

and

artis,es.

tion of the accusative

was subsequently changed into

which terminaA middle sound

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS.between the two short vowels u and i was preserved, in some words, down later time and many persons pronounced and wrote luhet^ existumo,:

3to aclu-

still

peus, inclutus, satura, for

lihet^

existimo, clipeus, &c.

;

the adjective termination

umus for iynus, as Jinitumus for JiJiitwms, and the superlatives optumus, maxumus, and pulcherrumus, for optimus, maximus^ &c. Julius Csesar declared himself in favour of i, which was afterwards adopted generally, although- the emperor Claudius wanted to introduce a new letter for the indefinite vowel in those words. We must further observe that in early times o was used instead of m, after the letter ??, e. g. volt^ volnus, avom, and even in the nominative avus instead of avus: in some words o took the place of e; for example, vorto and its derivatives for verto, voster for vester. instead of e occurs in the termination of the participle undus for endus, and was retained in some cases in later times also. (See 167.) Lastly, we have to mention that the vulgar pronunciation of au was 6 ; e. g. Claudius was pronounced as Clodius^ plaustrum as plostrum^ and plaudo as plodo ; but in some words this pronunciation, which in general was considered faulty, became established by custom, as in plostellum^ a little carriage, a diminutive form of plaustrum. This was the case more especially when the common mode of

U

pronouncing served to indicate a difference in meaning, as in lotus^ washed, and lautus, splendid or elegant; and codex, a tablet for writing (or a book), and caudex, a block of wood. In the compounds of plaudo the form plodothus became prevalent.2. The Consonants are, B, b; C, c; D, d; F,f; G, g; [ 3.] H, h; {K, k;) L, I; M, m; N, n; P, p; Q, q; R, r; S, s; T, t; X, x; (Z, 2"). With regard to their classification, it is

only necessary here to observe that(liquidae),

I,

m,

n, r, are called liquidss,

and the

rest

mutes (mutae), with the exception of{litter a sibilans), is

which, being a sibilant

of a peculiar nature.

The mutes may again be classified, with reference to the organ by which they are pronounced, into labials (y, 5, p, /), palatals and z (called zeta) are and Unguals (d, t). {g, c, k, qu), double consonants, x being a combination of c and s, and z of d and s. ,

X

Note. It will be observed that there are some letters in our own alphabet which do not occur in this list j and v were expressed by the Latins by the same signs as the vowels % and m, viz. / and V; but in pronunciation they were distinguished whence we hear of an i or v consonans ; and, like ordinary consonants, they make position when preceded by another consonant, and do not form an hiatus when preceded by a vowel. It is only in consequence of poetical licences which are rendered necessary by the metre (which however, at the same time, show the kindred nature existing between the sounds of the vowel and consonant), that the v is at one time softened down into u ; as, for example, when the words solvit and silva are made to form three syllables (comp. 184.) and, at others, the vowels i and u are hardened into the consonants j and v, which is very often the case with i; by this means the preceding short syllable is lengthened, as in the words Virgil, for example, abies, aries, consilium, fluvius, tenuis, and some others. uses Jluvjorum rex Eridanus ; Ovid, at the close of an hexameter verse,:

;

:

B 2

4

LATIN GRAMMAR.

; Lucretius, copia tenvis and neque tenIn cases where the preceding syllable is already long, the poet may at least get rid of a syllable which does not suit the verse, as in Juvenal, comitata est Hippia ludjum and nuper consule Junjo ; and (iv. 37.), Quum jam semjanimum laceraret Flavins orhem. We may therefore, in writing Latin, make use of the signs j and y, which are employed in modern languages, for the purpose of distinguishing the pronunciation before a vowel at the beginning of a syllable, and we need not retain the defective mode of writing of the Romans, since they viewed these letters just as we do, and would willingly have adopted so convenient a means of distinction if they had known it, or if their better knowledge had not been obliged to give way to habit. But this rule cannot be applied to Greek words, since i and v with the Greeks had only the nature of vowels. We therefore read locaste, iambus, lones, Laius, Agaue, euoe : and the i at the beginning of these words is treated as a vowel, Some Greek in their connexion with prepositions, as in ab Ionia, ex Ionia. proper names, however, are justly written and pronounced in Latin with a J, as G?'ajus, Ajax, Maja, Troja, Achaja. it is not considered as a vowel, and thereis only an aspiration [ 4.] fore when joined with a consonant it does not lengthen the preceding The ancients themselves (see Quintil. i. 5. 21.) were in doubt syllable. with regard to several words, as to which was the more correct, to pronounce it or not for example, as to whether they should pronounce have or ave, hedera or edera, harundo or arundo, halucinor or alucinor, Tierus or eru^, veliemens or veemens (vemens), ahenum or aenum, mihi or mi, prehendo and deprehendo, or prendo and deprendo, and several other words, in which, however, the orthography now adopted is the more correct of the two. The letter arose out of C, for in the early times the sounds of li (c) and g were not distinguished in writing, on account of their similarity and although the Romans wrote, for example, leciones, yet they pronounced legiones. The fact of the prajnomina Oajus and Gnaeus, when indicated only by the initials, being frequently written C. and Cn., is a remnant of the old orthography and it is expressly attested by ancient grammarians (see, e. g.,

custos erat arjetis aurei^ for arietis

vius extai, for tenuis, tenuius.

H

;

;

G

;

;

Quintil.(Taioc,

i.

7. 28.)

as well as

TvoXoq), that theyat

and Gnaeus, which was

by the Greek mode of writing those names were never pronounced otherwise than Gajus the same time the invariable mode of writing themare given,

when they were given at full length. Even when the initials only we meet with G. and Gn., just as often as with C. and Cn.

became a superfluous letter in Latin, as its place was supplied by c. [ 5.J In early times it was chiefly used in words beginning with ca, such as kaput, Ttalumnia, Karthago ; but this is now done, according to the example of theancients, in abbreviations only, such aslendae.

K

K.

for Kaeso,

K, or Kal.

for

Kafrom

Qc;

is

in reality likewise a superfluous letter, not differing in valueit

has been more fortunate than k in maintaining its place, at least in those cases where the sound of c is followed by u, and the latter by another vowel, as in quum, quern, qui, quo, antiquus. The first of these words is to be pronounced cudm, as a monosyllable and it remains doubtful as to whether the u is still a vowel, or assumes the nature of a consonant cvam. There are some few words in which the pronunciation and orthography hesitate between qu and c ; e. g., in coquus and equuleus : in some others c is known to be the correct pronunciation, from the testimony of the ancients

but

;

: ;

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS.themselves, although

5

we

still

partly for etymological reasons.

write qu^ partly for the sake of distinction, and Thus we distinguish the conjunction quum

from the preposition cum ; and write quotidie and quotaiinis on account of their formation from quct^ and sequutus and loquutus on account of their derivation from sequor and loquor, although it is quite certain that all the Romans pronounced, and most of them also wrote, cum, cotidie (cottidie only to indicate the shortness of the vowel), secutus, locutus. The last two must absolutely be spelled secutm and locutus (see Schneider, Elementarlehre^ and with regard to the others, too, it is but just that we should p. 332.);

The reader will find in this work the conjunction spelled quum; but he ought to remember, that it is done only for the purpose of distinguishing it, to the eye, from the preposition, and that it ought to be pronounced as cum*follow the instructions of the ancients.

Z occurs only in words borrowed from the Greek, e. g. gaza, trapeza and w can be used only when modern words are introduced into the Latin language without undergoing any change in their orthography.[ 6.]

3.

Respecting the pronunciation of the consonants,

it

must be observed, that the rule with the Latins was to pronounce them just as they were written. Every modern nation has its own peculiar way of pronouncing them and among the many corruptions of the genuine pronunciation there are two which have become firmly rooted in nearly all Europe, and which it is, perhaps, impossible to banish from the language. We pronounce c, when followed by e, i, y, ae, or oe, both in Latin and Greek words, like our s, and when followed by other The Romans on the other vowels or by consonants like a k.;

we can ascertain, always pronounced c like k; and the Greeks, in their intercourse with the Romans, did not The earliest instance in which c hear any other pronunciation. was pronounced in this or a similar manner seems to have been when it was followed by i with another vowel after it, for the terminations tius and tia are so frequently used for cius and cia, But even that we must infer that they were similarly sounded. this similarity seems to have been foreign to the old and correct pronunciation. We pronounce ti before a vowel like slii, buthand, as far aslikewise withouttransition

any

reason.

But

it

is

easy to discover the

from the pure pronunciation to that which is now customary, for the ti in all these cases is short, and in quick*

Lipslus, in his Dialogus de recta P?'onuntiatione

Lingum

LatincB, ex-

presses himself upon the pronunciation of c in this remarkable manner " Pudet non tam erroris quam pertinaclse, quia corripl patiuntur at noncorrigi, ct tenent omnes quod defendat nemo. Itall, Hispani, GermanI, GalU, Audeat enim Britanni in hoc peccato a qua gente initium emendandi ? una aliqua et omnes audient.":

B 3

6

LATIN GKAMMAR.it

speaking

easily

changes into

shi.

Forti

this reason it

would

be quite

wrong to pronounce the long

in the genitive totius init.

the same manner, since there can be no excuse forthere are some cases in which even the shortti,

But

according to the

not read like shi: 1) in Greek words, such as Miltiades, Boeotia, Aegyptius; 2) when the t is pre-

common

pronunciation,

is

ceded by another3)

t,

by

s or x,

e. g.

Bruttii, ostium, mixtio;

and

when

it

is

followed by the termination of the infinitive

passiveNote.

er, as

in nitier, quatier.

In many words it is difficult to determine whether they ought to be spelled with ci or ti. The question must be decided partly by a correct etymology, partly by the orthography adopted by the Greeks, and partly by ancient and authentic inscriptions for nearly all our MSS. were made at a time when ci was pronounced in the wrong way, and was accordingly confounded with ti. Thus, it appears that in the derivative adjectives formed from nouns and participles we must write icius and not itius ; e. g. gentilicius, aedilicius, novicius, commendaticius, as, indeed, we always write patricius and the proper names Fahricius and Mawncius. We now commonly write conditio, though In nuntius, and all its derivatives, on it is better to write condicio and dicio. the other hand, the ti is correct and also in oiium, injitior (from fateoi-)., and fetialis (Greek (pTjridXaig). In inscriptions and ancient MSS. we find only contio, and not concio.;

;

it is always preceded by by the ancients more indistinctly than at the beginning of a word perhaps in the same manner as in the French le nom, where the m is heard much more indistinctly than in le midi. When the word following began with a vowel, the final m of the preceding word was not sounded at

[ 7.]

ikf at the

end of a word (where

a vowel) was pronounced

;

all, according to the testimony of the ancient grammarians, or it formed only a gentle transition from the one vowel to the other. S, like the Greek