P A 
 
 2117 
 
 C27 
 
 1887 
 
 MAIN 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 SB 13 =171 
 
REESE LIBRARY 
 
 I )V TIIK 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Received ^^74^-*^ , 188 f^ 
 
 Accessions No^ <2. o.^/*.. Shelf No. 7 (00 O^ 
 

 
Cambridge I 
 
 0tieig 
 
 PRONUNCIATION 
 
 OF 
 
 LATIN 
 
 IN THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 TRUBNER & CO., 57 AND 59, LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 1887. 
 (All rights reserved.} 
 
PRONUNCIATION 
 OF LATIN IN THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD. 
 
 A considerable reduction from the published price is allowed 
 to Heads of Colleges, Schools, &c., on their taking a quantity. 
 
 Terms may be had on application to the publishers 
 TRUBNER & Co., LUDGATE HILL, LONDON, E. C. 
 
Crnnferibge |)IjtI0Iagttal Societn. 
 
 IT having been felt by some teachers at Cambridge that 
 the time had come to make a further attempt to correct the . 
 errors of the ordinary English pronunciation of Latin, a 
 letter of enquiry was sent out to ascertain the amount of 
 support which such an attempt would: receive. This called 
 forth very encouraging answers from lecturers in almost 
 every college in Cambridge and not a few schoolmasters. 
 The following statement was therefore drawn up by a small 
 committee : it has been fully discussed at two meetings of 
 the Society, and it is now put forth by the Society as an 
 approximate statement of the pronunciation of Latin by the 
 educated classes in the Augustan period. 
 
SUMMARY OF THE PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN 
 IN THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD. 
 
 VOWELS. 
 
 Letters. 
 
 Pronunciation. 
 
 Latin A long in alas, constans as Eng. a in psalm, salve, halve, 
 short as in dmdt, Dd- the same sound shortened. Both 
 nde d and a are found in aha ! 
 
 N.B. a in Latin was never pro- 
 nounced as in mate, nor a as 
 in man, mat. 
 
 ns Fr. e, a close 'e' 1 . It is the 
 first part of the Eng. diph- 
 thong in skein, grey, ray, 
 rain, 
 an open 1 e. Eng. e in sped. 
 
 N.B. Lat. e was never pro- 
 nounced as Eng. ee in see. 
 
 as i in machine, quinine, ee in 
 feel, feet. 
 
 N.B. The Latin I w-as never 
 the i in fine. 
 
 as i in fit, skim 2 . 
 
 E long as in teld, tensus, 
 dw 
 
 short as in tenet, /eras, 
 
 I long in trlt us, Infensus, 
 is (verb), praui 
 
 short as sifts, fecit, nisi 
 
 in certain cases where the 
 
 spelling varies between i and u 
 
 as in maximus, maxumus, 
 
 as Ger. it 3 . 
 
 1 The difference between close and open vowels (otherwise called 'narrow' 
 and ' wide ') is caused by drawing up the part of the tongue with which the 
 sound is produced and thus makmg~it more convex than it is in its natural 
 relaxed position (open). This causes a 'narrowing' of the passage of the 
 sound, whence the name. 
 
 2 Lat. final I seems to have had an intermediate sound between g and I 
 as in her?, yesterday, written in Quintilian's time her?. Q. says, Inst. i. 4, 8, 
 in here neque e plane neque i auditor; compare i. 7, 22, 24. This is supported 
 by the various spellings on inscriptions sibi, sibe, sibei ; quasi, quase, quasei, 
 so with tibi, ubi. The sound was probably that of Eng. final y as in lady. 
 
 3 Modified u (u) has two sounds in (North) German : (a) when long, it is 
 close as in grfin^gfite; so in Fr. lune, aigw: (b) when short, it is open as in 
 Imtte, schwtzen. These sounds may be produced approximately by pro- 
 nouncing I as in machine and \ as in fTt respectively, with rounded lips. 
 
longasinrom, Cdttstfs, close o as Fr. au in ch/md, fcmx. 
 conto The first part of the English 
 
 diphthong in grow, loan, 
 short as in dues, bourn, open o, nearest representative 
 
 modo Eng. o in not, rock 4 . 
 
 U \oi\gas uiumor,tunsus, as u in rain, intrude ; =00 in 
 genii poop. 
 
 N.B. Lat. u was never pro- 
 nounced like u in acwte, umle, 
 which is yoo. 
 short as in uti, tails as u in full, oo in foot. 
 
 N.B. Lat. u never as the ordi- 
 nary Eng. u in but, cut, luck. 
 Y as in gyrus, scijphus, us Ger. u, see note. 
 cymbd, llyddes 
 a Greek sound. 
 
 The great difference between the English and Latin pro- 
 nunciations of the same vowel symbols is due to the fact that 
 the pronunciation of English has changed, while the spelling 
 has not changed with it. The symbols a, i, o, e, u no longer 
 have their original values, a, I, o have become diphthongs, a in 
 mate being sounded as ei (ey] in vein or grey, I as eye, o as ow in 
 grow?. The English e in see and u in rue have a slight consonantal 
 ending which is y in the one case and w in the other. English 
 u is generally yoo. 
 
 DIPHTHONGS. 
 
 AE in taedae, AU in laus> laudo, OE in foedus, EI in 
 Pompei (voc.), EU in sen, neuter, UI in cui, liuic. . 
 
 The pronunciation of these diphthongs, of which the last 
 three are extremely rare, is best learnt by first sounding each 
 vowel separately and then running them together, ae as ah-eh, an 
 
 as ah-oo, oe as o-eh, ei as eh-ee, eu as eh-oo, and ui as oo-ee'\ 
 
 N.B. The English pronunciation which rhymes haedus, 
 foedus with 'feed us' is quite incorrect. 
 
 4 The pronunciation of the Latin o seems to have fluctuated, o (which 
 is generally, although not always close) was sometimes nearer to the Eng. 
 aw in law but more often to the Fr. au (with a higher position of the 
 tongue) while the short open o is sometimes nearer to the Eng. o in not but 
 more often to the N. Ger. o in stock. Generally speaking Latin e and o are 
 Italian close e and o, while Latin o and e are Italian open o and e. 
 
 5 AE was not far from the Ger. a and had a tendency to become open e (as 
 in men, sped) : but it was not till the 6th cent. A.D. that ae and e became quite 
 confused. AU is the German an in ho?/s. The nearest sound in Eng. is on 
 
CONSONANTS. 
 
 C in cdno, cecmi, cycnus, ceu } always as Eng. k, never as s or 
 scit, hasce, condlcio as c before e, i. Thus kekinee, 
 
 kiiknus, skit etc., condikio 
 (never condis/ao). 
 
 Qu in inquit as Eng. qu in quick. 
 
 G in gaudeo, genus, gingiud, age always as Eng. g in ^ot, gret, 
 
 begin, never as j or g in </ibe 
 or generous. 
 
 N before c (k, qu), g, as incipit, as ng in sing, (n in sink), thus 
 inquam, conger o s ingkipit, ingquam, conggero. 
 
 T, D, N, L as in adit, ndtus, nearly as in Eng. 7 
 luna, clientem, edttio, con- 
 stdns 
 
 N.B. editio etc. never as edisAio. 
 
 S as in sus, acciiso, tristes always voiceless 8 as in hiss, 
 
 hist ; never voiced as in lias 
 (haz). 
 
 P, B, M (except final M) 9 as as in Eag. 
 in plunibo 
 
 in howse, which should be pronounced ' broadly ' haowse. El is the Eng 
 diphthong in grey (rain, mate etc.). EU as in It. neutro. UI as in It. colui. 
 The old Latin diphthongs AI, pronounced as Greek ai (as in Eng. Isaiah, 
 broadly pronounced), and OI, as oi in lorn, had disappeared before the 
 Augustan period. 
 
 6 Lat. gn after a vowel has been supposed to have the sound of ng-n 
 re^num being pronounced rem/-um, cognomen as co;?#-?iomen. Mr Eoby 
 (Lat. Gr. i. Pref. p. 79 sqq.) and Seelmann (Aussprache des Lateins pp. 274, 
 278) doubt this. 
 
 7 But the tongue should touch the teeth instead of the forepart of the 
 palate. 
 
 8 'Voiced' sounds are produced with, 'voiceless' without vibrations 
 of the vocal chords ; b, d, g, z (in zest) are voiced, p, f, k, s are voiceless. 
 The 'voiced' s (z) has been sometimes assumed for classical Latin in certain 
 words when the s stands between two vowels, e.g. rosa; but without sufficient 
 authority. It was, however, probably heard in borrowed Greek words like 
 Smyrna, smaragdus (often written Zmyrna zmaragdus). The voiced s of 
 Old Latin had become r; as in laborem, Old Latin labosern. S, like T, D, 
 N, L is a pure dental produced by putting the tongue near the teeth at a 
 point more forward than in the Eng. s. For pronunciation of ns preceded 
 by a vowel see note 9 inf. 
 
 The pronunciation of final m is not free from doubt. It is clear that it 
 was more weakly sounded than at the beginning or in the middle of a word. 
 (1) When a consonant followed it, the m must have remained consonantal as 
 the vowel which preceded was lengthened in position. Thus turn tenet, turn 
 
 canet were scanned . (2) Before a vowel, however, or before h followed 
 
 by a vowel, both the m and the preceding vowel were disregarded in scansion, 
 montem habet being scanned - just like mons habet or monte habet. In 
 (1) the m was probably assimilated to the following consonant becoming 
 ng before 'gutturals', mensam grauem being pronounced mensanggrauem 
 
I consonant as in itigum, idcio as Eng. y: 2/ugum, yakio 10 . 
 
 U consonant as in udnus, uis, probably as Eng. w u : 7-yalmus, 
 seruo wees, serwo etc. 
 
 N.B. There is no ancient authority for spelling i consonant 
 
 as j or u consonant as v. The Romans used one symbol for both 
 
 vowel and consonant. 
 
 R in ringi, rdrus, dator trilled r as in French (or 
 
 Scotch) : more strongly trilled 
 
 than in Eng. opera, herring 12 . 
 
 KB. The final r should be 
 
 fully sounded 12 . 
 
 R is the 'dog's letter' r-r-r 
 'irritata canis quam homo 
 quam planiu' dicit* Lucil. 
 RH is found in borrowed 
 words as Pyrr/ms, r/ieuma. 
 It is the corresponding voice- 
 less sound as in Fr. thedtre = 
 Gk. p. The trilled r is repre- 
 sented by rr in the exx. given 
 below. 
 
 (cf. quamquam or quanquatn pronounced quangquam), n before t, d, n, 8, i 
 consonant, mensam tenet being pronounced mensantenet (and quom iam 
 quo?aam). Before r, I it was completely assimilated, mensam leuem being 
 mensalleuem, mensam rudem mensarrudem. In (2) the final m was probably 
 absorbed into the preceding vowel which was nasalized. Thus, adopting 
 the customary mark for a nasal vowel, -am became <7, -em. u etc. The 
 nasalized vowel thus formed was slurred on to the following vowel like 
 any non-nasalized vowel. Thus fluctum accipit was pronounced fluctaccipit ? 
 quanquam incipit as quanqu h incipit etc. [Nasal vowels are produced by 
 sending the voice in part through the nose The French vowels in en, on, un, 
 vin etc. are familiar examples of nasal vowels.] 
 
 Mr A. J. Ellis however believes that the m was always omitted in speak- 
 ing and the following consonant pronounced as if it were doubled: quorum 
 pars he would pronounce quoruppars, spargam flores as spargafflores, 
 animamque as animacque. Final ini followed by i consonant he pronounces 
 as I, -urn followed by u consonant as &: e.g. clauirn iacit as claul iacit. 
 Final m at the end of a sentence he thinks was not heard at all. Where a 
 vowel followed as in (2) he believes that the m was never sounded and that 
 fluctum was treated exactly like fluctu, mensam like mensa, the final vowel 
 before 771 being simply slurred on to the following one. 
 
 It is also possible that a vowel was nasalized when it was immediately 
 followed by ns. This would explain the frequent omission of the n in such 
 cases, cesor appearing on inscriptions by censor, cosol by consul etc. In 
 this case msanus (see below) would be pronounced eesanus, fruns (for irons, 
 frondis), also written frus (Ennius), frobss. 
 
 10 In a number of cases the i was pronounced twice though only written 
 once. So in obicio, pronounced dbyikio. 
 
 11 It may however have been pronounced as Fr. ou in oui. 
 
 12 The proper rolling of the r is most important, especially at the end of 
 words, the English tendency being to slur all unaccented finals. Thus we pro- 
 
G 
 
 CH in Bacchus. TH in Cethegus, as k, t, p followed by 
 
 PH as in Phoebus 
 
 F inferueo, udfer as in Eng. 
 
 II in Jiora, incoho as in Eng. 
 
 COMPOUND AND DOUBLED CONSONANTS. 
 
 X as in saxum, pax, exulto asEng.&f (a); eksulto } uoteggsulto 
 
 BS as in absorbeo, urbs ,, ps; urbs as oorrps. 
 
 Z as in gaza, Zephyrus, a Greek pronunciation doubtful ; but 
 
 sound perhaps as dz in adze, not as z. 
 
 Care should be taken with doubled consonants, (a) Where we 
 find in classical times the two symbols regularly written, we may 
 infer that two sounds were intended to be represented. This is true 
 of explosives, as in vac-ca, cip-pus, ag-ger in sounding which a 
 distinct pause ought to be made (as in Italian) between the two 
 sounds ; it is also true of fricatives, as in Metel-lus, pen-na, fer- 
 rum, pos-sum, dif-ncilis. (b) But where the spelling varies as in 
 caussa (causa), Pollio (Polio), we may infer that the sound was but 
 one somewhat prolonged fricative, the double symbol (Po-llio, 
 cau-ssa), being used to mark this fact. Before the "doubled" 
 sounds of (a) the accent was commonly stronger and the vowel 
 short. 
 
 "ELISION" OF VOWELS. 
 
 Final vowels (or diphthongs) when followed by vowels (or 
 diphthongs) or h were not 'cut off' but were lightly pronounced 
 and run on to the following vowel as in Italian 14 . Thus we should 
 pronounce ego eo as egeo, not eg'eo, ill 6 ibit, not ilFibit. Where 
 the two vowels were the same, as in Marcella am at, the effect was 
 that of a single vowel. Similarly where a vowel was followed by 
 
 nounce er, ir, ur without any distinction with the same single vowel, and 
 assimilate them all to the final short a, and consequently make no difference 
 in sound between mater, (a)matwr and (a)mata. So lem'r is pronounced 
 'lever.' In reading verse this destroys the metre by producing hiatus: Jlatur 
 erit is pronounced as if it vferejlata erit. So also in other cases: uer, cur and 
 uir are all pronounced alike with the same vowel sound and no rr; they 
 should be sounded wehrr, koorr, and wirr. The mis-pronunciation is not 
 confined to finals ; arbor is pronounced ' ahbor ' (or even ' ahba ') in place of 
 5,hrrborr ; uertit ought to be pronounced wgrrtit. 
 
 13 These sounds are heard in Ireland. They may be obtained by pro- 
 nouncing ink-horn, pot-house, tap-house so that the mute comes into the 
 second syllable, in-khorn, po-thouse, ta-phouse. It is quite incorrect to 
 pronounce th as in thin, and ph as/. 
 
 14 This is what Cicero means by conitingere uocales, Orator 150. 
 
a diphthong beginning with the same vosvel, as in contra audentior, 
 which had the effect of coutraudentior. 
 
 For the pronunciation of a vowel and final m before a following 
 vowel or h see note 9. 
 
 QUANTITY. 
 
 The proper observance of the quantity is of vital importance 
 for the proper appreciation of metre in Latin poetry and rhythm 
 in prose. The short and long vowels in Latin differed in duration 
 as the first and second in alia! or quinine. This difference should 
 be carefully observed. The practice of lengthening the accented 
 vowels is entirely alien to the classical pronunciation of Latin. 
 Pronounce cibus Id-bus not sigh-bin, pronounce d-mo not ey-mo, 
 sacro sdh-cro not sake-row. Especial care is required where a 
 vowel follows in the next syllable. Hence we should pronounce 
 suls soo-ees, siiis soo-is and not both like sue-is, sciunt as skee-unt 
 (not sigh-unt). The shortening and slurring of the unaccented 
 vowel is equally faulty, uictoria (oh-r?*ee-ah) is to be carefully 
 distinguished from uictoria (oh-iree-ah), ratis a ship from ratls dat. 
 pi. of ratiis (rah-teess). A special form of this fault is pronouncing 
 words like ded, red as if the two vowels formed a diphthong and 
 so making them monosyllables (dear, rear) instead of disyllables. 
 
 Every vowel has a quantity of its own ; and the English practice 
 of pronouncing all vowels in position before two or more 
 consonants as if they were naturally short, is erroneous. The 
 Romans said sScta but rectus, tectus : Indoctus but Tnsula, 
 Tnfensns 15 . 
 
 ACCENT. 
 
 The nature of the Latin accent has been much discussed. It 
 was certainly different from the English accent, which consists in 
 pronouncing the accented syllable with much greater emphasis or 
 stress than the adjacent syllables. It seems clear that the Latin 
 
 15 The natural length of a vowel must be distinguished from the conven- 
 tional 'lengthening' which it is said to undergo before two consonants. 
 In indoctus the i is itself short, but the fact that nd follow allows the syllable 
 to be treated in verse as if it were naturally long as in l-bat. In insanus 
 the vowel itself is long, ee. What vowels were naturally long and short, 
 cannot be completely determined. But we learn from ancient authorities 
 that vowels were long before the combinations ns, nf, thus : constans, mfensus : 
 so also before gn: regnum, signum and at least sometimes before nc, nq: 
 qulnque, Quln(c)tus, sanctus. Where a g became c before t, s etc., the 
 preceding vowel became long as in lectus from lego, while from seco we have 
 sectus. The vowel is frequently long before r and a consonant: Marcus 
 (Maarcus) Mars, ordo, orno. The natural quantity of the vowel was retained 
 when two consonants followed, as in scriptus from scrlbo. See Seelmann 
 Aussprache des Lateins pp. 69 sqq., Marx Hiilfsbiichlein fur die Aussprache 
 der Lett. Vokale in posit ionslan gen Silben. 
 
accent was partly a pitch- and partly a stress-accent ; or, in other 
 words, that the accented syllable was pronounced in a higher key 
 and also with greater force than the unaccented syllables. The 
 difference in pitch is vouched for, inter alia, by the welt known 
 statement of Cicero in the Orator 58. The Latin acuta (uox) 
 denoted that the voice rose on the accented syllable : such an 
 accent has been called a ' rising- tone ' (Sweet). The Latin grauis 
 would naturally be the lower tone of unaccented syllables. In 
 the circumflexa (or inflexa as Cicero calls it), the voice would first 
 rise and then fall on the same syllable (pluma). The exact 
 amount of difference in pitch between the accented and unaccented 
 syllables cannot now be ascertained. 
 
 As regards the difference in stress it is to be remarked first 
 that it manifests itself in a number of ways : in the tendency to 
 draw away the accent as far as may be from the last syllable, to alter 
 both the quantity and the character of the vowels in unaccented 
 syllables and to affect the final consonants of a word : secondly 
 that the difference of force or vigour with which accented and un- 
 accented syllables were respectively pronounced was considerably 
 less than in English. Accordingly the accented vowels should be 
 pronounced much more gently and the unaccented ones much more 
 distinctly than is at present the custom. Special attention should 
 be paid to this. 
 
 CAMEKIDOE: PUIXTKD LY c. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
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