TEACHERS' HANDBOOKS 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 $B E1D 701 
 
 LATIN PRONUNCIATION 
 
 H. T. PECK 
 
TEACHERS' HANDBOOKS 
 
 LATIN PRONUNCIATION 
 
 A SHORT EXPOSITION OF THE 
 ROMAN METHOD 
 
 HARRY THURSTON PECK, M.A., Ph.D. 
 
 Professor, in Columbia College 
 
 NEW YORK 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 1890 
 
Copyright, 1890, 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY HOLT & CO. 
 
 Robert Drummond, 
 
 Printer, 
 
 New York. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Introductory, .... 
 II. Soukces of Our Information, 
 
 III. The Latin Alphabet, ... 
 
 IV. Sounds of the Letters, 
 V. Sounds of the Diphthongs, . 
 
 VI. A Short Bibliography of the Subject, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 12 
 15 
 31 
 37 
 
LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 This short manual is primarily intended for those 
 who, being interested in the study of Latin, have ac- 
 cepted the Roman method of pronunciation upon 
 the authority of the Grammars, but have either not 
 been able to command the time to make themselves 
 familiar with the arguments upon which this system 
 is based, or have been repelled by the technicalities 
 employed in treating the question from the standpoint 
 of the specialist. It is believed that the following 
 pages will be found to give in simple form the main 
 facts bearing upon this interesting question ; and that 
 nothing has been introduced that is either unnecessary 
 or obscure. For those who may wish to pursue their 
 investigations farther after mastering these facts, a 
 bibliography of the subject is given at the end. 
 
 The Roman method of pronouncing Latin has now 
 received the approval of all Latinists of authority 
 in Europe and America, as giving substantially the 
 pronunciation employed by educated Romans of the 
 
 5 
 
6 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 Augustan Age. It has been formally adopted at our 
 leading Universities. The most recent Grammars of 
 the language recognize no other method. Thus, one 
 great reproach to classical scholarship seems likely to 
 be soon removed, and one universal pronunciation of 
 the noblest of the ancient languages to receive general 
 acceptation. This little book will more than accom- 
 plish its object if it shall have aided ever so slightly 
 in discrediting the barbarisms of a method which, to 
 use the expression of a distinguished scholar, " ought 
 long since to have followed the Ptolemaic system of 
 astronomy into the limbo of unscientific curiosities/ 1 
 
II. 
 
 SOURCES OF OUR INFORMATION. 
 
 A question of much interest to the student of Latin, 
 and one that does not always receive a satisfactory 
 answer, relates to the sources of our information. 
 
 What knowledge have we of how the Romans pro- 
 nounced their own language nineteen hundred years 
 ago ? How is it possible after so long an interval to 
 reconstruct the laws of a pronunciation which prevailed 
 at a given period of the remote past ? 
 
 Briefly summarized, the sources of our information 
 are six in number. 
 
 (1) Statements of the Roman writers themselves, 
 which modern scholarship has laboriously collected. 
 These are of different degrees of explicitness, and of 
 different degrees of value. It is evident that a state- 
 ment of Cicero, however brief, is more trustworthy and 
 more convincing, with regard to the usage of his own 
 time, than whole pages of testimony in a writer like 
 Priscian who wrote in the sixth century, by which 
 period the language had become corrupt. 
 
 We may, then, broadly divide the ancient authori- 
 ties on this subject into two groups, the first consist- 
 ing of those writers who themselves belonged to the 
 classical age; the second, of those grammarians and 
 commentators who have left us very full statements, 
 
 7 
 
8 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 though the date at which they wrote somewhat impairs 
 the value of their testimony. 
 
 The chief classical authorities to whom appeal can 
 be made are M. Terentius Varro, a contemporary of 
 Cicero, whose treatise on the Latin language has in 
 part come down to us; Cicero himself, from whose 
 rhetorical works one can gather many valuable facts; 
 and M. Fabius Quintilianus, the author of the treatise 
 Institutio Oratoria in twelve books. It is not 
 merely when these authors speak of definite points of 
 language and pronunciation that th^y are valuable; 
 sometimes a casual remark, an anecdote, or a puu, 
 may be of very great importance, as will be seen from 
 time to time in the following pages. 
 
 Of the later writers on language who treat the subject 
 very minutely, a great number might be cited.* The 
 most important are Terentianus Maurus, who wrote, 
 perhaps about the third century, a poem on letters, 
 syllables, feet, and metres, which is twice quoted by 
 St. Augustine; Verrius Flaccus, the tutor to the grand- 
 children of the Emperor Augustus and author of a 
 work on the meaning of words which has come down to 
 us in a later abridgment; Aulus Gellius, who, toward 
 the end of the second century, compiled a huge scrap- 
 book on a variety of subjects, many of them of great 
 linguistic interest, and, with the exception of a few 
 chapters, still extant; Priscianus Caesariensis, who 
 
 * Schneider in his ElementarleJire der Lateinischen Sprache 
 cites more than fifty ancient authors. Besides those men- 
 tioned above, reference is often made to Velius Longns, Ser- 
 vius, Marius Victorinus, Macrobius, and Martian us Capella. 
 
SOURCES OF OUR INFORMATION, 9 
 
 wrote under Justinian at Constantinople eighteen 
 books of grammatical commentaries which form the 
 most complete grammar of antiquity; and Aelius 
 Donatus (a.d. 333), whose elementary treatise was so 
 highly thought of in the Middle Ages that the name 
 " donat " (Chaucer) was used as a generic term for a 
 grammar. 
 
 From these and many other writers one gathers a 
 great mass of instructive facts; and their very silence 
 is sometimes as significant as what they say. 
 
 (2) The orthography of the language itself as seen 
 in the inscriptions. Latin orthography was in the 
 main phonetic (Quintilian, I. 7. 11). The language 
 was pronounced as it was spelled. But as is always 
 the case, changes in orthography lagged a little behind 
 changes in the pronunciation. Hence even the blun- 
 ders made by an ignorant lapidary in cutting an in- 
 scription are often a source of information to us. 
 
 (3) The representation in Greek letters of Roman 
 sounds. A number of Greek writers treated of Roman 
 history, Eoman biography, and Eoman geography. 
 In so doing they were obliged to represent many Latin 
 names and words in Greek characters. But many of 
 these writers had no particular knowledge of the Latin 
 language, and hence spelled these Latin names and 
 words phonetically. Their method of doing this is 
 both interesting and instructive. The writers of this 
 sort who are oftenest cited are Polybius (b.c. 175), the 
 friend of the younger Scipio and the author of a Gen- 
 eral History of Rome from the Second Punic War 
 down to the conquest of Macedonia ; Strabo the geog- 
 
10 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 rapher (24 B.C.) ; Diodorus Siculus, the contemporary 
 of Julius Caesar and author of an Historical Library 
 in forty books; and Plutarch (a.d. 80), the best 
 known of the Greek writers on Koman subjects.* 
 
 (4) A critical comparison of all the modern lan- 
 guages of Europe that are derived from the Latin 
 (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese) with reference 
 to those points wherein they all agree. This source 
 of information is of less importance than one would 
 think, because these languages are not derived directly 
 from the classical Latin, but from Latin that was 
 either provincial or modified by foreign influences. 
 Still,, this comparison is useful in corroborating facts 
 that are elsewhere learned, and is of positive value 
 when not contradicted by other evidence. 
 
 (5) The traditions of scholars, and especially of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, which in its rites has em- 
 ployed Latin continuously from the first century down 
 to the present time. The rhymes of the early Chris- 
 tian hymns also have a bearing on this subject. 
 
 (6) The general principles of the science of pho- 
 nology, which are now well established and understood, 
 and are of great value in detecting erroneous assump- 
 tions which would otherwise pass unchallenged. 
 
 From these six sources can be gained a very accurate 
 understanding of how Latin was pronounced in the 
 clays of Cicero and Caesar. It is not too much to claim 
 
 * Others are Josephus, the Jewish historian ; Dionysius of 
 Halicarnassus ; Appian ; and Dio Cassius, the last a Roman 
 who wrote in Greek. 
 
SOURCES OF OUR INFORMATION. 11 
 
 that the system of pronunciation upon which scholars 
 are now agreed, differs less from that of the Romans 
 of the Augustan Age than does our modern pronun- 
 ciation of English differ from that of Shakespeare 
 and his contemporaries. 
 
III. 
 
 THE LATIN ALPHABET. 
 
 In its earliest form, the Latin alphabet consisted of 
 21 characters, A, B, C, D, E, F, Z, H, I, K, L, M, N, 
 0, P, Q, E, S, T, V, X. These letters were derived 
 from the alphabet used by the Dorian Greeks of 
 Campania. At a very early period the letters K and Z 
 fell into disuse, although K continued to occur in a 
 few ancient abbreviations, such as Kal. for Kalendae, 
 K. S. for carus suis, K. K. for cdlumniae causa (a 
 legal phrase), KK. for castrorum, KA. for capitalist 
 and the use of Z was subsequently revived in translit- 
 erating Greek words. Originally, the character C had 
 the sound which was afterwards given to G ; but when 
 K was abandoned, took its place and its sound ; while 
 a new letter, G, was formed by slightly changing the 
 original C. Plutarch says that the character G was 
 first employed by Spurius Carvilius about the year 
 230 B.C. In Cicero's time the letter Y was introduced 
 to represent the sound of the Greek T; but its presence 
 in a word always marks a foreign origin, so that the 
 character can scarcely be regarded as an essential part 
 of the Eoman alphabet. About the year a.d. 44, the 
 Emperor Claudius tried to introduce three new sym- 
 bols into the alphabet : (1) the inverted diagamma J 
 to mark the consonantal sound of V; (2) the charac- 
 ter known as "anti-sigma" O to express the sound 
 
 12 
 
THE LATIN ALPHABET. 13 
 
 denoted by the Greek tp (ps or bs) ; and (3) the sign 
 H, which was to have the sound of the Greek v, i.e. 
 of modern French u or German ii. It may be men- 
 tioned also, that consonants were not doubled in 
 writing Latin until the practice was adopted from the 
 Greek by Ennius (b.c. 239-169), who in various ways 
 conformed Eoman usages to those of the Greeks. 
 
 The Eoman alphabet, like the early alphabet of the 
 Greeks, lacked distinctive characters for the long and 
 short vowels. This defect, which was partly corrected 
 in Greek by the invention of the letters rj and go (tra- 
 ditionally ascribed to Epicharmus of Syracuse, B.C. 
 500), was never fully remedied in Latin, though at 
 different times various devices were employed to dis- 
 tinguish between a and a, e and e, u and u, o and o. 
 These were : 
 
 (1) The doubling oj: the vowel when long, as in 
 modern Dutch; thus, oorator = orator; aara = 
 ara. This method was persistently used by the poet 
 Attius.* 
 
 (2) By the use of a species of accent (apex) over 
 the long vowel. This became quite general in the 
 Augustan Age. 
 
 (3) The length of the vowel I was denoted some- 
 times by making it longer than the other letters and 
 sometimes by writing it ei; thus, dIco, deico. 
 
 The Roman numerals V, X, L, C, D, M originated 
 in various ways.f 
 
 * Velius Longus, p. 2220 P. When i is doubled it usually 
 denotes the consonantal (j); e.g. maiior. 
 t Cf. Ball's History of Mathematics, pp. 119, 120, 
 
14 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 V represented originally the open palm with the 
 thumb extended, just as our (zero) is thought to 
 represent a closed hand. 
 
 X perhaps = ? an old form of 0; according to 
 others, it is merely two V's placed together. 
 
 L = = c!> or x> a Greek letter which the Eomans 
 did not need in their alphabet and hence used only as 
 a numeral. 
 
 C = O, another form of 0, and confounded with 
 C as though standing for centum. 
 
 M = 0, becoming first cio and then M, as though 
 standing for mille. D is one half of this figure, or io. 
 
IV. 
 SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS. 
 
 1. A: a had the sound of a in English "far"; a 
 
 had the sound of a in English " pastime". 
 
 There is no disagreement of opinion regarding the 
 proper pronunciation of Latin a. All the modern 
 languages derived from the Latin practically agree in 
 the sounds which they give to this character. Further- 
 more, its pronunciation is described for us by Teren- 
 tianus Maurus (p. 328 in the edition by Keil) ; by 
 Marius Victorinus (p. 32 in the edition of the same 
 editor) ; and also by Martianus Capella (in. 261). 
 
 [Note. It must be remembered in the pronunciation of 
 the Latin vowels that the short vowel does not differ in qual- 
 ity from the corresponding long one, but only in quantity, i.e. 
 it occupied less time in pronouncing. This is an important 
 distinction between Latin and English.] 
 
 2. B: had in general the sound of English b; but 
 
 before s or t, the sound of p. 
 
 (a) The ordinary sound of Latin b is described for 
 us by Martianus Capella (in. 261) ; and by Marius 
 Victorinus (p. 32 Keil). 
 
 (b) That it was sounded like p when it stood before 
 s we know because occasionally in inscriptions it is so 
 written, e.g. pleps for plebs; Araps for Arabs] urps 
 
 15 
 
16 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 for urbs. In certain verbs this usage has modified the 
 regular orthography, e.g. scripsi for scribsi from 
 scribe, and opsequor for obsequor. And so before t, 
 as we learn both by the spelling of certain words (op- 
 tineo, script urn)', and from the statement of Quin- 
 tilian (i. 7. 7) : " When I pronounce the word obtinuit, 
 our rule of writing requires that the second letter 
 should be b : but the ear catches the sound of p." 
 
 3. C : always had the sound of English 7c. 
 
 The facts upon which this statement is founded are 
 as follows : 
 
 (a) The pronunciation of this letter is so described 
 for us by Martianus Oapella (in. 261) as to prove it 
 a hard palatal. 
 
 (b) G took the place of an original h in the early 
 alphabet as previously stated; and in succeeding ages 
 at times c reappears in inscriptions indifferently be- 
 fore the various vowels. Thus we have the form 
 Gaelius alternating with Kaelius, Cerus with Kerus, 
 and decembres with dehembres, showing that c and 
 h were identical in sound. Quintilian (i. 7. 10) says : 
 " As regards h, I think it should not be used in any 
 words. . . . This remark I have not failed to make, 
 for the reason that there are some who think k neces- 
 sary when a follows; though there is the letter G, 
 which has the same power before all vowels." 
 
 (c) In the Greek transliteration of Latin names, 
 Latin c is always represented by k; and in Latin 
 transliteration of Greek names, k is always represented 
 by Latin c. And we know that Greek h was never 
 
SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS. 17 
 
 assibilated before any vowel. Suidas calls the on 
 the Eoman senators' shoes, u the Koman kappa." 
 
 (d) Words taken into Gothic and Old High German 
 from the Latin at an early period invariably represent 
 Latin c by Jc; thus, Latin career gives the Gothic 
 karJcara and the German Kerker ; Latin Caesar gives 
 the German Kaiser] Latin lucerna gives the Gothic 
 liikarn; the Latin cellarium gives the German Kel- 
 ler; the Latin cerastes gives the German Kirsche. 
 Also in late Hebrew, Latin c is regularly represented 
 in transliteration by the hard consonant kopli. 
 
 [Advocates of the English system claim that Latin c had the 
 sound of s before e or i because every modern language de- 
 rived from the Latin has in some way modified c when thus 
 used. It is true that modern languages have so modified it; but, 
 as already noted, the modern languages are the children not 
 of the classical Latin spoken in the days of Cicero, but of the 
 provincial Latin spoken five or six centuries later. There is 
 no doubt that at this late period, Latin c had become modified 
 before e or i so as to be equivalent to s or z. Latin words 
 received into German at this time represent c before e or 
 i by 2. But had this modification been a part of the usage 
 of the classical language, it would have been noticed by the 
 grammarians, who discuss each letter with great minuteness. 
 Now no grammarian ever mentions more than one sound for 
 Latin c. Again, if Latin c had ever had the sound of s, surely 
 some of the Greeks, ignorant of Latin and spelling by ear, 
 would at least occasionally have represented Latin c by cr, 
 a thing which none of them has ever done. It is probable 
 that the modification of c which is noticed in the modern lan- 
 guages was a characteristic of the Umbrian and Oscan dialects 
 and so prevailed to some extent in the provinces, but there is 
 absolutely not the slightest evidence to show that it formed a 
 part of the pronunciation of cultivated men at Rome.] 
 
18 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 4. D : had regularly the sound of English d ; but at 
 
 the end of words nearly that of t, 
 
 (a) The position of the vocal organs in uttering 
 this letter is described by Terentianus Maurus (p. 331 
 Keil); Marius Victorinus (p. 33); and Martianus 
 Capella (m. 261). 
 
 (b) That final d was sounded like t is clear from 
 the positive statements of Quintilian and from the 
 fact that in inscriptions, as well as in the best manu- 
 scripts of Plautus and Vergil, we find almost indiffer- 
 ently ad and at, apud and aput, haud and limit, quid 
 and quit, as well as adque and atque and many others. 
 
 [At about the fourth century a.d., di before a vowel began 
 to be pronounced somewhat like the French j, just as in Aeolic 
 Greek we find d for Sid. Hence in the modern languages g 
 and,; arise out of Latin di. Compare Latin diurnus with the 
 Italian glorno and the French jour.] 
 
 5. E : e had the sound of English a in " fate" or of the 
 
 French e ; had the sound of English e in " net". 
 
 (a) The position of the vocal organs in pronouncing 
 e is described by Terentianus Maurus (p. 329 Keil) ; 
 Marius Victorinus (p. 32); and Martianus Capella 
 (in. 261). It is regularly represented in Greek trans- 
 literations by e when short, and by rj when long. 
 
 (b) The sound of the letter e seems to have varied 
 more than was the case with other vowels. The later 
 grammarians give to e a sound approximating to the 
 sound of i. (Cf. Donatus in Servius p. 421, Keil *). 
 And confusion of e and % in words like timidus, navi- 
 
 * Seelmann, Die Ausspraclie des Latein, p. 175 sqq. 
 
SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS. 19 
 
 bos (written timedus, navelos) is to be seen in early 
 Latin. But too much importance has been given to 
 this. The fact is that one short unaccented vowel is 
 very likely to be mistaken for another, especially by 
 the uneducated and by careless speakers. The hearer 
 cannot detect the difference, and in fact there is none, 
 practically. The extremely accurate and discriminat- 
 ing elocution of which we hear was in all probability 
 confined to the highly cultivated classes. 
 
 6. F : had practically the sound of English /. 
 
 Latin / is not like the Greek 0, which was a double 
 sound rather than a single one, i.e. it was p + h with 
 each element distinctly audible, as in English top- 
 heavy, uphill. Quintilian says : " The Greeks are 
 accustomed to aspirate; whence Cicero in his oration 
 for Fundanius ridicules a witness who could not sound 
 the first letter of that name."* The descriptions 
 given by Priscian and Terentianus Maurus of the 
 position of the lips and teeth in pronouncing/ show 
 that it was formed precisely as our /, i.e. with the 
 lower lips against the upper teeth. 
 
 7. Gr : g always had the hard sound of English g in 
 
 "get". 
 
 (a) When g comes before an 5 it produces x, thus 
 showing that it is a guttural : e.g. lex leg + s; and 
 rex = reg + s. 
 
 (b) No Eoman grammarian mentions more than 
 one sound as belonging to g, although they treat of 
 the letters minutely. 
 
 * Quint, i. 4, 14. 
 
20 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 (c) All the vowels readily interchange after g in 
 the same root, which would hardly be the case if g 
 had had more than one sound. Thus we have malt- 
 genus and malignus; lego, legis, legit; gigeno and 
 gigno] tegimen and tegmen. 
 
 (d) Latin g is invariably represented by Greek y, 
 and the Greek y is invariably represented by Latin g. 
 St. Augustine remarks : " When I say lege, a Greek 
 understands one thing and a Roman another in these 
 two syllables." This shows that Latin lege and Greek 
 Xeye had precisely the same sound. 
 
 (e) It was not before the fourth or fifth century 
 a.d., that g began to have the soft sound before e and 
 i which is found in Italian, French, and Portuguese. 
 The first change from the regular g sound was to a 
 y sound, for we find such variations as mag est as for 
 maiestas, and in Greek fieievn for viginti. 
 
 8. H : had the sound of English h. 
 
 (a) H is described as a simple breathing by Marius 
 Victorinus, p. 34 (Keil); Terentianus Maurus, p. 331; 
 and Martianus Capella, in. 261. It is represented in 
 Greek by the rough breathing, and in turn it repre- 
 sents that breathing. 
 
 (b) There seems to have existed among the unedu- 
 cated Romans that irregularity in the use of li which 
 marks the language of the English cockney to-day. 
 Nigidius Figulus, the grammarian, said : " Your speech 
 becomes boorish if you aspirate wrongly." Catullus 
 in one of his epigrams ridicules the cockneyism of a 
 person who said chommoda for commoda, and hinsidiae 
 
SOUNDS OF THE LETTEBS. 21 
 
 for insidiae* In later Latin, the varying spelling 
 shows the growing irregularity of usage. H seems to 
 have been omitted or inserted almost at pleasure ; thus 
 hauctoritas, Mi, and Mnventio, stand beside inospita, 
 omini (homini), and dbitat (habitat). The reason for 
 this irregularity seems to have been the gradual weak- 
 
 * Carm. lxxxiv. 
 
 ' Chommoda ' dicebat, si quando commoda ' vellet 
 
 Dicere et insidias ' Arrius ' hinsidias '. 
 Et turn rnirifice sperabat se esse locutum, 
 
 Cum, quantum poterat, dixerat ' hinsidias \ 
 
 * * * # * * 
 
 Hoc misso in Syriam, requierant omnibus aures, 
 
 Audibant eadam haec leniter et leviter. 
 Nee sibi postilla metuebant talia verba ; 
 
 Cum subita adfertur nuntius horribilis : 
 Ionios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset, 
 
 lam non Ionios ' esse sed Hionios ' ! 
 
 Which Martin has very cleverly translated : 
 
 " Whenever Arrius wished to name 
 1 Commodious,' out ' chommodious ' came: 
 And when of his intrigues he blabbed, 
 With his ' hintrigues ' our ears he stabbedj 
 And thought moreover, he display ed^$^lJBRjjS^ 
 A rare refinement when he made ff^& r rue 
 His h's thus at random fall (( XJNI VERSIT1 
 
 With emphasis most guttural. ^^ Qa IFORt^- 
 When suddenly came news one day 
 Which smote the city with dismay, 
 That the Ionian seas a change 
 Had undergone, most sad and strange ; 
 For since by Arrius crossed, the wild 
 Hionian Hocean ' they were styled 1" 
 
22 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 erring of the sound until h became a silent letter, as it 
 is in modern Spanish and Italian.* 
 
 9. I consonant (J) : had the sound of English y. 
 
 (a) That i had a consonant sound as distinct from 
 its vowel sound is clear from the statement of Priscian 
 (i. p. 13, Keil). Before a vowel and not preceded by 
 an accented syllable with final consonant, he says that 
 i " passes over to the force of a consonant." That it 
 differs from i the vowel, is also clear from the fact 
 that in prosody it lengthens the preceding vowel. 
 
 (b) That it was not like English j is clear from the 
 fact that it readily passes into i, which proves the two 
 sounds to have been closely akin ; and in Greek trans- 
 literations it is always represented by z. Thus Julius 
 = lovXwSy Gajus = FaoiS. 
 
 (c) Nigidius Figulus cautioned his readers that the 
 i (j) in such words as iam, iecur, iocus is not a vowel, 
 a caution that would have been absurdly unnecessary 
 if i had had any such sound as that of English j. 
 
 (d) A sound somewhat like English/ or z was, how- 
 ever, given to this letter after the third or fourth 
 century a.d. ; for in inscriptions we find either z or gi 
 written for it, as Zanuarius for Januarius, and Glove 
 for Jove. 
 
 10. I (vowel) : 1 as in English " machine"; % as in 
 English " din". 
 
 (a) Martianus Oapella says : " I is a breathing with 
 the teeth nearly closed." 
 
 * Gellius (n. 3) gives a number of words formerly written 
 with h but in his time no longer aspirated. Between two 
 vowels, h was silent. Hence nil for nihil, etc. 
 
SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS. 23 
 
 (b) It is represented in Greek by z. 
 (6*) All the derived modern languages give i this 
 sound. 
 
 [In the vulgar language and the sermo rusticus, I seems to 
 have varied with e and to have been confused with it. So 
 Augustus Caesar said here for heri ; and we find sibe for sibi. 
 Cf. Cic. de Orat. in. 12. 46.; Quint, i. 6.; Aulus Gellius, x. 
 24. Also a confusion appears between i and u t as in the forms 
 optumus and optimus ; lubet and libet. But we are only con- 
 cerned with the normal sound of the letter, which is that 
 given above.] 
 
 11. L : had the sound of English /. 
 
 It is always represented in Greek by A. The posi- 
 tion of the vocal organs in uttering it is described by 
 Marius Victorinus, p. 34. Martianus Capella (in. 261) 
 says : " L grows soft upon the tongue and palate." 
 
 [For I as a corruption of r, see 17. b.] 
 
 12. M: had the sound of English m, but was much 
 weakened at the end of words. 
 
 The fact that m was weakly sounded at the end of 
 words is shown by the elision of a final m before an 
 initial vowel in poetry (synaloepha) ; by the fact that 
 in the early inscriptions it is often omitted in writing ; 
 and by the positive statements of the Eoman writers 
 themselves.* Because at the end of a word before a 
 following vowel it was practically a silent letter, 
 Verrius Flaccus wished to represent it in that position 
 by a different character, IV . f 
 
 Quintilian (xn. 10, 31) says : " We close many of 
 
 * Quint, ix. 4, 40 ; Prise. 1, p. 29 (Keil). 
 t Velius Longus, p. 80 (Keil). 
 
24 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 our words with the letter m, which has a sound some- 
 thing like the lowing of an ox, and in which no Greek 
 word terminates." Priscian remarks, "M sounds 
 obscurely at the end of words." 
 
 13. N: usually had the sound of the English n, but 
 before c, q, g, or x the sound of the English 
 ng in "linger". 
 
 This n before a guttural, and technically known 
 as a " guttural nasal," was called " n adulterinum;" so, 
 according to Varro, the early Eoman writers in such 
 cases wrote it as a g ; thus, agceps for anceps ; aggulus 
 for angulus\ and so on, after the fashion of the Greeks. 
 
 14. : practically had the sound of in English 
 " note"; like in English " not". 
 
 The 6 is regularly represented in Greek by go, and 
 the 6 by Greek o. Marius Victorinus (p. 33, Keil) says 
 that o is produced with the lips extended and the 
 tongue quiescent in the middle of the mouth. Mar- 
 tianus Capella (in. 261) says: "0 is produced by 
 breathing through the mouth made round." The 
 character is, in fact, believed to have been origi- 
 nally a pictorial representation of a rounded mouth. 
 
 15. P : always had the sound of English p. 
 
 The position of the vocal organs in uttering p is de- 
 scribed by Martianus Capella (in. 261). It is always 
 represented in Greek by n. 
 
 16. ft: is always followed by u, and had the sound 
 of qu in English " queen". 
 
 (a) Qu is represented in Greek by kov, kv, or ko. 
 
S0UND8 OF THE LETTERS. 25 
 
 Thus, Quintus = Koivros ; Quintilius = Kvivri- 
 XioS ; Quintilianus = KovivnXiavos. 
 
 (h) Q represents the old Greek letter koppa and is 
 a sharp guttural mute. Colloquially qu may have 
 been carelessly sounded like k, or like qu in modern 
 French. A candidate for office whose father had 
 been a cook, once approached Cicero and asked a by- 
 stander for his vote; whereupon Cicero, who was an 
 inveterate punster, said: "Ego quoque tibi iure 
 favebo," pronouncing quoque " koke " so as to suggest 
 coque ,t\ie vocative of coquus or cocus, a cook. 
 
 17. R: in general had the sound of the English r 
 with a slight trill ; i.e. that of the Italian r t 
 
 (a) Because of its trilling sound it is called by 
 the satirist Persius " the dog's letter" (lit t era canina). 
 
 (b) The Komans seem not to have liked a too fre- 
 quent repetition of this letter, for it is omitted often 
 when a following syllable contains it; as in pejero for 
 perjero ; and grammarians have noticed that the geni- 
 tive plural of the future participle is of rare occur- 
 rence. In the colloquial and provincial Latin, r is 
 often dulled into I. Thus on one of the walls at 
 Pompeii a part of the first line of the Aeneid was 
 found written, " ALMA VILVMQVE CAJSTO TLO" 
 a rendering which might have been produced by a 
 modern Chinese. Cf. the playful use of Hillus for 
 Hirrus in one of Cicero's letters (ad Fam, ii. 10. 1.) 
 
 18. S : had regularly the sound of the English initial 
 s sharp as in " sip"; at the end of words it was 
 barely audible. 
 
 (a) That s was a sharp hiss is clear from the fact 
 
26 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 that it maintains its place before the sharp consonants, 
 as in sto, spes, squama, scelus ; and does not maintain 
 its place before flat consonants, as in cano (cas?w) 9 
 index (iusdex), dilabor {dislabor), diripio (disripio), 
 trado (tra?isdo), viden (videsne) ; while it regularly 
 changes a preceding flat consonant to a sharp, as 
 scripsi (scribsi), and rexi (regsi). 
 
 (b) That it was very lightly sounded at the end of 
 words is clear from the fact that until after Cicero's 
 time it was neglected in scanning when the next word 
 began with a consonant ; that in the early inscrip- 
 tions it is frequently omitted in writing, as Cornelio 
 for Oornelios ; and that in a great number of words 
 it fell away altogether at all periods of the language; 
 as in ipse for ipsus, pote for potts, vigil for vigilis, 
 puer for puerus ; and compare such forms as poeta, 
 nauta and luxuria with 7toirjrtj^, vavTr/S, luxuries: 
 and so in modern Italian. 
 
 [The neglect of final s in scanning is extremely frequent. 
 Cf . such a line as this hexameter from Ennius, where the s is 
 suppressed three times : 
 
 " Turn laterali(s) dolor certissimu(s) nuntiu(s) mortis."] 
 
 19. T : had the sound of English t, always hard. 
 
 (a) The English system of pronouncing Latin gives 
 to ti the sound of sh before a vowel, as in the words 
 militia, oratio. An assibilation was undoubtedly a 
 characteristic of the Umbrian and Oscan dialects at an 
 early period, and fastened itself upon the Latin after 
 the third century A.D.; for Isidorus states that tia 
 should be sounded zia : and in Greek transliterations 
 
SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS 27 
 
 of the sixth century we find such forms as daovaZiovepi 
 for donationem, and ccktZio for actio. Pompeius 
 says that whensoever a vowel follows ti or di, the ti or 
 di becomes sibilant. So again on Christian epitaphs 
 we find Constantso for Constantio, etc. But in the 
 classical period of the language, there is no reason for 
 thinking that this assibilation existed, for the Greek 
 transliterations of that period invariably denote Latin 
 ti by ri, as OvaXevria for Valentia. It is this clas- 
 sical tradition which Servius retains, when he lays it 
 down as a rule that in all cases di and ti are to be pro- 
 nounced exactly as written.* 
 
 (b) At the end of a word the letter t seems to have 
 been less strongly sounded, for we find such forms as 
 hau, apu, for haut, aput. This was a characteristic 
 of the Umbrian and Volscian and affects the forms of 
 the modern Italian. 
 
 20. V vowel (U) : u sounded like oo in English 
 "fool"; % like u in English "full". 
 
 (a) Latin u is regularly represented in Greek by ov 
 whether it be long or short ; thus, TLoarovpiio? = 
 Postumiics; BeXKovrov = Belluti. 
 
 (i) Plautus represents the hoot of an owl by tutu 
 in the Menaechmi, 91; and in the Carm. Philorn. 41, 
 the onomatopoetic verb tutuho is used of the same 
 bird. Cf. cuculo, " to cry cuckoo" {Carm. Philom. 35). 
 
 (c) In early Latin u is sometimes written ou; thus, 
 iousy ioudex, douco, for ius, iudex, duco. 
 
 * Don. in Serv. p. 445. 
 
28 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 21. V (consonant) : had the sound of English w. 
 
 That the character V had both a consonantal and a 
 vowel sound is clear from the unanimous statements 
 of the Koman grammarians,* who say that whenever 
 it precedes a vowel it becomes consonantal. Also as 
 stated above in Chap. III., the Emperor Claudius in- 
 vented a new character to represent the consonantal 
 sound of v as distinguished from the vowel sound. 
 
 That the consonant sound of v was practically that 
 of the English 10 may be inferred from the following 
 facts : 
 
 (a) The consonant sound and the vowel sound were 
 closely akin. This is seen by the fact that the consonant 
 v often melts into vowel v and is so scanned, as in 
 such words as silva,\ (scanned silica), and its absorp- 
 tion in such words as f autor for favitor, lautum for 
 lavatum. In his treatise on Divination, Cicero says 
 that when Marcus Crassus was at Brundisium, about 
 to cross over to Greece, a vendor of figs began crying 
 out "Cauneas!" (the name of a kind of figs.) This, 
 Cicero says, was taken as an omen ; for it sounded like 
 " Cave ne eas," which must therefore have been pro- 
 nounced Cau' n' eas. Conversely, in poetry, the vowel 
 v sometimes strengthens into consonant v. Thus in 
 Plautus, Lucretius, and even in Vergil and Statius, 
 
 * Cf . for instance Quint. 1, 7, 26 ; Marius Victorinus, p. 
 13 (Keil); Velius Longus, pp. 50, 58, 67 (Keil); Consentius, p. 
 395 (Keil). The position of the vocal organs in pronouncing v 
 is described by Terentianus Maurus, p. 319 (Keil) ; Marius 
 Victorinus, p. 33 (Keil); and Martianus Capella, in, 261. 
 
 f Cf . Horace, Odes, i. 23, 4. Aurarum el sililae metu. 
 
SOUNDS OF THE LETTERS. 29 
 
 this happens in such words as puella, suo, genua, lama, 
 and tenuis. Finally, the fact that both sounds of v 
 are represented by the same character, is evidence that 
 those sounds must have been nearly alike. But the 
 consonant sound that is nearest to the vowel sound of 
 u, is the sound of the English w. 
 
 (b) Nigidius Figulus * says that when we pronounce 
 the word vos we gradually thrust out the ends of our 
 lips. This remark describes perfectly the position of 
 the mouth in pronouncing vos if we assume that v 
 had the sound of English w. 
 
 (c) The Greek writers in transliterating Latin names 
 generally represent consonantal v by ov ; thus, 
 OvaAr/pws for Valerius ; OvoXctkoi for Volsci ; 
 IovovevdXiafov Iuvenalia; Ovapos for Varus. Some- 
 times, to be sure, v is represented by /3, but this is 
 chiefly in Plutarch, who is a Boeotian and confesses his 
 own ignorance of Latin f ; or else it is done in proper 
 names in which by using /3 the word becomes in ap- 
 pearance more like a Greek one ; that is, its form be- 
 comes Hellenized : as for instance, Aiftiot, <Pov\fiios, 
 etc., for Livius and Fulvius, the termination -ftioS 
 being common in Greek. 
 
 * Quoted by Gellius, x. 44. 
 
 f The statistics on this point will be found in the introduction 
 to Koby's Latin Grammar, pp. xxxvii-xli. Plutarch, who 
 of tenest uses (5 for v, expressly states in his life of Demosthenes 
 his own deficiency as a Latin scholar. " The relations of the 
 Boeotian dialect to the digamma were such as to make it 
 possible that his native pronunciation may have had some- 
 thing to do with this peculiarity ,, (Roby). 
 
30 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 22. X : had the sound of x in English. 
 
 The grammarians say that the character x is a mono- 
 gram representing cs or gs. Quintilian remarks that 
 x is not an indispensable letter in Latin, implying that 
 cs and gs could take its place. In early Latin, cs was 
 often written for x. 
 
 23. Y: had the sound of French u or German u. 
 See III, supra. 
 
 24. Z: had the sound of English z and modern 
 Greek C 
 
 Z was a letter used by the Umbrians and Oscans, 
 but it appears first in ordinary Latin about Cicero's 
 time in the transliteration of Greek words. Before 
 this, the sound of Greek C had been represented in 
 the Latin by s or 88, as sona for Zgovt?, and ladisso 
 for fiadiZoo- It was, in classical times, always regard- 
 ed by the Komans as a Greek letter. 
 
V. 
 
 SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS.-SUMMARY. 
 
 It must be remembered that the Latin diphthongs 
 {M, ATJ, EI, EU, (E), were originally true diphthongs 
 (double sounds), in the full sense of the word. That 
 is, in pronouncing a diphthong the sound of each of 
 its elements was distinctly heard, though pronounced 
 in the time of one syllable. (Terent. Maur. p. 2392 
 P; Prise, p. 561 P.) Knowing, then, the true sounds 
 of the individual letters which compose the diphthongs, 
 it is a simple matter to determine the general pro- 
 nunciation of the diphthongs themselves. At the same 
 time, it is undoubtedly true that in the latter part of 
 the classical period, a tendency to give only one ele- 
 mental sound to the combination finally made its 
 way from the pronunciation of the vulgar into that 
 of the cultivated. 
 
 With this preliminary observation we may proceed 
 to the discussion of the several diphthongs. 
 
 M had originally the double sound ah-e pronounced 
 quickly ; later, the simple sound of Latin E, i.e. 
 of English a in " fate". 
 
 (a) Ae represents an early ai which appears in the 
 oldest Latin. Thus, praifectus, quaistor, aulai ; and 
 so Vergil to give an antique coloring to his language 
 
 31 
 
32 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 has pictaiy vestis, aquai, aulai, etc. (Quint. I. 7. 18). 
 About the year B.C. 175, the ai sound began to give 
 way to the ae sound, as can be shown from the testi- 
 mony of inscriptions. The ai sound of the diphthong 
 (that of the English affirmative ay) may have lingered 
 in the pronunciation of purists, for at the time when 
 the Emperor Claudius instituted his reforms, we find 
 a temporary revival of the spelling ai, 
 
 (b) As early as the beginning of the classical period 
 ae ceased to be sounded as a diphthong by the rustics 
 and by the provincials generally. This is expressly 
 stated by Varro in his treatise on the Latin language 
 (iv. 9, and vii. 96 and 97), in which he gives Mesius 
 and hedus as rustic sounds for Maesius and liaedus. 
 
 (c) This rustic neglect of the first element of the 
 diphthong gradually prevailed until at last ae had 
 only the force of a long e and is very generally so 
 written, e.g. seculum for saeculum,femine for feminae, 
 and even que for quae. But this is as late as the third 
 and fourth centuries a.d. The classical sound was 
 undoubtedly ae. 
 
 ATJ had the sound of ow in English " now". 
 
 (a) Au remained a true diphthong down through 
 the classical period at least in the pronunciation of 
 the educated. The Greeks represent it by av, as in 
 KAavdioS for Claudius. 
 
 (b) In vulgar and provincial circles, auhsL& sometimes 
 the sound of u, the first element of the diphthong being 
 neglected as was the case with ae. Hence we find occa- 
 sionally in inscriptions such forms v&frudavi iovfrau- 
 
SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS. SUMMARY. 33 
 
 davi, cludo for claudo, etc. But the vulgar generally 
 gave to au the sound of o, as in modern French. Thus, 
 some branches of the Claudian family called them- 
 selves Clodii, and we find in provincial inscriptions 
 even at an early period Pola for Paulla, Plotus for 
 Plautus, etc. Suetonius in his life of the Emperor 
 Vespasian tells a story bearing on this, which has 
 been often repeated and is important as showing that 
 even in the Silver Age, au was still pronounced as a 
 diphthong. The anecdote runs as follows: "Having 
 been admonished by one Mestrius Florus, a man of 
 consular rank, that he ought to say 'plaustra ' rather 
 than 'plostra,' he greeted Florus the next day as 
 6 Flaurus'" the point of which is that Flaurus 
 suggests the Greek (pAavpos, "good for nothing." 
 
 EI had the sound of ei in English " feint ". 
 
 Ei remained a true diphthong in keeping the sound 
 of both its elements ; but the combination ei is often 
 found merely as an equivalent for L Corssen remarks 
 that in the root-syllables of the words deiva, leiber, 
 deicere, ceivis ; in locative forms ; and in the dative 
 and ablative plural of -a stems and -o stems, ei is a 
 true diphthong, but is elsewhere a transition vowel 
 between I and e. Cf. Aussprache, I. 719, 788; Kitschl, 
 Opuscula, ii. 626; Eoby, 267, 268. 
 
 ETJ had (nearly) the sound of eu in English " feud ". 
 
 En remained a true diphthong with more stress 
 upon the second element than upon the first. This 
 
34 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 is seen by the fact that (rarely) it has passed into u * 
 but never into e. The combination eu is not often 
 found in Latin except in transliterating Greek words, 
 and in the exclamations lieu, heus, and eheu, and in 
 the contractions neu (neve), sen (sive), and neuter 
 (ne + uter). In neutiquam the antepenult is short. 
 
 OE had the sound of oi in English "toil" (nearly), 
 or of oe. 
 
 Oe represents an original oi and remained a diph- 
 thong in those words in which it continued to be 
 written. When the first element predominates over 
 the second, oe passes into u, as in plum for ploera, 
 punio from the root of poena, euro, for coera. When 
 the second element predominates, oe passes into ae 
 (by a confusion) and e, as in obscaenus and obscenus 
 for obscoenus. But in words where oe is regularly 
 written, it is to be pronounced as a true diphthong. 
 
 XJI as a diphthong occurs only in a few interjec- 
 tions, as liui, fui, and in huic and cui. In both Tiuic 
 and cui it represents an earlier oi (Jioic, quoi). In 
 other words (e.g. exercitui, gradui, etc.) ui is not a 
 diphthong, but each vowel is pronounced separately. 
 
 The Romans were the first people to call the let- 
 ters of the alphabet by their sounds rather than by 
 names, as was done in Greek and in the Semitic 
 languages. Thus the Latin vowels were named by 
 
 * In the Carmen Saliare we find Leucesie, a vocative of the 
 later Lucetius from the root of lux. Cf . Paull. ex Fest. p. 
 114 (Muller). 
 
SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS. SUMMARY. 35 
 
 simply uttering their sounds; the mute consonants 
 and h by uttering a vowel after them, and the so- 
 called nasal and fricative consonants by uttering a 
 vowel before them. This vowel was e except in the 
 case of k, h, q, and x. Hence, a Roman boy saying 
 over his alphabet, would have given it thus : 
 
 ah, b6, k6, d6, e, ef, g6, ha, i (ee), ka, el, em, en, 5, 
 p6, qu (coo), er, es, t6, oo, ix, (ypsilon, zeta). 
 
 In pronouncing Latin words, too much care can not 
 be taken in distinguishing between long vowels and 
 those that are short. Cicero says: Omnium longi- 
 tudinum et brevitatum in sonis sicut acutarum gra- 
 viumque vocum indicium, natura in auribus nostris 
 collocavii; and student and teacher alike will find that 
 if from the outset a correct and careful pronunciation 
 of Latin be required, those bugbears of the learner 
 the rules of prosody will almost teach themselves, 
 because they will have a consistency and meaning that 
 can never be obvious to the unfortunate victim of the 
 " English system." Professor Richardson, who de- 
 serves honor as being one of the first American schol- 
 ars to advocate and adopt the true method of pro- 
 nouncing Latin, has well summed up the whole matter 
 in a single paragraph : 
 
 " To teach the student, from his first entrance upon 
 the study of Latin, the English system of pronuncia- 
 tion; to get him thoroughly habituated to this false 
 method, and then by lodging in his brain some verbal 
 rules of quantity and prosody, at war often with 
 each other and commonly with his pronunciation, 
 to attempt to make him appreciate and observe the 
 
36 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 rhythm of Latin poetry, is like keeping a child in a 
 rude society where all the laws of a pure and finished 
 language are habitually violated, and then expecting 
 him, by virtue of committing to memory the com- 
 mon rules of grammar and rhetoric, to talk at once 
 with grammatical and rhetorical correctness and ele- 
 gance." 
 
 And this little treatise may be closed by citing the 
 most obvious of the reasons for adopting the Roman 
 System. 
 
 (1) Because it is approximately the system used by 
 the Eomans themselves. 
 
 (2) Because it is more musical and harmonious in 
 sound, and makes the structure of Latin verse clear 
 even to the beginner. 
 
 (3) Because it is simpler than the English system, 
 giving as it does but one sound to each alphabetical 
 character, and thus always distinguishing words of 
 different orthography and meaning by their sounds, 
 while the English system often confuses them; e.g. 
 census and sensus ; caedo, cedo, and sedo ; cir cuius and 
 surcuhis; cervus and servus; amici and amisL 
 
 (4) Because it makes the connection of Latin words 
 with their Greek cognates plain at once, and renders 
 easier the study of Greek, of the modern Komance lan- 
 guage, and of the science of Comparative Philology.* 
 
 * See Richardson's Roman Orthoepy, pp. 83-106. This little 
 book, which is unfortunately out of print, contains some ex- 
 ceedingly good points very cleverly put, though the view that 
 it takes of certain phonetic questions is one that more recent 
 scholarship does not accept. 
 
VI. 
 A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OP THE SUBJECT. 
 
 Allen, F. Remnants of Early Latin. Boston, 1884. 
 
 Blair, W. Latin Pronunciation. New York and Chicago, 
 1874. 
 
 Blass, F. Ueber die Aussprache des Griechischen. Berlin, 
 1882. 
 
 Brambach, W. Die Neugestaltung der Lateinischen Ortho- 
 graphic etc. Leipzig, 1868. 
 
 Corssen, W. Ueber Aussprache, Vokalismus, und Betonung 
 der Lateinischen Sprache. Leipzig, 1868-70. 
 
 Edon, G. Venture et Prononciation du Latin. Paris, 1882. 
 
 Ellis, A. J. Practical Hints on the Quantitative Pronuncia- 
 tion of Latin. London, 1874. 
 
 Haldeman, S. S. Elements of Latin Pronunciation for the 
 Use of Students in Language, etc. Philadelphia, 1851. 
 
 Keil, H. Grammatici Latini. 7 vols. Leipzig, 1856-80. 
 
 Kennedy, B. H. The Public School Latin Grammar. Lon- 
 don, 1874. 
 
 King, D. B. Latin Pronunciation. New York and Boston, 
 1880. 
 
 King, J., and Cookson, C. Principles of Sound and Inflexion 
 in Greek and Latin. London, 1888. 
 
 Munro, H. A. J. Remarks on the Pronunciation of Latin. 
 Cambridge, 1871. 
 
 Munro, H. A. J., and Palmer, E. A Syllabus of Latin Pro- 
 nunciation. Oxford and Cambridge, 1872. 
 
 Richardson, J. F. Roman Orthoepy : a Plea for the Restora- 
 tion of the True System of Latin Pronunciation. New 
 York, 1859. 
 
 37 
 
38 LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 
 
 Ritschl, F. Zur Geschichte des Lateinischen Alphabets: 
 
 in the Rheinisches Museum, 1869. 
 Roby, H. J. A Grammar of the Latin Language from Plau- 
 
 tus to Suetonius. London, 1881. 
 Schtjchardt, H. Der Vokalismus des Vulgarlateins. Leipzig, 
 
 1866-68. 
 Seelmann, E. Die Aussprache des Latein nach physiologisch- 
 
 historischen Grundsatzen. Heilbronn, 1885. 
 Sievers, E. Grundziige der Phonetik. Leipzig, 1885. 
 Sweet, H. A Handbook of Phonetics. Oxford, 1877. 
 Tafel, L., and Tafel, R. Latin Pronunciation and the Latin 
 
 Alphabet. New York and Philadelphia, 1860. 
 Taylor, Isaac. The Alphabet. London, 1683. 
 Weil, H. , and Benloew, L. Theorie Generate de l'Accen- 
 
 tuation Latine. Paris, 1855. 
 Wordsworth, J. Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin. 
 
 Oxford, 1874. 
 
 [See also articles by Prof. Max Muller and Mr. Munro in 
 the Academy, Feb. 15, 1871; Dec. 15, 1871; and Jan. 11, 1872.] 
 
 OF THE r 
 
 VER8ITY 
 
 c^liforH^ 
 
BROOKS 1 (J.) ATTIC GREEK. 
 
 An Introduction to Attic Greek. By Jabez Brooks, Pro- 
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GILDERSLEEVE'S (B. L.) GREEK LITERATURE. 
 
 A Short History of Greek Literature. By Basil L. Gil- 
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 GOODELL'S (T. D.) GREEK TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 The Greek in English. First Lessons in Greek, with spe- 
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GOODELL'S (T. D.) GREEK TEXT-BOOKS. (Continued.) 
 
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 language. 
 
 Minton Warren, Professor in 
 the Johns Hopkins University, 
 Md. : For those desiring a mini- 
 mum of Greek in a practical edu- 
 cation, I think the plan is an ex- 
 cellent one ; and considerable in- 
 formation is contained within the 
 covers of the little book which, I 
 fear, even those who have studied 
 Greek for years have not fully 
 mastered. 
 
 S. R. Winans, Professor in 
 Princeton University , N.J. : His 
 book is brief, accurate, and well 
 arranged, simple and intelligi- 
 ble, and avoids misleading the 
 tyro by mixing up words cognate 
 and words borrowed, but carefully 
 discriminates words made or bor- 
 rowed directly from Greek and 
 those which come directly through 
 Latin and French. 
 
GOODELL'S (T. D.) GREEK TEXT-BOOKS. {Continued.) 
 
 A Second Greek Book. By Thomas D. Goodell, Ph.D., 
 Assistant Professor in Yale College. {In preparation.) 
 This volume, together with the author's " The Greek in Eng- 
 lish," forms a continuous course preparatory to the Anabasis. 
 In it the essentials of grammar not presented in " The Greek 
 in English " are taken up systematically in connection with 
 Greek and English exercises. As far as practicable, the exer- 
 cises consist of connected speech, thus introducing at the 
 earliest moment the particles and the most common differences 
 between the idioms of the two languages. 
 
 The book has been prepared in consequence of the experi- 
 ence of more than one teacher, which has been expressed in 
 some such terms as those of Mr. Morrison's letter printed 
 above, and is meant for the use of pupils who, not having orig- 
 inally intended to go further than " The Greek in English," are, 
 as some may be expected to be, led by it to desire more knowl- 
 edge of the language. 
 
 Greek Lessons. Arranged with special reference to the 
 Greek element in English, and serving as an introduction to 
 Xenophon's Anabasis. By Thomas D. Goodell, Ph.D., 
 Assistant Professor in Yale College. {In preparation.) 
 This book consists of "The Greek in English " and "The 
 Second Greek Book " bound together for the use of those who 
 begin with the expectation of preparing to read Attic prose. 
 
 PECK'S (H. T.) LATIN TEXT-BOOKS. 
 
 Gai Suetoni Tranquilli De Vita Caesarum Libri Duo. Edited, 
 
 with an Introduction and Commentary, by Harry Thurston 
 
 Peck, M.A., Ph.D., Professor of Latin in Columbia College. 
 
 xxxv + 215 pp. i2mo. Teachers' price, $1.20; by mail, $1.30. 
 
 Suetonius is the Roman Plutarch. Like the famous Greek 
 biographer, he treats his subject chiefly on the personal side; 
 so that while he passes over the great events of general history 
 with a light touch, he abounds in minute and extremely inter- 
 esting information regarding the personal characteristics of the 
 famous men whom he describes. Unlike Plutarch, however, 
 he is exceedingly well-informed, accurate, and careful. His 
 position as secretary to the Emperor Hadrian gave him access 
 to sources of information such as Plutarch never possessed ; 
 and he had unlimited opportunities to gather the anecdotes, 
 and to verify the traditions that have made his Lives a rich 
 mine of knowledge for all succeeding writers. 
 
 In his pages we see the great personages of Roman history, 
 not as lay figures, but as living, breathing men ; we know all 
 their whims and weaknesses ; and the knowledge gives a much 
 
PECK'S (H. T.) LATIN TEXT-BOOKS. {Continued.) 
 
 keener zest to the perusal of the other literature of the time. 
 There could be no better course of reading parallel to the study 
 of Cicero, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, and Tacitus than the lives of 
 Julius and Augustus Caesar ; and the Latin is sufficiently easy 
 to admit of the use of the book by classes engaged in reading 
 at sight. The Commentary is unusually full, and the Introduc- 
 tion will be found helpful in giving an insight into the literary 
 purpose of the author, and in explaining and summarizing the 
 peculiarities of his style. 
 
 Win. Gardner Hale, Professor in 
 Cornell University, N. Y. : It was 
 a pleasure to me to find your 
 Suetonius awaiting me. ... I 
 may have an opportunity to read 
 it in the best way this year, by 
 employing it with a class. 
 
 Tracy Peck, Professor in Yale 
 College, Conn. : I have had no 
 time as yet to examine the edito- 
 rial work, but I can express my 
 gratification that so interesting and 
 instructive a Latin writer is now 
 at last brought within the easy 
 reach of our students. 
 
 Wm. A. Packard, Professor in 
 Princeton University , N. J. .* I 
 find it carefully edited, with excel- 
 lent Introduction and Commen- 
 tary, and trust it will help to ex- 
 tend the amount of Latin reading 
 and study in our colleges. 
 
 E. M. Pease, Professor in Bow- 
 doin College, Me. : I have exam- 
 ined it with much pleasure. It is 
 an excellent edition of a very 
 attractive author, and you are 
 doing a real service to Latin teach- 
 ers in bringing it out. 
 
 E. P. Crowell, Professor in Am- 
 herst College, Mass. ; It seems to 
 me after such examination as I 
 have been able to give the book 
 that it will be a valuable addition 
 to the series of classic authors 
 accessible to college students in 
 American editions, with such an- 
 notations as are profitable for 
 study. 
 
 Chas. E. Bennett, Professor in 
 the University of Wisconsin : I 
 am glad to see so desirable a 
 classic added to the list of Latin 
 college authors, and shall hope 
 soon to use the book here. Mr. 
 Peck's grammatical Introduction 
 I regard as of great value, while 
 the whole Commentary gives evi- 
 dence of the genuine love he has 
 borne for his work. 
 
 Frank Smalley, Professor in 
 Syracuse University, N. Y. : I 
 am pleased to see an edition of 
 this author, whose works mark 
 the hither limit of our Latin 
 Grammars. 
 
 Sidney Or. Ashmore, Professor in 
 Union College, N. Y. : I have 
 examined it with much interest 
 and care. I find it to be an ad- 
 mirable book. The Introduction 
 is especially valuable for its clear 
 and philosophic presentation of 
 the position of Suetonius in litera- 
 ture, and is well calculated to 
 awaken an interest in the author 
 of the " Lives of the Caesars," and 
 the period of which he treats. 
 The notes exhibit evidence of ex- 
 tensive reading, accurate scholar- 
 ship, and a conscientious study of 
 the author, and if sometimes more 
 elaborate than would seem neces- 
 sary to meet the needs of the 
 average university student, are 
 nevertheless replete with useful 
 information and references impor- 
 tant to the advanced scholar. 
 
PECK'S (H. T.) LATIN TEXT-BOOKS. (Continued.) 
 
 A History of the Latin Language. By Harry Thurston 
 Peck, M.A., Ph.D., Professor of the Latin Language and 
 Literature in Columbia College. With Word Lists, Glossa- 
 ries, and a Complete Index. {Ready in 1891.) 
 The book gives a general history of the Latin language, de- 
 fines its place in the Indo-European family, traces its develop- 
 ment, indicates the sources of its enrichment, and also presents 
 an interesting sketch of modern Latin and modern Latinists. 
 The author aims to present in concise and simple form a 
 mass of facts that can elsewhere be found only scattered through 
 a great number of works in many languages, and that are often 
 inaccessible to the general student, and, when found, encum- 
 bered with superfluous matter. Everywhere the author has 
 gone to original sources, and has formed his conclusions in- 
 dependency. A great mass of material has thus been drawn 
 upon, the remains of the early Italian dialects the Oscan and 
 Umbrian ; the earliest Inscriptions ; the statements of the 
 Roman writers themselves Varro, Cicero, Quintilian, Aulus 
 Gellius, Macrobius, Priscian, Servius, and many others ; while 
 the theories of the advanced school of modern philology have 
 not been overlooked. Especial attention is called to the treat- 
 ment of the other Italic dialects in their relation to early Latin ; 
 to the chapter, on the Etruscans; to the interesting statistics 
 regarding the enrichment of the vocabulary of the language by 
 authors like Ennius, Plautus, and Cicero ; and to the Glossaries 
 which embody the results of much careful investigation. A 
 valuable feature will be the very full bibliographical references 
 in every part of the work, so that the book will be of use not 
 only to the general reader and the university student, but 
 helpful also to all those who desire to be directed to an ex- 
 haustive course of reading. In fact, it is believed that the book 
 will be equally useful to the student and the teacher, and 
 that it will render the study of Latin more interesting because 
 more suggestive and more fruitful. 
 
 Latin Pronunciation : A Short Exposition of the Roman 
 Method. By Harry Thurston Peck, M.A., Ph.D., Pro- 
 fessor in Columbia College. 38 pp. i2mo. (In press.) 
 
 The Roman method of pronouncing Latin has finally received 
 the approval of all the leading Latinists of Europe and America. 
 Our older universities have officially adopted it. The most 
 recent grammars of the language recognize no other system. 
 Many teachers of Latin, however, and many more students of 
 Latin, have accepted it partly upon the authority of others. 
 The former have perhaps been unable to command the time to 
 
PECK'S (H. T.) LATIN TEXT-BOOKS. {Continued.) 
 
 make a personal investigation of this very interesting question ; 
 and the latter have been deterred by the vast amount of mate- 
 rial accumulated by Schneider, Corssen, and their co-workers. 
 It is for the benefit of those who wish to inform themselves 
 more fully upon this subject, with no unnecessary expenditure 
 of time, that the present manual has been prepared. It con- 
 tains, in brief, a sketch of the history of the Roman Alphabet ; 
 presents a summary of the sources of our information regarding 
 the ancient pronunciation of Latin ; gives the accepted sound 
 of each letter; and appends a clear statement of the reasons why 
 scholars have arrived at each particular conclusion. Especial 
 attention is given to the disputed sounds of the letters C, G, T, 
 and V ; and the doctrine of philologists is made very clear, 
 without any cumbrous technicalities. A short explanation of 
 Latin Accent follows ; and for the benefit of those who may 
 desire to pursue a fuller course of reading, a very complete 
 bibliography of the whole subject is added. It is believed that 
 both by teachers and students alike a clear, concise, and sim- 
 ple treatise like the present will be received with favor, as satis- 
 fying a need that has long existed. 
 PREPARATORY LATIN AND GREEK TEXTS. 
 
 Preparatory Latin and Greek Texts required for Admis- 
 sion to American Colleges. Caesar, Cicero, Ovid, Virgil, 
 Xenophon, Homer. 767 pp. i6mo. Teachers' price, $1.20; 
 by mail, $1.32. Latin part separate teachers' price, 80 cents ; 
 by mail, 88 cents. Greek part separate teachers' price, 60 
 cents ; by mail, 66 cents. 
 
 The Latin part contains five books of Caesar, seven of 
 Cicero's Orations, 177 pages of selections from Ovid's Meta- 
 morphoses, and six books of the ^Eneid and the Bucolics. 
 The Greek part contains three books of the Anabasis and the 
 same number of the Iliad. The book rests its claim to useful- 
 ness on its compact, handy form and clean, open page, 
 
 SCRIVENER'S (F. H. A.) GREEK TESTAMENT. 
 
 H Katvrj 8ta0T]KT]. Novum Testamentum. Textus Stepha- 
 
 nici a.d. 1550, cum Variis Lectionibus Editionum Bezae, 
 
 Elzeviri, Lachmanni, Tischendorfii, Tregellesii, Westcott- 
 
 Hortii, Versionis Anglicanae emendatorum, Curante, F. H. A. 
 
 Scrivener, A.M.,* D.C.L., LL.D. Accedunt Parallela S. 
 
 Scripturae Loca. 598 pp. i6mo. Teachers' price, $2.00; 
 
 by mail, $2.12. 
 
 The text is that of the authorized version (Stephens, 1550), 
 with the various readings approved by Westcott and Hort, and 
 those finally adopted by the revisers. 
 
WILLIAMS'S (C. T.) EXTRACTS FROM GREEK AU- 
 THORS. 
 
 Extracts from Various Greek Authors. Designed as an 
 accompaniment to Xenophon's Anabasis and for the culti- 
 vation of Sight Reading. By Charles Tudor Williams, 
 M.A., Instructor in the Cleveland (O.) High School. i2mo. 
 {In press.) 
 
 This collection was originally prepared for supplementary use 
 at times when, after the regular lesson, a few moments might be 
 devoted to the offhand reading of a short passage bearing upon 
 the subject of the lesson, providing such passages were accessi- 
 ble in some handy form. It is hoped that it may be generally 
 available for this and other purposes. The subjects of the 
 passages selected are closely allied to those of the Anabasis, 
 and often explanatory of them. 
 
 In preparing the notes and word-lists placed at the foot 
 of each page, the difficulty has been to steer between the 
 extremes of too copious and too meagre help. The me- 
 dium aimed at has been not to give the meaning of words, 
 much less roots of compound words, which the student would 
 naturally have met in his reading of Xenophon ; but to define 
 all unusual words, and to explain all geographical, historical, 
 or technical allusions. Indices for assistance in the prompt 
 selection of a subject suited to each day's lesson, and a list of 
 verbs specially prepared for the quick and easy determination 
 of all unusual and irregular forms, are provided. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
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