Chapter 2

(_b_) There seems to have existed among the uneducated Romans that irregularity in the use of _h_ 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_ for _insidiae_. [3] 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_, _hii_, and _hinventio_, stand beside _inospita_, _omini_ (_homini_), and _abitat_ (_habitat_). The reason for this irregularity seems to have been the gradual weakening of the sound until _h_ became a silent letter, as it is in modern Spanish and Italian. [4]

_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 transliterations it is always represented by _ι_. Thus _Julius_ = _Ιούλιος_.

(_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_) The true sound of the letter is seen in the alternative spelling _Eanus_ for _Janus_ proposed by some of the ancients, who derived the name from _eo_, _ire_. About 300 A.D. the letter got the sound of _z_ or _gi_.

_10. I (vowel): _ī_ as in English "machine"; _ĭ_ as in English "din"._

(_a_) Martianus Capella says: "I is a breathing with the teeth nearly closed."

(_b_) It is represented in Greek by _ι_.

(_c_) All the derived modern languages give _i_ this sound.

[In the vulgar language and the _sermo rusticus_, _ī_ seems to have varied with _ĕ_ and to have been confused with it. So Augustus Caesar said _heri_ for _here_; and we find _sibe_ for _sibi_. Cf. Cic. de Orat. III. 12. 46.; Quint, I. 7.; Aulus Gellius, X. 24. Also a confusion appears between _ĭ_ and _ŭ_, as in the forms _optumus_ and _optimus_; _lubet_ and _libet_. But we are only concerned with the normal sound of the letter, which is that given above.]

_11. L: had the sound of English _l_._

It is always represented in Greek by _λ_. The position of the vocal organs in uttering it is described by Marius Victorinus, p. 34. Martianus Capella (III. 261) says: "L grows soft upon the tongue and palate."

[For _l_ 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 Roman writers themselves. [5] 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, [Picture: alternate form of M].

Quintilian (XII. 10, 31) says: "We close many of our words with the letter _m_, which has a sound something 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 Roman writers in such cases wrote it as a _g_; thus, _agceps_ for _anceps_; _agyulus_ for _angulus_; and so on, after the fashion of the Greeks.

_14. O: _ō_ practically had the sound of _o_ in English "note"; _ŏ_ like _o_ in English "not"._

The _ō_ is regularly represented in Greek by _ω_, and the _ŏ_ by Greek _ο_. Marius Victorinus (p. 33, Keil) says that _o_ is produced with the lips extended and the tongue quiescent in the middle of the mouth. Martianus Capella (III. 261) says: "O is produced by breathing through the mouth made round." The character O is, in fact, believed to have been originally 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 described by Martianus Capella (III. 261). It is always represented in Greek by _π_.

_16. Q: is always followed by _u_, and had the sound of _qu_ in English "queen"._

(_a_) _Qu_ is represented in Greek by _κου_, _κυ_, or _κο_. Thus, _Quintus_ = _Κοίντος_; _Quintilius_ = _Κυιντίλιος_; _Quintilianus_ = _ Κουιντιλίανος_.

(_b_) 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 bystander for his vote; whereupon Cicero, who was an inveterate punster, said: "Ego quoque tibi iure favebo," pronouncing _quoque_ "_koké_" so as to suggest _coque_, the vocative of _coquus_, a cook. (Quint, VI. 3. 47.)

_17. R: in general had the sound of the English _r _with a slight trill; i.e. that of the Italian _r_._

(_a_) Because of its snarling sound it is called by the satirist Persius "the dog's letter" (_littera canina_).

(_b_) The Romans seem not to have liked a too frequent repetition of this letter, for it is omitted often when a following syllable contains it; as _pejero_ for _perjero_; and grammarians have noticed that the genitive plural of the future participle is of rare occurrence. In the colloquial and provincial Latin, _r_ is often dulled into _l_. Thus on one of the walls at Pompeii a part of the first line of the Aeneid was found written, "ALMA VILVMQVE CANO 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 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_ (_casno_), _iudex_ (_iusdex_), _dilabor_ (_dislabor_), _diripio_ (_disripio_), _trado_ (_transdo_), _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 inscriptions it is frequently omitted in writing, as _Cornelio_ for _Cornelios_; 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 _potis_, _vigil_ for _vigilis_, _puer_ for _puerus_; and compare such forms as _poeta_, _nauta_ and _luxuria_ with _ποιητής_, _ναύτης_, _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:

"Tum 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 sixth century A.D.; for Isidores states that _tia_ should be sounded _zia_: and in Greek transliterations of the sixth century we find such forms as δωναζιόνεμ for donationem, and _ἄκτζιο_ 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 τι, as _Οὐαλεντία_ for _Valentia_. It is this classical tradition which Servius retains, when he lays it down as a rule that in all cases _di_ and _ti_ are to be pronounced exactly as written. [7]

(_b_) At the end of a word the letter _t_ seems to have been less strongly sounded, for we find such forms as _ama_, _apu_, for _amat_, _aput_. This was a characteristic of the Umbrian and Volscian and affects the forms of the modern Italian.

_20. V vowel (U): _ū_ sounded like _oo_ in English "fool"; _ŭ_ like _u_ in English "full"._

(_a_) Latin _u_ is frequently represented in Greek by _ου_ whether it be long or short; thus, _Ποστούμιος_ = _Postŭmius_; _Βελλούτου_ = _Bellūti_.

(_b_) Plautus represents the hoot of an owl by _tutu_ in the _Menaechmi_, 654; and in the _Carm. Philom._ 41, the onomatopoetic verb _tutubo_ is used of the same bird. Cf. _cuculo_, "to cry cuckoo" (_Carm. Philom_. 35).

(_c_) In early Latin _ū_ is sometimes written _ou_; thus, _ious_, _ioudex_, _douco_, for _ius_, _iudex_, _duco_.

_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 Roman grammarians, who say that frequently when before a vowel it becomes consonantal. [8] Also as stated above in Chap. III., the Emperor Claudius invented 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 _w_ 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_, [9] (scanned _silüa_), and its absorption in such words as _fautor_ for _favitor_, _cautum_ for _cavitum_. (See Plaut. _Menaechmi_, 155). 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.) [10] This, Cicero says, was taken as an omen; for it sounded like "_Cave ne eas_," which must therefore have been pronounced _Cau' n' eas_. Conversely, in poetry, the vowel _v_ sometimes strengthens into consonant _v_. Thus in Plautus, Lucretius, and even in Vergil and Statius, this happens in such words as _puella_, _suo_, _genua_, _larua_, 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_. (Cf. Consent, p. 395 K).

(_b_) Nigidius Figulus [11] 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 _ου_; thus, _Οὐαλήριος_ for _Valerius_; _Οὐόλσκι_ for _Volsci_; _Ιουουενάλια_ for _Iuvenalia_; _Οὐᾶρος_ for Varus. Sometimes, to be sure, _v_ is represented by _β_, but this is chiefly in Plutarch, who is a Boeotian and confesses his own ignorance of Latin [12]; or else it is done in proper names in which by using _β_ the word becomes in appearance more like a Greek one; that is, its form becomes Hellenized: as for instance, _Λίβιος_, _Φούλβιος_ etc., for _Livius_ and _Fulvius_,--the termination –βιος being common in Greek.

_22. X: had the sound of _x_ in English._

The grammarians say that the character a_x_is a monogram 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_. (Max. Victor, p. 1945 P).

_23. Y: had the sound of French _u_ or German _ü_._

See III, supra.

_24. Z: had the sound of English _z_ and modern Greek _ζ_._ See p. 12.

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 time, ζ had been imperfectly represented in the Latin by _s_ or _ss_, as _sona_ for _ζώνη_, and _badisso_ for _βαδίζω_. It was, in classical times, always regarded by the Romans as a Greek letter. Marius Victorinus remarks: "If _z_ were essential to the Latin language, we should represent it by _ds_."

[1] Seelmann, _Die Aussprache des Latein_, p. 175 sqq.

[2] Quint. I. 4, 14.

[3] Carm. LXXXIV.

'_Chommoda_' dicebat, si quando '_commoda_' vellet Dicere et '_insidias_' Arrius '_hinsidias_'. Et tum mirifice sperabat se esse locutum, Cum, quantum poterat, dixerat '_hinsidias_'. * * * * * * Hoc misso in Syriam, requierant omnibus aures, Audibant eadem haec leniter et leviter. Nec sibi postilla metuebant talia verba; Cum subito adfertur nuntius horribilis: Ionios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset, Iam non '_Ionios_' esse sed '_Hionios_'!

Which Martin has very cleverly translated:

"Whenever Arrius wished to name 'Commodious,' out 'chommodious' came: And when of his intrigues he blabbed, With his 'hintrigues' our ears he stabbed; And thought moreover, he displayed A rare refinement when he made His h's thus at random fall With emphasis most guttural. 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!"

[4] Gellius (II. 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.

[5] Quint, ix. 4, 40; Prise. 1, p. 29 (Keil).

[6] Velius Lougus, p. 80 (Keil).

[7] Don. in Serv. p. 445.

[8] 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, III. 261.

[9] Cf. Horace, Odes, I. 23, 4.

[10] _De Div._ II. 40. 84.

[11] Quoted by Gellius, X. 44.

[12] The statistics on this point will be found in the introduction to Roby's Latin Grammar, pp. XXXVII-XLI. Plutarch, who oftenest uses _β_ for _v_, expressly states in his life of Demosthenes his own deficiency as a Latin scholar, and this fact impairs the value of his testimony in general except as corroborating better witnesses. Prof. F. D. Allen (_Class. Review_, Feb. 1891) regards the use of _β_ as characteristic only of the later Greeks.

V. SOUNDS OF THE DIPHTHONGS.--SUMMARY.

IT must be remembered that the Latin diphthongs (Æ, AU, EI, EU, Œ), 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; Prisc, 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 pronunciation 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 elemental 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.

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_Æ had originally the double sound _ah-ê_ 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, _praifecius_, _quaistor_, _aulai_; and so Vergil to give an antique coloring to his language has _pictai_, _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 testimony 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 _haedus_.

(_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 _ăé_.

_AU 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 _αυ_, as in _Κλαύδιος_ for Claudius.

(_b_) In vulgar and provincial circles, _au_ had sometimes the sound of _u_, the first element of the diphthong being neglected as was the case with _ae_. Hence we find occasionally in inscriptions such forms as _frudavi_ for _fraudavi_, _cludo_ for _claudo_, etc. But the vulgar generally gave to _au_ the sound of _ō_, as in modern French. Thus, some branches of the Claudian family called themselves _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 Floras, a man of consular rank, that he ought to say '_plaustra_' rather than '_plostra_,' he greeted Floras the next day as '_Flaurus_'"--the point of which is that _Flaurus_ suggests the Greek _φλαῦρος_, "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 _ī_. Gorssen 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 _ī_ and _ē_. Cf. _Aussprache_, I. 719, 788; Ritschl, _Opuscula_, II. 626; Roby, §§ 267, 268.

_EU had (nearly) the sound of _eu_ in English "feud"._

_Eu_ remained a true diphthong with more stress upon the second element than upon the first. This is seen by the fact that (rarely) it has passed into _ū_ [1] but never into _ē_. The combination _eu_ is not often found in Latin except in transliterating Greek words, and in the exclamations _heu_, _heus_, and _eheu_, and in the contractions _neu_ (_neve_), _seu_ (_sive_), and _neuter_ (_ne_ + _uter_). In _neutiquam_ the antepenult is short.

_OE had the sound of _oi_ in English "toil" (nearly), or of _ōē_._

Oe represents an original _oi_ and remained a diphthong in those words in which it continued to be written. When the first element predominates over the second, _oe_ passes into _u_, as in _plura_ for _ploera_, _punio_ from the root of _poena_, _cura_ for _coera_. When the second element predominates, _oe_ passes into _ae_ (by a confusion) and _ē_, as in _obscaonus_ and _obscenus_ for _obscaenus_. But in words where _oe_ is regularly written, it is to be pronounced as a true diphthong.

_UI as a diphthong_ occurs only in a few interjections, as _hui_, _fui_, and in _huic_ and _cui_. In both _huic_ and _cui_ it represents an earlier _oi_ (_hoic_, _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 letters 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 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, bé, ké, dé, ê, ef, ghé, ha, î (_ee_), ka, el, em, en, ô, pé, qu (_coo_), er, es, té, oo, ix, (ü, zeta)_. (Prise, p. 540 P.)

In pronouncing Latin words, too much care can not be taken in distinguishing between long vowels and those that are short. Cicero says: _Omnium longitudinum et brevitatum in sonis sicut acutarum graviumque vocum indicium, natura in auribus nostris collocavit_; 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 deserves honor as being one of the first American scholars to advocate and adopt the true method of pronouncing 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 pronunciation; 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 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 common rules of grammar and rhetoric, to talk at once with grammatical and rhetorical correctness and elegance."

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 Romans 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_; _circulus_ and _surculus_; _cervus_ and _servus_; _amici_ and _amisi_.

(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 Romance language, and of the science of Comparative Philology. [2]