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LATIN PRONUNCIATION
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CAMBRIDGE:
1871.
Entered according fco Act of Congrcep, in the year 1871, by George M Lahe,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
4.7 .6"
uns
AN
ELEMENTARY LATIN GRAMMAR,
BASED ON THE LATEST TEXTS AND GRAMMATI¬
CAL STUDIES.
BY GEORGE M. LANE,
POPE PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
Will be ready, it is expected, in the Autumn of 1872.
LATIN PRONUNCIATION.
" Ego sic scribendum quidque judico, quomodo sonat. Hie enira
est usus litterarum, ut custodiant voces et velut depositum reddant
legentibus." Quintil. 1,7,30.
" Aliter scribere et aliter pronuntiare vecordis est." Papirianus
ap. Cassiodor., p. 2292, 21, P.
The exact Pronunciation of the Romans
cannot of course now be known.
The following may be regarded as a
close approximation.
In a syllable long by position merely, the vowel has the short
sound : e. g. niix as in put, lûx as in rule.
Note 1. For the Parasitic n after g, q, and s, see those letters.
Note 2. The Greek vowel y (v) is pronounced like the German Ü,
French u.
Note 3. An intermediate sound between n and i, perhaps not un-
VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS.
Vowels.
Long.
Short.
a as in father.
e as in Frenchfite.
i as in machine.
O as in teme.
11 as in rule.
a as in the first syllable of papa,
e as a in desperate.
i as e in report.
O as in domestic.
11 as in put.
4
LATIN PRONUNCIATION.
like Greek i (" médius quidam u et I litterae sonus: " Quintil. 1, 4,
8,) occurs in many real Latin words in short syllables, as in opt"mus,
dec"mus, before m and Labials. Sometimes it is written u, some¬
times I ; t. g. original Ii bet changes to llbet.
Diphthongs.
"AifpdoyyoL ?Jyovrai, enei&ri ex Svo <p06y-
ycdv GvvíoTavrou ' (pQóyyoi 8e xa7,ovvrat xarà
uovdixôv Xóyov rà ypáfiuara" Belcher's An-
eccl. p. 803, 6 : " diphthongi autem dlcuntnr, quod
binos pht bongos, hoc est voces, comprehen-
dunt. nam singulae vocales suas voces habent."
ÇPriscian. T. p. 37, 18, Hertz.')
ae (originally written ai) like the English word ay.
Notk. As early as the times of Lucilius (died 103 B. C.) and Varro
(died about 27 B. C.) the diphthong ae was degraded to a mere e in
Vulgar Latin : e. g. edus, Cecilius, pretor, for haedus, Caecitius, praetor.
This pronunciation began to creep into real Latin under the early
emperors, and became the prevalent pronunciation in the Third Cen¬
tury A. D.
au Lke ow in howl.
oe (originally written oi) like oi in spoil.
el as in eight, with a little exaggeration of the English sound ee
at the end. So hei, oiei.
Note. Such words as plebejus, Pompejus, etc., though often writ¬
ten plebeius, etc., do not belong here.
eu like eh-oo rapidly pronounced; uncommon: occurs in interjec¬
tions, as éheu, heu, heus, in compounds ceu, neu, seu (for cere, etc.),
neuter, and in Greek words.
ul like the English we i found only in hui and in cui and huic for
quoi and hoic.
LATIN PRONUNCIATION.
5
CONSONANTS.
Gutturals. Ir as in English ; c like k before all vowels.
"K innullis verbis uiendum puto nisi quae significat, etiam ut sola
ponatur. hoc eo non omisi, quod quidam earn, quotiens a sequatur,
necessariam credunt, cum sit C littera, quae ad omnis vocalis vim
suam perferat." Quintil. 1, 7, 10.
" K enint et q, quamvis figura et nomine videantur aliquam habere
difFerentiam, cumc tarnen eandem tarn in sono vocum quam in metro
fjotestatem continent." Priscian. I. p. 12, 5, Hertz.
Note 1. When the combination -ci- is followed by a vowel, the
i has a natural tendency toward the sound of i consonans or j,
(English y); thus conditio easily runs into the sound condign, like the
English mispronunciation of kyind for kind. In the roiuse of time
-cj- was again confused with-tj-. Cut in the literary period the
distinction between -ci- and-ti-was rigidly adhered to: thus al¬
ways conditio, never conditio, always contio, never concio. The oldest
example of -ti- for -ci- dates 192-211 A. D., when the corruption
tribuvitivs is found for tribunicius.
Note 2. At a very late period, beginning about the Sixth Cen¬
tury A. D.,c was regularly assibilated beforee and i: e.g. incitamento
is written intcitamenlo.
g before a O U as in garden ; before e i y as in get.
Note, g is sometimes followed by a parasitic n ; " praeponitur u
amittenti vim literae: " Priscian. I. p. 12,13, Hertz: e. g. anguis like
the English anguish. See q and s Note.
q and li as in English.
Note, q is sometimes a mere substitute for c before a single u; e.'
g. pequnia, qura, gum, for pecunia, cura, cum. Almost always,
however, it is followed by a parasitic u, a combination equivalent to
the English qu. Priscian, I. p. 7,19, Hertz, distinguishes two shades
of this faint vanishing u: "u autem, quamvis contractum, eundem
tarnen [hoc est y] sonum habet inter q et e vel i vel ae [ ? ] dipbthon-
gum positum, ut ' que ', ' quis ' quae ', [ ? ] nec non inter g et easdem
vocales, cum in una syllaba sic invenitur, ut 'pingue', 'sanguis',
6
LATIN PRONUNCIATION.
'linguae' [?]." That is gu and qu when followed by a and o bave
more the sound of u (English oo) as in quote ; when followed by e
and i more the sound of u as in quit. This subtle distinction,
while founded on physiological and phonetic necessity, is of no
practical moment, as the combinations will be instinctively pro¬
nounced correctly. Priscian's statement about ae has been queried
in the quotation above, and is to be explained by the mispronuncia¬
tion of ae In his day (Vlth Cent.) like e. See ae.
Labials, p, b, and f as in English.
"Non fixis labris est pronuntianda f, quomodo ph, atque hoc
solum interest: " Priscian. I. p. 12,1, Hertz; " f inter discrimina
dentium efflanda est: " Quintil. 12, 10, 29.
Dentals, t as in time; cl like the English d.
Note. Long after the literary period -ti-, followed by a vowel, was
corrupted in sound to -te h i (as in church) or-tsi-, and branches
from this into various modifications of sound in the modern lan¬
guages. The combination ts was odious to the Roman ear, and ex¬
cept in a loose compound, like eist, avoided : e. g. possum for potsum.
Liquids. 1, r, m, and n ordinarily as in English.
Note 1. The Romans distinguished three sounds of I: "Tripli-
cem, ut Plinio videtur, sonum habet: exilem, quando geminatur se¬
cundo loco posita, ut ' ille-', ' Metellus ' ; plenum, quando finit nomina
vel syllabas, et quando aliquam habet ante se in eadem syllaba con-
sonantem, ut'sol', 'silva', 'flavus', ' clarusmedium in aliis ut
'lectum', ' lectus'." Priscian. I. p. 29, 8, Hertz.
Note 2. m at the end of a word has a weak nasal sound. " Quo-
tiens ultima est et vocalem verbi sequentis ita contingit, ut in earn
transiré possit, etiamsi scribitur, tamen parum exprimitur, ut ' mul-
tum ille ' et ' quantum erat ', adeo ut paene cujusdam novae litterae
sonum reddat. ñeque enim eximitur, sed obscuratur et tantum in
hoc aliqua inter duas vocales velut nota est, ne ipsae coëant."
Quintil 9, 4,40. " Pleraque nos illa quasi mugiente m littera cludi-
mus." Idem, 12, 10, 31.
" M obscumm in extremitate dictionum sonat, ut ' templum ', aper-
tum in principio, ut ' magnus mediocre in raediis, ut ' umbra '."
Priscian. I. p. 29, 16, Hertz.
LATIN PRONUNCIATION.
7
Note 3. n adalteriiium. n before a guttural (naturally also
x — es) assimilates to the guttural sound: e. g. anceps as in ankle,
anguis as in anguish, inquiro as in inkwiper, anxius as in anxious.
Note 4. n before s has an indistinct sound and is often dropped
both in writing and in pronunciation : e. g. deciens and decies, for-
monsus and formosus. (In a coin of the age of Caesar the sign : is
used for this indistinct n, PARE'.S for PARENS.)
Sibilants. S as in sin ; x as in expect ; the Greek letter z
(£), like the English z.
Note 1. At the end of a word s is pronounced faintly when it fol¬
lows a short vowel.
Note % The beginner should avoid the sound of z given to s at
the epiof English words after b, e, n, and r : e. g. urbs not as in
rati, urbes notas in breezes, amans not as in pans, pars not as in stars.
Note 3. 3 is sometimes followed by a parasitic u before a and e;
suavis, suelus, as sw in English sweet.
Semivowels, i consonans and u consonans (j and
V) like a consonantal i and u, namely, as y and w.
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