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1887

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REESE LIBRARY

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Received ^^74^-*^ , 188 f^

Accessions No^ <2. o.^/*.. Shelf No. 7 (00 O^

Cambridge I

0tieig

PRONUNCIATION

OF

LATIN

IN THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD.

LONDON:

TRUBNER & CO., 57 AND 59, LUDGATE HILL.

PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN IN THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD.

A considerable reduction from the published price is allowed to Heads of Colleges, Schools, &c., on their taking a quantity.

Terms may be had on application to the publishers — TRUBNER & Co., LUDGATE HILL, LONDON, E. C.

Crnnferibge |)IjtI0Iagttal Societn.

IT having been felt by some teachers at Cambridge that the time had come to make a further attempt to correct the . errors of the ordinary English pronunciation of Latin, a letter of enquiry was sent out to ascertain the amount of support which such an attempt would: receive. This called forth very encouraging answers from lecturers in almost every college in Cambridge and not a few schoolmasters. The following statement was therefore drawn up by a small committee : it has been fully discussed at two meetings of the Society, and it is now put forth by the Society as an approximate statement of the pronunciation of Latin by the educated classes in the Augustan period.

SUMMARY OF THE PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN IN THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD.

VOWELS.

Letters.

Pronunciation.

Latin A long in alas, constans as Eng. a in psalm, salve, halve, short as in dmdt, Dd- the same sound shortened. Both nde d and a are found in aha !

N.B. a in Latin was never pro- nounced as in mate, nor a as in man, mat.

ns Fr. e, a close 'e'1. It is the first part of the Eng. diph- thong in skein, grey, ray, rain, an open1 e. Eng. e in sped.

N.B. Lat. e was never pro- nounced as Eng. ee in see.

as i in machine, quinine, ee in feel, feet.

N.B. The Latin I w-as never the i in fine.

as i in fit, skim2.

E long as in teld, tensus, dw

short as in tenet, /eras,

I long in trlt us, Infensus, is (verb), praui

short as sifts, fecit, nisi

in certain cases where the

spelling varies between i and u

as in maximus, maxumus,

as Ger. it3.

1 The difference between close and open vowels (otherwise called 'narrow' and ' wide ') is caused by drawing up the part of the tongue with which the sound is produced and thus makmg~it more convex than it is in its natural relaxed position (open). This causes a 'narrowing' of the passage of the sound, whence the name.

2 Lat. final I seems to have had an intermediate sound between g and I as in her?, yesterday, written in Quintilian's time her?. Q. says, Inst. i. 4, 8, in here neque e plane neque i auditor; compare i. 7, 22, 24. This is supported by the various spellings on inscriptions sibi, sibe, sibei ; quasi, quase, quasei, so with tibi, ubi. The sound was probably that of Eng. final y as in lady.

3 Modified u (u) has two sounds in (North) German : (a) when long, it is close as in grfin^gfite; so in Fr. lune, aigw: (b) when short, it is open as in Imtte, schwtzen. These sounds may be produced approximately by pro- nouncing I as in machine and \ as in fTt respectively, with rounded lips.

0 longasinrom, Cdttstfs, close o as Fr. au in ch/md, fcmx. conto The first part of the English

diphthong in grow, loan, short as in dues, bourn, open o, nearest representative

modo Eng. o in not, rock4.

U \oi\gas uiumor,tunsus, as u in rain, intrude ; =00 in genii poop.

N.B. Lat. u was never pro- nounced like u in acwte, umle, which is yoo. short as in uti, tails as u in full, oo in foot.

N.B. Lat. u never as the ordi- nary Eng. u in but, cut, luck. Y as in gyrus, scijphus, us Ger. u, see note. cymbd, llyddes a Greek sound.

The great difference between the English and Latin pro- nunciations of the same vowel symbols is due to the fact that the pronunciation of English has changed, while the spelling has not changed with it. The symbols a, i, o, e, u no longer have their original values, a, I, o have become diphthongs, a in mate being sounded as ei (ey] in vein or grey, I as eye, o as ow in grow?. The English e in see and u in rue have a slight consonantal ending which is y in the one case and w in the other. English u is generally yoo.

DIPHTHONGS.

AE in taedae, AU in laus> laudo, OE in foedus, EI in Pompei (voc.), EU in sen, neuter, UI in cui, liuic. .

The pronunciation of these diphthongs, of which the last three are extremely rare, is best learnt by first sounding each vowel separately and then running them together, ae as ah-eh, an

as ah-oo, oe as o-eh, ei as eh-ee, eu as eh-oo, and ui as oo-ee'\

N.B. The English pronunciation which rhymes haedus, foedus with 'feed us' is quite incorrect.

4 The pronunciation of the Latin o seems to have fluctuated, o (which is generally, although not always close) was sometimes nearer to the Eng. aw in law but more often to the Fr. au (with a higher position of the tongue) while the short open o is sometimes nearer to the Eng. o in not but more often to the N. Ger. o in stock. Generally speaking Latin e and o are Italian close e and o, while Latin o and e are Italian open o and e.

5 AE was not far from the Ger. a and had a tendency to become open e (as in men, sped) : but it was not till the 6th cent. A.D. that ae and e became quite confused. AU is the German an in ho?/s. The nearest sound in Eng. is on

CONSONANTS.

C in cdno, cecmi, cycnus, ceu} always as Eng. k, never as s or scit, hasce, condlcio as c before e, i. Thus kekinee,

kiiknus, skit etc., condikio (never condis/ao).

Qu in inquit as Eng. qu in quick.

G in gaudeo, genus, gingiud, age always as Eng. g in ^ot, gret,

begin, never as j or g in </ibe or generous.

N before c (k, qu), g, as incipit, as ng in sing, (n in sink), thus inquam, conger os ingkipit, ingquam, conggero.

T, D, N, L as in adit, ndtus, nearly as in Eng.7 luna, clientem, edttio, con- stdns

N.B. editio etc. never as edisAio.

S as in sus, acciiso, tristes always voiceless8 as in hiss,

hist ; never voiced as in lias (haz).

P, B, M (except final M)9 as as in Eag. in plunibo

in howse, which should be pronounced ' broadly ' haowse. El is the Eng diphthong in grey (rain, mate etc.). EU as in It. neutro. UI as in It. colui. The old Latin diphthongs AI, pronounced as Greek ai (as in Eng. Isaiah, broadly pronounced), and OI, as oi in lorn, had disappeared before the Augustan period.

6 Lat. gn after a vowel has been supposed to have the sound of ng-n re^num being pronounced rem/-«um, cognomen as co;?#-?iomen. Mr Eoby (Lat. Gr. i. Pref. p. 79 sqq.) and Seelmann (Aussprache des Lateins pp. 274, 278) doubt this.

7 But the tongue should touch the teeth instead of the forepart of the palate.

8 'Voiced' sounds are produced with, 'voiceless' without vibrations of the vocal chords ; b, d, g, z (in zest) are voiced, p, f, k, s are voiceless. The 'voiced' s (z) has been sometimes assumed for classical Latin in certain words when the s stands between two vowels, e.g. rosa; but without sufficient authority. It was, however, probably heard in borrowed Greek words like Smyrna, smaragdus (often written Zmyrna zmaragdus). The voiced s of Old Latin had become r; as in laborem, Old Latin labosern. — S, like T, D, N, L is a pure dental produced by putting the tongue near the teeth at a point more forward than in the Eng. s. — For pronunciation of ns preceded by a vowel see note 9 inf.

0 The pronunciation of final m is not free from doubt. It is clear that it was more weakly sounded than at the beginning or in the middle of a word. (1) When a consonant followed it, the m must have remained consonantal as the vowel which preceded was lengthened in position. Thus turn tenet, turn

canet were scanned . (2) Before a vowel, however, or before h followed

by a vowel, both the m and the preceding vowel were disregarded in scansion, montem habet being scanned - — • just like mons habet or monte habet. In (1) the m was probably assimilated to the following consonant becoming ng before 'gutturals', mensam grauem being pronounced mensanggrauem

I consonant as in itigum, idcio as Eng. y: 2/ugum, yakio10.

U consonant as in udnus, uis, probably as Eng. wu : 7-yalmus, seruo wees, serwo etc.

N.B. There is no ancient authority for spelling i consonant

as j or u consonant as v. The Romans used one symbol for both

vowel and consonant.

R in ringi, rdrus, dator trilled r as in French (or

Scotch) : more strongly trilled

than in Eng. opera, herring 12.

KB. The final r should be

fully sounded 12.

R is the 'dog's letter' r-r-r 'irritata canis quam homo quam planiu' dicit* Lucil. RH is found in borrowed words as Pyrr/ms, r/ieuma. It is the corresponding voice- less sound as in Fr. thedtre = Gk. p. The trilled r is repre- sented by rr in the exx. given below.

(cf. quamquam or quanquatn pronounced quangquam), n before t, d, n, 8, i consonant, mensam tenet being pronounced mensantenet (and quom iam quo?aam). Before r, I it was completely assimilated, mensam leuem being mensalleuem, mensam rudem mensarrudem. In (2) the final m was probably absorbed into the preceding vowel which was nasalized. Thus, adopting the customary mark for a nasal vowel, -am became <7, -em. u etc. The nasalized vowel thus formed was slurred on to the following vowel like any non-nasalized vowel. Thus fluctum accipit was pronounced fluct»accipit? quanquam incipit as quanquhincipit etc. [Nasal vowels are produced by sending the voice in part through the nose The French vowels in en, on, un, vin etc. are familiar examples of nasal vowels.]

Mr A. J. Ellis however believes that the m was always omitted in speak- ing and the following consonant pronounced as if it were doubled: quorum pars he would pronounce quoruppars, spargam flores as spargafflores, animamque as animacque. Final ini followed by i consonant he pronounces as I, -urn followed by u consonant as &: e.g. clauirn iacit as claul iacit. Final m at the end of a sentence he thinks was not heard at all. Where a vowel followed as in (2) he believes that the m was never sounded and that fluctum was treated exactly like fluctu, mensam like mensa, the final vowel before 771 being simply slurred on to the following one.

It is also possible that a vowel was nasalized when it was immediately followed by ns. This would explain the frequent omission of the n in such cases, cesor appearing on inscriptions by censor, cosol by consul etc. In this case msanus (see below) would be pronounced eesanus, fruns (for irons, frondis), also written frus (Ennius), frobss.

10 In a number of cases the i was pronounced twice though only written once. So in obicio, pronounced dbyikio.

11 It may however have been pronounced as Fr. ou in oui.

12 The proper rolling of the r is most important, especially at the end of words, the English tendency being to slur all unaccented finals. Thus we pro-

G

CH in Bacchus. TH in Cethegus, as k, t, p followed by

PH as in Phoebus

F inferueo, udfer as in Eng.

II in Jiora, incoho as in Eng.

COMPOUND AND DOUBLED CONSONANTS.

X as in saxum, pax, exulto asEng.&f (a); eksulto}uoteggsulto

BS as in absorbeo, urbs „ ,, ps; urbs as oorrps.

Z as in gaza, Zephyrus, a Greek pronunciation doubtful ; but

sound perhaps as dz in adze, not as z.

Care should be taken with doubled consonants, (a) Where we find in classical times the two symbols regularly written, we may infer that two sounds were intended to be represented. This is true of explosives, as in vac-ca, cip-pus, ag-ger — in sounding which a distinct pause ought to be made (as in Italian) between the two sounds ; it is also true of fricatives, as in Metel-lus, pen-na, fer- rum, pos-sum, dif-ncilis. (b) But where the spelling varies as in caussa (causa), Pollio (Polio), we may infer that the sound was but one somewhat prolonged fricative, the double symbol (Po-llio, cau-ssa), being used to mark this fact. Before the "doubled" sounds of (a) the accent was commonly stronger and the vowel short.

"ELISION" OF VOWELS.

Final vowels (or diphthongs) when followed by vowels (or diphthongs) or h were not 'cut off' but were lightly pronounced and run on to the following vowel as in Italian14. Thus we should pronounce ego eo as eg°eo, not eg'eo, ill6 ibit, not ilFibit. Where the two vowels were the same, as in Marcella am at, the effect was that of a single vowel. Similarly where a vowel was followed by

nounce er, ir, ur without any distinction with the same single vowel, and assimilate them all to the final short a, and consequently make no difference in sound between mater, (a)matwr and (a)mata. So lem'r is pronounced 'lever.' In reading verse this destroys the metre by producing hiatus: Jlatur erit is pronounced as if it vferejlata erit. So also in other cases: uer, cur and uir are all pronounced alike with the same vowel sound and no rr; they should be sounded wehrr, koorr, and wirr. The mis-pronunciation is not confined to finals ; arbor is pronounced ' ahbor ' (or even ' ahba ') in place of 5,hrrborr ; uertit ought to be pronounced wgrrtit.

13 These sounds are heard in Ireland. They may be obtained by pro- nouncing ink-horn, pot-house, tap-house so that the mute comes into the second syllable, in-khorn, po-thouse, ta-phouse. It is quite incorrect to pronounce th as in thin, and ph as/.

14 This is what Cicero means by conitingere uocales, Orator § 150.

a diphthong beginning with the same vosvel, as in contra audentior, which had the effect of coutraudentior.

For the pronunciation of a vowel and final m before a following vowel or h see note 9.

QUANTITY.

The proper observance of the quantity is of vital importance for the proper appreciation of metre in Latin poetry and rhythm in prose. The short and long vowels in Latin differed in duration as the first and second in alia! or quinine. This difference should be carefully observed. The practice of lengthening the accented vowels is entirely alien to the classical pronunciation of Latin. Pronounce cibus Id-bus not sigh-bin, pronounce d-mo not ey-mo, sacro sdh-cro not sake-row. Especial care is required where a vowel follows in the next syllable. Hence we should pronounce suls soo-ees, siiis soo-is and not both like sue-is, sciunt as skee-unt (not sigh-unt). The shortening and slurring of the unaccented vowel is equally faulty, uictoria (oh-r?*ee-ah) is to be carefully distinguished from uictoria (oh-iree-ah), ratis a ship from ratls dat. pi. of ratiis (rah-teess). A special form of this fault is pronouncing words like ded, red as if the two vowels formed a diphthong and so making them monosyllables (dear, rear) instead of disyllables.

Every vowel has a quantity of its own ; and the English practice of pronouncing all vowels in position before two or more consonants as if they were naturally short, is erroneous. The Romans said sScta but rectus, tectus : Indoctus but Tnsula, Tnfensns 15.

ACCENT.

The nature of the Latin accent has been much discussed. It was certainly different from the English accent, which consists in pronouncing the accented syllable with much greater emphasis or stress than the adjacent syllables. It seems clear that the Latin

15 The natural length of a vowel must be distinguished from the conven- tional 'lengthening' which it is said to undergo before two consonants. In indoctus the i is itself short, but the fact that nd follow allows the syllable to be treated in verse as if it were naturally long as in l-bat. In insanus the vowel itself is long, ee. What vowels were naturally long and short, cannot be completely determined. But we learn from ancient authorities that vowels were long before the combinations ns, nf, thus : constans, mfensus : so also before gn: regnum, signum and at least sometimes before nc, nq: qulnque, Quln(c)tus, sanctus. Where a g became c before t, s etc., the preceding vowel became long as in lectus from lego, while from seco we have sectus. The vowel is frequently long before r and a consonant: Marcus (Maarcus) Mars, ordo, orno. The natural quantity of the vowel was retained when two consonants followed, as in scriptus from scrlbo. See Seelmann Aussprache des Lateins pp. 69 sqq., Marx Hiilfsbiichlein fur die Aussprache der Lett. Vokale in posit ionslan gen Silben.

accent was partly a pitch- and partly a stress-accent ; or, in other words, that the accented syllable was pronounced in a higher key and also with greater force than the unaccented syllables. The difference in pitch is vouched for, inter alia, by the welt known statement of Cicero in the Orator § 58. The Latin acuta (uox) denoted that the voice rose on the accented syllable : such an accent has been called a ' rising- tone ' (Sweet). The Latin grauis would naturally be the lower tone of unaccented syllables. In the circumflexa (or inflexa as Cicero calls it), the voice would first rise and then fall on the same syllable (pluma). The exact amount of difference in pitch between the accented and unaccented syllables cannot now be ascertained.

As regards the difference in stress it is to be remarked first that it manifests itself in a number of ways : in the tendency to draw away the accent as far as may be from the last syllable, to alter both the quantity and the character of the vowels in unaccented syllables and to affect the final consonants of a word : secondly that the difference of force or vigour with which accented and un- accented syllables were respectively pronounced was considerably less than in English. Accordingly the accented vowels should be pronounced much more gently and the unaccented ones much more distinctly than is at present the custom. Special attention should be paid to this.

CAMEKIDOE: PUIXTKD LY c. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

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