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ij#tlPl;jH| T' : "- A.* T ' 

ill llil Language 



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EX LIBRIS 

JOHANNIS FLETCHER 

PER DUO ET VIGINTI 
ANNOS LINGUAE LATINAE IN COLLEGIO 

UNIVERSITATIS 

PROFESSORIS: QUI MENSE JULIO 

A.D. MDCCCCXVII MORTUUS EST: 

LI BROS QUOS ILLE PENITUS AMAVERAT 

UXOR ET FILII EJUS COLLEGIO AMATO 

DONAVERUNT. 
DULCES EXUVIAE DUM FATA DEUS-QUE SINEBANT. 

Virg: Mn: IV. 






LaL-Gr 
$47155.2. 

fiSennett's iLattn Series 

The Latin Language 



A HISTORICAL OUTLINE 

OF ITS 

SOUNDS, INFLECTIONS, AND SYNTAX 



BY ^ 

CHARLES E. BENNETT 

PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



Boston 

Allyn and Bacon 

1907 




COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY 
CHARLES E. BENNETT. 



PREFACE. 

THIS book is a revision of my Appendix to Bennetfs Latin 
Grammar, published in 1895. That book was originally pre- 
pared as a series of lectures to advanced students on subjects 
not covered in any Latin Grammar published in America. The 
title " Appendix," however, was misleading and gave to many 
a wrong impression of the purpose and scope of the book, which 
was in reality written long in advance of the publication of my 
Latin Grammar and entirely without reference to that work. 
The new title is more appropriate to the views discussed and 
the facts brought out ; hence the change. 

In the revision some dozen pages of old matter have been 
omitted, while nearly forty pages of new matter have been intro- 
duced ; but the general plan and scope of the book are un- 
changed. 

I am indebted to Professor J. C. Rolfe, of the University of 
Pennsylvania, and to Professor Charles L. Durham, of Cornell 
University, for valuable suggestions made while the book was 
passing through the press. 

C. E. B. 

ITHACA, March, 1907. 



iii 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I, 

THE ALPHABET. 

PAGE 

Origin of the Latin Alphabet . . . I 

Changes in the Form of the Letters .,,.... I 

Later Additions to the Alphabet 2 

New Characters proposed by Claudius 2 

CHAPTER II. 

PRONUNCIATION. 

Sources of Information .......... 4 

The Vowels . 6 

a 6 

t 6 

i 7 

I for u . . . ,*'' -7 

o 8 

u 8 

y 8 

The Diphthongs 8 

ae 8 

oe . . . 9 

au .10 

eu . . . .10 

ui .10 

The Consonants. 

The Semivowels . . II 

j II 

V 12 

The Liquids . .18 

/ 18 

r 18 



vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Nasals 18 

m 18 

n 20 

n-adultertnum 20 

nf, ns 20 

gn 21 

The Spirants 22 

/ . . 22 

S 22 

h 23 

The Mutes 23 

The Voiceless Mutes 23 

' 23 

f 24 

k >), and Y V (X), being 
aspirates, represented sounds which did not originally exist in 
the Latin language. These characters were accordingly intro- 
duced as numerals, O as 100, as 1000, V as 50. Subse- 
quently O became G , and finally C. This last form resulted 
perhaps from associating the character with the initial letter of 
centum. became first PO, and later M, a change facilitated 
probably by association with the initial letter of mille. 

The half of viz. D, was used to designate 500. V (50) 
became successively ^, _L, and L. 

5. In Cicero's day Y and Z were introduced for the translitera- 
tion of Greek words containing v or . Previously Greek v had 
been transliterated by u, and by s (initial), ss (medial), as, 
Olumpio, sona (^vrj), atticisso (drTi/aa>). 

The Emperor Claudius proposed the introduction of three new 
characters, J to represent v (i.e. our w), D (Antisigma) for ps, 
and h to represent the middle sound between and z, as seen 
in optumus, optimus, etc. These characters were employed in 
some inscriptions of Claudius's reign, but gained no further 
recognition. See Tacitus, Ann. xi. 14. 



THE ALPHABET. 3 

On the alphabet in general, see KIRCHHOFF, Studien zur Geschichte des 

Griechischen Alphabets. 4th ed., Berlin, 1887. 

LINDSAY, Latin Language. Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1894. p. I ff. 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Article Alphabet. 
JOHNSON'S Encyclopaedia, Article Alphabet. 
SOMMER, Handbuch der Lateinischen Laut- und Formenlehre. p. 25 ff. 

2. In writing j in the Grammar to represent the Latin i-con- 
sonans, reference has been had mainly to practical consider- 
ations. Typographical distinction of the vowel and consonant 
sounds of z is absolutely essential to enable the pupil to tell them 
apart. Where * is written for both sounds there is nothing to 
show the student that iam is jam; that etiam is et-i-am ; or that 
Gaius is Ga-i-us. Moreover, it is still usual to distinguish be- 
tween the vowel and consonant u, by writing u for the former, 
and v for the latter. The two cases are perfectly parallel. 
See Deecke, Erl'duterungen zur lateinischen Schulgrammatik, p. 8, 
Zusatz 2. 



CHAPTER II. 

PRONUNCIATION. 

3. Sources of Information. Our sources of knowledge con- 
cerning the ancient pronunciation of Latin are the following : 

a) Statements of Roman writers. Much has been left by ihe 
Roman grammarians on the subject of pronunciation, far more 
in fact than is commonly supposed. The remains of the gram- 
matical writers as collected and edited by Keil under the title 
Grammatici Latini (Leipzig, 1855-1880) fill eight large quarto 
volumes. These writers cover the entire field of grammar, and 
most of them devote more or less space to a systematic consider- 
ation of the sounds of the letters. As representative writers on 
this subject may be cited : Terentianus Maurus (fl. 185 A.D.), 
author of a work entitled de Litteris, Syllabis, Metris ; Marius 
Victorinus (fl. 350 A.D.) ; Martianus Capella (fourth or fifth cen- 
tury A.D. ; not in Keil's collection) ; Priscian (fl. 500 A.D.), author 
of the Institutionum Grammaticarum Libri xviii. Even the 
classical writers have often contributed valuable bits of infor- 
mation, notably Varro in his de Lingua Latina, Cicero in his 
rhetorical works, Quintilian in his Institutio Oratoria, and Aulus 
Gellius in his Noctes Atticae. 

b) A second important source of evidence is found in inscrip- 
tions. The total body of these is very great. The Corpus 
Inscriptionum Latinarum, in process of publication since 1863, 
consists already of fifteen large folio volumes, some of them in 
several parts, and is not yet completed. These inscriptions dis- 
close many peculiarities of orthography which are exceedingly 
instructive for the pronunciation. Thus such spellings as VRPS, 

4 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 5 

PLEPS, by the side of VRBS, PLEBS, clearly indicate the assimilation 
of b to/ before s. Even the blunders of the stone-cutters often 
give us valuable clues, as, for example, the spelling ACLETARVM 
for ATHLETARVM, which shows that the th was practically a /; 
otherwise we could not account for its confusion with c. See 

31- 

c) Greek transliterations of Latin words constitute a third 
source of knowledge. Not only Greek writers (especially the 
historians of Roman affairs), but also Greek inscriptions, afford 
us abundant evidence of this kind. Thus the Greek KIKC/JWV 
(Cicero) furnishes support for the /-sound of Latin c\ while 
Aiovia and OwAevria bear similarly upon the w-sound of Latin v. 
The inscriptions are naturally much more trustworthy guides in 
this matter than our texts of the Greek authors, for we can never 
be certain that the Mss. have not undergone alterations in the 
process of transmission to modern times. 

d) The Romance Languages also, within limits, may be uti- 
lized in determining the sounds of Latin. See Grober's Grund- 
riss der Romanischen Philologie, Vol. I., Strassburg, 1888 ; W. 
Meyer-Liibke, Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen, Vol. I., 
Leipzig, 1890. 

e) The sound-changes of Latin itself, as analyzed by etymologi- 
cal investigation. Modern scholars, particularly in the last fifty 
years, have done much to promote the scientific study of Latin 
sounds and forms, and, while much remains to be done, the 
ultimate solution of many problems has already been reached. 
As representative works in this field may be cited : 

BRUGMANN, K. Grundriss der Vergleichenden Grammatik der Indogerma- 

nischen Sprachen. .Vol. I., 2d ed. Strassburg, 1897. 
BRUGMANN, K. Kurze Vergleichende Grammatik der Indogermanischen 

Sprachen. Strassburg, 1902. 

STOLZ, F. Lateinische Grammatik in MULLER'S Handbiich der Klassischen 
Altertumsivissenschaft. Vol. II., 3d ed. Munich, 1900. 



6 PR ONUNCIA TION. 

STOLZ, F. Lautlehre der Lateinischen Sprache. Leipzig, 1894. 

LINDSAY, W. M. The Latin Language. Oxford, 1894. 

GILES, P. A Short Manual of Comparative Philology for Classical Students. 
2d ed. London, 1901. 

SOMMER, F. Handbuch der Lateinischen Laut- und Formenlehre. Heidel- 
berg, 1902. 

RIEMANN, O., et GOELZER, H. Grammaire Comparee du Grec et du Latin. 
Vol. I. Paris, 1897. 

HENRY, V. Grammaire Comparee du Grec et Latin. 5th ed. Paris, 1894. 

As special works on pronunciation alone may be cited : 

SEELMANN, E. Die Aussprache des Latein. Heilbronn, 1885. The most 

important work on the subject yet published. 

ROBY, H.J. Latin Grammar. Vol I., 4th ed. pp. xxx-xc. London, 1 88 1. 
ELLIS, ALEXANDER. The Quantitative Prommciation of Latin. London, 

1874. A discussion of special problems. 

See also the chapter on ' Pronunciation' in the work of Lindsay 
above cited. 

SUMMARY OF THE EVIDENCE. 
THE VOWELS. 

4. A. The consensus of the Romance languages indicates 
clearly that a was pronounced substantially as in English father. 
In the absence of any specific evidence to the contrary, we may 
safely believe that a had the same sound qualitatively; in 
quantity, of course, it was less prolonged. 

5. E. Long e was probably close, i.e. spoken with the vocal 
organs (more particularly the tongue and hard palate) nearer 
together than in the utterance of short e. Short aoo-TtVos (Fausfinus). 

13. EU appears in Latin in only a few words, and in these is 
of secondary origin. Primitive Latin eu early became ou, 
whence u. The chief Latin words that have eu are : ecu, neu, 
seu, heu. The combination appears also in numerous proper 
names borrowed from the Greek, e.g. Europa, Teucer. In all 
these the sound was that of a genuine diphthong, i.e. an *), SUSTUS (= Justus), 
GIOVE (=Jove). Cf. Seelmann, Aussprache des Latein, p. 239. 

16. V. i. Vis a labial semivowel, with the sound of English w. 
It corresponds to the vowel u, just as/ corresponds to the vowel i. 



THE CONSONANTS. 13 

The evidence : 

a) A single character (V) sufficed with the Romans to indi- 
cate the vowel u (u vocalis] and the consonant u (u consonans). 
This indicates a close proximity in sound between u and v, a 
proximity which manifestly existed, if Latin v was English w. 
For the vowel u naturally passes into w before a vowel whenever 
either the preceding or following syllable is energetically stressed. 
For example, tenuia easily becomes tenvia, and must repeatedly 
be so read in verse. 

b) The Roman grammarians (at least down to the close of the 
first century A.D.) nowhere suggest any essential difference in 
sound between the vowel and consonant functions of the charac- 
ter V, no more than in the case of the analogous I. On the other 
hand, just as in the case of I, they repeatedly suggest that u and 
v were very similar. Thus Nigidius Figulus, cited above in con- 
nection with the discussion of /, observes in the same passage 
(Gellius, xix. 14. 6) that initial V in VALERIVS, VOLVSIVS, is not a 
vowel, an observation which would be pointless unless the sound 
of v had been closely similar to that of , i.e. had been that of w. 
Quintilian in i. 4. 10 gives a similar warning. 

c) The same Nigidius Figulus (Gellius, x. 4. 4) says that in pro- 
nouncing vos we thrust out the edges of our lips, which conforms 
physiologically to the pronunciation of v as English w. 

d) The Greek ordinarily transliterates Latin v by means of ov, 
as OwAepios (Valerius), OvoAo-Kot (VolscT), Atovta (Livia). 

e) 7 and v often interchange in the same words. Thus early 
Latin la-ru-a (e.g. Plautus, Captivi, 598) appears later as a dis- 
syllable, larva. Similarly mi-lu-os appears later as milvus. In 
verse, silva occurs repeatedly as .?;-/&-#, e.g. Horace, Odes,\. 23. 4. 
On the other hand, tenuis, puella, etc., often appear as tenvis,pvella, 
etc. This interchange is conceivable only upon the supposition 
that the vowel and consonant sounds were closely akin. Cf. also 
Velius Longus (close of the first century A.D.) in Keil, vii. 75. 10, 



1 4 PR ON UN CIA TION. 

to the effect that a-cu-am, ' I shall sharpen,' and aquam, 'water ' 
(where qu is simply the traditional inconsistent spelling for qv), 
were liable to confusion in his day. Caesellius (see Seelmann, 
Aussprache des Latein, p. 234) cannot say whether tennis is a dis- 
syllable or a trisyllable ; while in the Romance languages we 
sometimes find doublets pointing to parallel Latin forms, one with 
u vocalis, another with u consonant, e.g. Old French teneve (rep- 
resenting a Latin te-nu-is] and tenve (representing a Latin 
ten-vis). Italian soave points to the existence of a Latin su-a-vis 
by the side of sua- (i.e. sva-) vis. Cf. Seelmann, p. 234. 

/) The phonetic changes incident to word-formation also 
point in the direction of the w-sound of v. Thus from faveo 
(rootfav-) we gttfau-tor (for *fav-tor) ; from lavo (root lav-) we 
get lau-tus (for *lav-tus). In such cases the semivowel v natu- 
rally becomes the vowel u and combines with the preceding 
vowel to form a diphthong. Had v been a spirant, either labio- 
dental, like our English v, or bilabial, it would naturally have 
become /before /in the foregoing examples. Cf., for example, 
our English haf to (colloquial) for hav(e) to. 

The evidence given under /) holds, of course, only for the 
formative period of the language ; but it is valuable as cor- 
roborative testimony. For Latin v is all the more likely to 
have been a semivowel in the historical period, if it was such 
immediately anterior to that period. 

g) The contracted verb-forms, such as amasti for amavisti, 
delesfi for delevisfi, audisti for aud'tvistt, commossem for comnio- 
vissem, all point to a semi-vocalic sound for v, since this sound 
easily disappears between vowels in an unstressed syllable. Cf. 
English Hawarden, pronounced Harden; toward, pronounced 
ford. 

h) Several anecdotes found among ancient writers give fur- 
ther confirmation of the similarity in sound of u and v. Thus 
Cicero (de Divinatione, ii. 84) relates that, when Marcus Crassus 



THE CONSONANTS. 15 

was preparing to set sail from Brundisium on his ill-fated expedi- 
tion to the East, he heard a vender of figs on the street cry out 
Cauneas, really the name of a variety of figs, but which Cicero 
suggests was intended by the gods as a warning to Crassus, viz. 
cav(e] n(e) eas, don't go. 

2. While the above evidence may be accepted as fairly con- 
clusive for the pronunciation of Lat. v as w in the best period, 
indications are not wanting that v had begun to change to a 
spirant sound before the period of the decline. The earliest 
testimony on this point is that of Velius Longus (close of the 
first century A.D.), who speaks of v as having a certain aspiratid, 
e.g. in valente, primitivo (Keil, vii. 58. 17). This reference to 
aspiratid hints at the development of v from its earlier value as 
a bilabial (i.e. produced by the two lips) semivowel to a bilabial 
spirant, somewhat similar to our English v, except that our v is 
labio-dental (i.e. produced by the teeth and lower lip). This 
view is confirmed by the fact that, beginning with the second 
century A.D., we note that v is confused with b, which had also 
become a bilabial spirant at this period. This confusion, which 
increases as time goes on, reaches its height in the third century 
A.D. Examples are : BIGINTI (= vigint'i] ; VENE (=bene) ; FAVIO 
(= Fabio). 

3. Some scholars have sought further confirmation of the 
spirant character for the period referred to (100 A.D. and after- 
wards) in the use of Greek (3 as a transliteration of Latin v. 
Beginning with about 100 A.D. we find (3 frequently employed in 
Greek inscriptions in place of earlier ov for such transliterations, 
e.g. Kov/JcVTo? (conventus) ; /?epva (vernd]\ KaA/?etvos (Ca/vmus). 
Similarly our text of Plutarch (about 100 A.D.) usually has /8 in 
Latin words (e.g. BaAe/oto?, BeVov? = Venus) where earlier Greek 
writers mostly employed ov. Now it is believed (cf. Blass, Pro- 
nunciation of Greek, p. 109) that Greek (3 at this time (beginning 
of the second century A.D.) had become a bilabial spirant. How- 



1 6 PR ONUNCIA TION. 

ever this may be, little support would be gained from that fact 
for the pronunciation of Latin v. For while it is true that the 
use of ft for v assumes great frequency from 100 A.D., yet the 
earlier spelling ov still remains the predominant one. Eckinger, 
Orthographic Lateinischer Worter in Griechischen Inschriften, 
p. 87, gives 234 instances of ov as against 100 of ft in Greek 
inscriptions of the second century A.D., while often the same 
inscription exhibits both spellings. Moreover, occasional in- 
stances of ft = v occur as early as the last years of the Republic, 
Eckinger, p. 87, cites five examples from the first century B.C., 
and twenty one from the first century A.D. The facts seem to 
indicate that the Latin sound was not adequately represented by 
either ov or ft ; consequently no permanent equivalent was ever 
adopted. It is, therefore, perfectly conceivable that Latin v 
should have been transliterated by Greek ft, even at a time when 
the latter sound had not progressed to its spirant stage. In 
fact, it is quite possible that the confusion in Latin itself, which 
resulted in writing b for v, may have contributed to the increas- 
ing frequency in the employment of ft as against earlier ov in 
Greek transliterations of Latin words. The two phenomena 
coincide so accurately in time that the connection suggested 
becomes extremely probable. 

Even if Greek ft had by 100 A.D. become a bilabial spirant 
(as it certainly did ultimately), yet this would not necessarily 
prove anything for the pronunciation of Latin v. For the bilabial 
spirant is very easily confused with the semivowel. Thus the 
dialectal pronunciation of German Wein, Winter with an initial 
bilabial spirant easily deceives American and English travellers, 
to whom this sound is not familiar, and produces the impression 
that an English w is pronounced. The evidence of the Greek, 
therefore, is purely negative, and while it seems probable, as 
already indicated, that Latin v at about the beginning of the 
second century A.D. had begun to become a bilabial spirant, this 



THE CONSONANTS. \J 

conclusion rests upon other grounds than the evidence of Greek 
transliterations. 

4. Gothic and Anglo-Saxon loan-words have been thought by 
some to confirm the w-sound of Latin v, but without reason. 
Gothic and Anglo-Saxon /, it is true, appears regularly as the 
representative of v in words borrowed from the Latin, e.g. Gothic 
wet'n, 'wine' (Lat. vtnum)\ aiwaggeli, 'gospel' (Lak.cvangelium)', 
Anglo-Saxon weall, 'wall' (Lat. vallum)', -wic, 'town' (Lat. 
vicus]. But here again it is not only possible but extremely 
probable that the Gothic and Anglo-Saxon gave only an approxi- 
mate representation of the Latin sound. Gothic could hardly 
have borrowed from the Latin before the fourth century, Anglo- 
Saxon not before the fifth, and it has been shown above that at 
this period Latin v had already become a bilabial spirant. 

5. Others have cited Claudius's attempted introduction of d 
for v as an indication that v, as early as Claudius's day (50 
A.D.), had progressed beyond the semi vocalic stage. Claudius, 
it is urged, while suggesting the employment of a new character 
for u consonans (?;), did not suggest a new character for i' con- 
sondns (/). Hence it is claimed that the relation of v to #, at 
this time, must have been different from that of/ to i. As/ was 
a semivowel, v, it is claimed, could have been nothing less than 
a spirant. But these conclusions would be valid only upon the 
assumption that Claudius was a competent phonetic observer, 
and was not acting from mere caprice. Neither of these 
assumptions would be safe. Moreover, there is no other indi- 
cation that v had progressed beyond its value as a semivowel 
as early as Claudius's day. 

6. It may be added in conclusion that the development of 
Latin v was not complete even when the sound had passed from 
that of a semivowel to that of a bilabial spirant. Later still 
(fifth century A.D. ?) it became a labio-dental spirant (Eng. v), 
and with that value passed into the Romance. 



1 8 PR ON UN CIA TION. 

THE LIQUIDS, /, r. 

17. L seems to have been pronounced differently, according to 
its position in a word. No fewer than three different sounds of 
the letter were recognized by Pliny the Elder, as cited by Priscian 
(Keil, ii. 29. 9), viz. i) an exilis sonus, as in the second / of Hie, 
Metellus ; 2) a pinguis sonus, after a consonant or at the end of a 
word or syllable, as in clarus, sol, silva ; 3) a medius sonus, viz. 
when inital, as in lectus. Just what the differences were which 
were involved in these three modes of articulation cannot now be 
determined. Lindsay (Latin Language, p. 90) thinks that Pliny's 
exilis sonus and medius sonus were our normal English /, as is the 
case in the Italian descendants of the Latin words cited by Pliny. 
The pinguis sonus, Lindsay suggests, consisted in an /-glide pre- 
ceding or following the / itself, e.g. a l lter cl l arus. The basis for 
this view he finds in the Romance development of this / pingue ; 
e.g. clarus becomes Italian chiaro ; flumen becomes fiume ; alter 
becomes French autre. 

18. R was trilled with the tip of the tongue, as is clearly 
described by Terentianus Maurus (Keil, vi. 332. 238 f.) and 
Marius Victorinus (Keil, vi. 34. 15). The name littera cariina, 
given to r as early as Lucilius (ix. 29, M.), agrees excellently 
with the enunciation attributed to the letter. 

THE NASALS, m, n. 

19. M. Initial and medial m probably had the sound of normal 
English m. As regards final m, the true pronunciation can prob- 
ably never be satisfactorily determined. When the following word 
began with a vowel, final m was only imperfectly uttered. Cf. 
Quintilian, ix. 4. 40 : ' When m is final and comes in contact with 
the initial vowel of the following word so that it can pass over to 
the latter, though it is written, yet it is only slightly uttered, as in 



THE CONSONANTS. 19 

multum ille, quantum erat, so as to give the sound of a new letter, 
as it were. For it does not absolutely vanish, but is obscured, 
and is a sort of sign that the two vowels do not become merged.' 
In ix. 4. 39 Quintilian tells us that Cato the Elder wrote diee for 
diem, evidently in recognition of the vanishing value of the final 
nasal. Velius Longus also tells us (Keil, vii. 80, 12 if.) that Verrius 
Flaccus, who lived under Augustus, proposed a mutilated M,viz. IV , 
to indicate the sound of final m before an initial vowel. Seelmann 
(Aussprache des Latein, p. 356), following the above statement 
of Quintilian, defines the sound in question as a ' bilabial nasal 
spirant with partial closure.' 1 This seems a just statement. Cf. 
also Lindsay, Latin Language, p. 62. Evidently the sound must 
have been quite inconsiderable, as it did not interfere with the 
slurring of final syllables in -m with a following initial vowel, as 
is abundantly shown in poetry by the frequency of elision. Ellis 
(Quantitative Pronunciation of Latin, p. 60 ff., especially p. 65) 
interprets the testimony of Quintilian above cited to mean that 
final m was not omitted (neque eximitur), but was inaudible 
(obscuratur) before an initial vowel. The same scholar also 
maintains that every final m was inaudible, irrespective of the 
initial sound of the following word. In case this initial sound 
was a consonant, Ellis (pp. 55, 65) holds that the consonant was 
doubled in pronunciation ; e.g. quorum pars, he thinks, was pro- 
nounced quoruppars, etc. This view, however, is based on the 
improbable assumption that the Italian with its giammai (for gia 
mat), ovvero (for o vero), etc., gives the clue to the pronuncia- 
tion of Latin final m. Latin inscriptions, it is true, in the earliest 
times show that final m was frequently omitted in writing. Thus 
the Scipio inscriptions, the earliest of which may antedate 250 B.C., 
show m omitted before consonants as well as before vowels, but 
in good inscriptions of the classical period final m was not 
omitted with any frequency ; hence no argument can be drawn 
from this source. 



2O PRONUNCIATION. 

20. N. i . N was the dental nasal, as m was the labial. When 
initial, n could hardly have differed materially from English n in 
the same situation. The same is true also of n in the interior of 
a word when followed by other dental sounds (as /, d, s, n) or a 
vowel. Before the gutturals, n took on the sound of ng in sing, 
e.g. in ango, uncus ; i.e. n here became the guttural nasal, a sound 
as different from dental n as is m, and quite as much entitled to 
representation by a separate character. Nigidius Figulus recog- 
nized the individuality of the sound in calling it n-adulterinum 
(Gellius, xix. 14. 7). Certain Roman writers, according to 
Priscian (Keil, ii. 30. 13), followed the analogy of the Greek, and 
used g (= y nasal) for the n-adulterinum, e.g. AgcHises, agceps, 
aggulus. The Greek phoneticians gave y in such situations the 
name Agma (as distinguished from Gamma), and their Roman 
successors sometimes employed the same designation for the 
sound, e.g. Priscian in the passage just cited. 

2. The vowel before nf, ns, as is well known, was regularly 
long in Latin. See 37. Some have assumed, in consequence, 
that a nasal vowel was pronounced in such cases, particularly 
Johannes Schmidt (Zur Geschichte des Indogermanischen Vokal- 
ismus, I. p. 98 ff .). The chief basis of this hypothesis was found 
in the omission of n before s in inscriptions, e.g. COSOL (for consul*)^ 
CESOR, TRASITV. Adjectives in -ensimus and adverbs in -tens were 
also often written -esimus, -ies, e.g. vicesimus or vicensimus ; vicies 
or vlciens. Yelius Longus (Keil, vii. 78-79) tells us that Cicero 
pronounced forensia as foresia, and Megalensia as Megalesia, 
while in adjectives in -osus the n was permanently lost. Greek 
transliterations of Latin words also frequently show l for c and d for c, (an .r-like sound developed 
from c before e and /). The New Umbrian of the same tables 
is written in Latin characters, and uses C for c, but S f (or S) 



THE CONSONANTS, 2$ 

for the s-like sound represented in Old Umbrian by d . This 
makes it clear that at the time the New Umbrian tablets were 
written, Latin c before and i had not yet become assibilated. 
Otherwise the New Umbrian would not have resorted to the use 
of a special character (S 1 or S) to designate this sound. See 
Jones, Classical Review, No. i, 1893. The exact date of the New 
Umbrian tablets is not certain, but they can hardly have been 
written many years before the beginning of the Christian era. 

f) No Latin grammarian ever mentions more than one sound 
for , x, 6 came 
to be represented with increasing frequency in Latin \*y ph, ch, th, 
and by Cicero's day this had become the standard orthography. 
The multitude of Greek words employed in Latin at that time, 
along with the constantly increasing attention paid by educated 
Romans to the Greek language and to Greek culture generally, 
naturally led to this striving for greater exactness. 

1 Initial and final/, c, and /, in stressed syllables, in English are also uttered 
with aspiration, though we do not indicate this in writing. Examples are: top, 
lock, pot. 



28 PR ONUNCIA TION. 

3. As a result we notice the aspirates gaining a foothold in cer- 
tain genuine Latin words, e.g. pulcher, originally pulcer; Gracchus 
(after Bacchus = BaK^o?), originally Graccus ; Cethegus, origi- 
nally Cetegus. An English analogy is seen in such words as island, 
rhyme. Island comes from the Anglo-Saxon igland, Middle 
English Hand. The s was introduced at a comparatively recent 
date as a result of associating Hand with French isle (from Latin 
msula). Rhyme comes from Anglo-Saxon rim, Middle English 
rime, ' number.' The spelling rhyme is due to the influence of 
rhythm (Greek pv0/j,o?) , with which rime was associated in the 
folk consciousness. Cicero {Orator, 48. 160) tells how he him- 
self, in deference to popular usage, was forced to abandon the 
pronunciation pulcer, triumpos, Cet'egus, Kartago, in favor of the 
aspirated forms, pulcher, triumphos, etc. But he adds that he 
refused to pronounce an aspirate in sepulcrum, corona, lacrima, 
and some other words, where apparently a popular tendency 
existed in favor of ch, ph, th, as against the genuine Latin /, c, t. 
Catullus, in the epigram already cited (Carmen 84), humorously 
alludes to Arrius's pronunciation of commoda as chommoda. 

In Bosphorus (Boo-Tropos) the Romans introduced an aspirate 
for a tenuis ; yet the spelling Bosporus also occurs. 

4. With the exception of ph the Latin aspirates retained their 
original character throughout the history of the language. A 
proof that th was still an aspirate in the time of the Empire is 
seen in the spelling ACLETARVM for athletarum, and ACLHETICVM 
for athl'eticum, in an inscription of about 360 A.D. (Wilmanns, No. 
2639). Cf. also CIL. viii. 5352, TERMAS ( = thermas] ; Huebner, 
Inscriptions Hispaniae Christianae, 142, AETEREAS { aethereas]\ 
and the variant Chyesten for Thyesten in Horace, Odes, i. 16. 17. 
This orthography is capable of explanation only on the ground 
that th was still very close to / (viz. t -\- K). For the confusion 
of c and /, cf. the occasional English pronunciation of at least as 
ac least. There is not the slightest indication that Latin th, either 



THE CONSONANTS. 29 

in the flourishing period of the language or in its decline, had a 
spirant sound like our English th in this or thin. The Romance 
languages regularly have / as the descendant of Latin th, e.g. 
Italian teatro (Latin theatrum) ; cattolico (catholicus). Similarly ch 
must have always been either a genuine aspirate or else the sim- 
ple mute c, as shown by the Italian in such words as carta (Lat. 
charta), coro (Lat. chorus]. 

5. As regards ph, the aspirate seems in late imperial times (not 
before the fourth century A.D.) to have developed into the spirant 
/. Some have thought that this change occurred much earlier, 
basing their opinion upon the fact that Greek <, which was regu- 
larly represented in Latin \yj ph, was always employed to trans- 
literate Latin/ But  was simply the nearest equivalent that the 
Greek alphabet possessed for representing/ Quintilian (i. 4. 14) 
shows that the two sounds were quite different, by his account of 
the Greek witness mentioned by Cicero who could not pronounce 
the Latin word Fundanius. This seems to show that the Greeks, 
not having the sound of Latin /(a bilabial spirant), chose  (a 
bilabial aspirate) as the nearest equivalent, very much as Slavs 
and Lithuanians to-day reproduce the / of modern languages 
by/. 

In the speech of the educated classes at Rome, ph seems to 
have followed the history of (f> in Greek. The latter sound, 
according to Blass (Pronunciation of Greek, 28), did not 
become the equivalent of/ before the third century A.D., a view 
substantiated for Latin by the interchange of/ and ph in inscrip- 
tions of this and the following centuries. The phonetics of the 
change are as follows : First, we have / + h, i.e. the labial mute 
-f- a guttural spirant ; secondly, the h is assimilated from the 
guttural spirant to the labial, / (i.e. pf) ; finally, the / is assimi- 
lated to/ giving/, which is then simplified to/ Thus an origi- 
nal Philippus becomes successively Pfilippus, Ffilippus, Filippus. 
Cf. German Pfalz (the name of the district about Heidelberg). 



3O PRONUNCIA TION. 

The mediaeval Latin designation of this was Palatium, whence 
Phalatium, German Pfalz, but dialectically often pronounced 
Falz. 

THE DOUBLE CONSONANTS, x, z. 

32. X. X is always equivalent to cs, never to gz, as it some- 
times is in English. This conclusion follows from the voiceless 
character of Latin s, before which a guttural was necessarily 
assimilated. 

33. Z. The value of z is somewhat uncertain. The character 
is confined exclusively to foreign words, chiefly Greek. Though 
introduced in the first Latin alphabet, it was early dropped (see 
1.3), its place being taken by g. Long afterwards, ap- 
parently about Cicero's time, it was again introduced for the 
more accurate transcription of in words borrowed from the 
Greek. Prior to this time the Latin had transliterated Greek 
when initial by s, and by ss in the interior of words, e.g. sona 
(= 0)1/77) ; atticisso (= dTTt/ao>). But with the increasing use 
of Greek at Rome, a more accurate designation of the sound was 
felt to be necessary, and accordingly the Greek character itself 
was introduced. Cf. the care exercised at the same period in 
designating the aspirate in Greek loan-words. 

The pronunciation of z in Latin must have followed the pronun- 
ciation of Greek for the corresponding period. As regards , 
while it almost certainly had the sound of zd'm the Attic of the 
fifth century B.C., it is likely that by the beginning of the Mace- 
donian period (approximately 300 B.C.) it had become a simple 
z sound (as in English gaze) , though probably somewhat pro- 
longed; for it still 'made position,' as though a double consonant. 
See Blass, Pronunciation of Greek, 31. The same sound proba- 
bly attached to Roman z. For while certain Roman grammarians 
explain z as equivalent to sd or ds, their statements are probably 
but the echo of Greek discussions concerning the sound of z. It 
is worthy of note that one Roman grammarian, Velius Longus, a 



DIVISION OF WORDS INTO SYLLABLES. 31 

most competent witness on phonetic questions, specifically denies 
that z is the equivalent of sd, and asserts that it is not a double 
consonant at all, but has the same quality throughout. (Keil, 
vii. 50. 9.) 

DOUBLED CONSONANTS. 

34. When the mutes were doubled (//, dd; pp, bb ; cc, gg) there 
were two distinct consonant articulations. Thus in mitto, the first 
t was uttered with a definite muscular effort, involving closure of 
the organs in the /-position ; then after a momentary pause a 
second muscular effort followed, with the organs in the same 
position. See Seelmann, Aussprache des Latein, p. no. Such 
doubled consonants do not occur in English. We often write ft, 
pp, cc, etc., but pronounce only a single t, p, or c, e.g. ut(f]er, 
up(p}er, etc. But in Italian and several other modern languages 
these doubled consonants are frequent, e.g. Italian bocca, conobbi, 
cappello. 

The same double articulation is probably to be assumed in case 
of doubled liquids (//, rr), doubled nasals (mm, nti), and doubled 
spirants (ff, ss), though it is possible that in some words where 
these combinations followed a long vowel they merely indicated a 
liquid or spirant that was prolonged in utterance, as, for example, 
vallum, ullus. 

DIVISION OF WORDS INTO SYLLABLES. 

35. The principles given in the Grammar ( 4) for the division 
of words into syllables are the traditional ones ; yet the validity of 
some of them is open to question, particularly of the principle 
embodied under 4. 3 : ' Such combinations of consonants as 
can begin a word are joined to the following vowel.' In sup- 
port of this principle may be cited the testimony of the Roman 
grammarians, who practically agree in prescribing the rule given 
above, and some of whom even include such combinations of 



32 PR ON UN CIA TION. 

consonants as can begin a word in Greek, e.g. pt, ct, bd. See 
for instance Caesellius, cited by Cassiodorus (Keil, vii. 205. i) ; 
Terentianus Maurus (Keil, vi. 351. 879). 

On the other hand it may be urged that the principle laid down 
by the Roman grammarians is merely an echo of rules maintained 
by Greek scholars for their own language. Cf., for example, 
Bekker, Anecdota Graeca, iii. p. 1127; Theodosius (ed. Gottling), 
p. 63, where the same laws for syllable division may be found. 
We have already seen indications of such irresponsible borrowing 
in the case of the testimony of the grammarians concerning the 
pronunciation of z. See 33. Moreover, we find Quintilian 
(i. 7. 9) advocating an etymological principle of division, e.g. 
haru-spex, abs-temius. 

When we come to examine the mode of dividing words fol- 
lowed in our best Latin inscriptions, the evidence is strikingly at 
variance with the traditional rule which prescribes joining as 
many consonants as possible with the following vowel. In about 
80 per cent of all the cases in which words are divided at the end 
of a line, one of the consonants is joined with the preceding 
vowel, evidently a systematic violation of the grammarians' 
rule. Even greater is the proportion of violations of the rule in 
those words which exhibit interpunctuation in inscriptions, i.e. 
separation of the syllables by dots, e.g. EGES TAS ; vie TO RI ; 
OP -TA -TVS. For a full presentation of the epigraphic evidence 
bearing upon this point, see Dennison, in Classical Philology, 
Vol. I. p. 47 f. 

There is also evidence of a phonetic nature bearing upon this 
question. A syllable containing a short vowel followed by two 
consonants is phonetically long, as recognized by all our gram- 
mars and demonstrated in every line of Latin poetry. But 
open syllables containing a short vowel are short ; and in such 
words as doctus, minister, hospes, if we divide according to the 
grammarians' rule (i.e. do-ctus, mirii-ster, ho-spes), we get pre- 



DIVISION OF WORDS INTO SYLLABLES. 33 

cisely these open syllables containing a short vowel, i.e. short 
syllables. For with this utterance, there is no more reason why 
the do- of do-ctus should be long than the do- of do-cet; or the rii- 
of mim-ster any more than the rii- of mim-mus. In both cases we 
have open syllables containing a short vowel, i.e. short syllables. 
Hence it is clear that the Romans in actual utterance must have 
joined one of a group of consonants to a preceding short vowel. 
This gives a closed syllable (i.e. a syllable ending in a consonant), 
and it is a fundamental phonetic principle that a closed syllable 
is long. These principles also throw light on the nature of com- 
mon syllables. A common syllable is one containing a short 
vowel followed by a mute with / or r (pi, d, tl, pr, cr, tr ; etc.}. 
In verse such a syllable may be either long or short. But natu- 
rally a difference of pronunciation must have accompanied this 
variation of quantity. In a word Vfoepatrem, for example, when 
the first syllable was used as long the / was joined with the a 
(pat-rent), thus closing the syllable ; but when the first syllable 
was used as short, the t was joined with the r (pd-trem), thus 
leaving the syllable open. 

Evidence contradicting the grammarians' rule is found also in 
the division of words in examples cited by ancient writers on 
Latin prosody. When these writers separate a verse of poetry 
into its component feet, they divide the syllables not according 
to the grammarians' rule, but according to the principle ex- 
plained above as demanded by phonetic considerations, e.g. : 

Conticu ere om nes in tenti que ora te nebant 
Turnus ut infractos adverse Marte Latinos 
Ut bel li sig num Lau renti Turnus ab arce. 

See especially Hale, Harvard Studies, Vol. VII. p. 268. 

The rule of the grammarians, therefore, seems thoroughly 
discredited. It is contradicted by the testimony of inscriptions, 
by considerations of phonetics, and by syllabification followed 



34 PRONUNCIATION. 

in metrical illustrations by the writers on prosody. It should 
accordingly be rejected, as resting not upon competent phonetic 
observation of contemporary speech, but rather upon the tra- 
ditional rules which the Greek grammarians set up for their 
own language, rules, by the way, which were no more 
phonetically accurate for Greek than for Latin. Very likely 
their phonetic accuracy was never claimed by the ancients them- 
selves. It is more probable that they were simply copyists' 
rules intended to furnish a convenient standard for practical use. 

The phonetic principle for the division of syllables where two 
or more consonants are involved may be formulated as follows : 
In case of such combinations of consonants, a mute -f / or r is 
joined to the following vowel, except when a long syllable is 
needed, in which latter case the mute is joined to the preceding 
vowel. Thus regularly pa-tris, volu-cris, a-gri ; but ag-ri, when in 
poetry the first syllable is used as long. In prepositional com- 
pounds, also, whose first member ends in a mute, and whose 
second begins with / or r, the mute is always joined to the pre- 
ceding vowel, i.e. the preceding syllable is always long, e.g. ab- 
latus, ab-rumpo. In all other combinations of consonants, the 
first consonant is joined to the preceding vowel, as al-tus, an-go, 
hos-pes, dic-tus, minis-tri, mag-nus, mon-strum. This principle 
obviously demands that x should be divided in pronunciation, 
as was undoubtedly the case. Thus axis must have been pro- 
nounced ac-sis, Id-xus as lac-sus ; so, also, very likely after a 
long vowel, vtc-si (inxT) ; rec-si (rexT), though it is obvious that 
after a long vowel such division is not phonetically necessary. 

As regards the rule of the ancient grammarians laid down in 
the Grammar ( 4. 4), to the effect that prepositional compounds 
are separated into their component parts, the phonetic evidence 
seems altogether against this when the preposition ends in a 
single consonant and the next letter of the compound is a vowel. 
The division per-eo, inter-ea gives us a closed (i.e. long) syllable ; 



DIVISION OF WORDS INTO SYLLABLES. 35 

whence it would appear that the actual division in such cases 
was pe-reo, inte-rea, exactly as in ge-ro, te-ro; i.e. compounds of 
this kind at least were divided precisely like other words. 

Rule 4 in 4 of the Grammar may therefore, for all scientific 
purposes, be abandoned, since, except as already indicated, com- 
pounds call for the application of no special principles. 



CHAPTER III. 

HIDDEN QUANTITY. 

36. A hidden quantity is the quantity of a vowel before two 
consonants. Such a quantity is called hidden, as distinguished 
from the quantity of a vowel before a single consonant, where 
the metrical employment of the word at once indicates whether 
the vowel is long or short. The quantity of a vowel before a 
mute with /or r is hidden unless the syllable containing it appear 
in verse used as short. 

The methods of determining hidden quantity are the follow- 
ing: 1 

1. Express testimony of ancient Roman writers, e.g. Cicero, 
Orator, 48. 159, where the principle for the length of vowels 
before nf, ns is laid down (see 37) ; Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atti- 
cae, ii. 17; iv. 17; ix. 6; xii. 3. Nearly every Roman gram- 
marian furnishes some little testimony of this kind, and though 
some of them belong to a comparatively late period, their evi- 
dence often preserves the tradition of earlier usage, and hence is 
entitled to weight. 

2 . The versification of the earlier Roman dramatists, especially 
"Plautus and Terence, with whom a mute before a liquid never 
lengthens a syllable whose vowel is short. Hence, before a mute 
followed by a liquid, the quantity of the vowel always appears in 
these writers, being the same as the quantity of the syllable, just 
as in case of a vowel followed by a single consonant. 

Furthermore, Plautus and Terence not infrequently employ as 
short many syllables which in classical poetry would be invariably 

1 The material here presented is based chiefly upon Marx's Hulfsbiichlein, 
cited below, p. 39. 

36 



METHODS OF DETERMINING HIDDEN QUANTITY. 37 

long by position. Examples are the following : juventus, Plautus, 
Mostellaria 30; Curculio 38; volunfas, Trinummus n66;Pseu- 
dolus 537 ; Stichus 59 ; voluptas, Mostellaria 249, 294 ; Amphi- 
tnw 939, and elsewhere. These cases are to be explained by the 
fact that the vowel was short and the following consonants failed 
to ' make position.' 

In some instances, it must be confessed, even long vowels are 
used as short, e.g. boms mis, Plautus, Trinummus 822, forts 
pultabo, 868. But these cases are of a peculiar sort and may 
be explained on metrical grounds, or by the iambic nature of 
the words, as in the examples cited. Cf. 87. 3. 

3. Inscriptions. Since the middle of the first century B.C. 
the apex (or point) appears added to the vowels a, e, o, u to in- 
dicate their length. Long /was designated originally by /(rising 
above the other letters and hence called / longa) and by ei ; later, 
I took the apex. Examples are TRAXI, GIL. x, 2311 ; PRI'SCVS, 
CIL. xi. 1940; OLLA, CIL. vi. 10006; QU!NQVE, CIL. vi. 3539; 
M!LLIA, Monumentum Ancyranum, i. 16 ; FECEI, CIL. i. 551. 

Before the employment of the apex the length of the vowel in 
case of a, e, u was indicated by doubling the vowel, e.g. PAASTORES, 
CIL. i. 551 ; PEQVLATVV, CIL. i. 202 ; o is never doubled in this 
manner. This peculiarity belongs to the period from 130 to 70 B.C. 

A thoroughly consistent use of these methods of designating 
the vowel quantities is found, it must be admitted, in but few 
inscriptions. Of the vowels contained in syllables long by posi- 
tion only a portion are marked, as a rule, in any single inscrip- 
tion. Certain official inscriptions of the late republican and early 
imperial period form an exception to this, and exhibit very full and 
reliable markings, e.g. the speech of the Emperor Claudius (Bois- 
sieu, Inscriptions de Lyon, p. 136) and the Monumentum Ancyra- 
num, containing the Res Gestae Divi Augusft. This latter, among 
a great number of correct markings, contains also some false ones, 
e.g. CLVPEI, SVMMA. Such errors also occur occasionally elsewhere. 



38 HIDDEN QUANTITY. 

4. Greek transcriptions of Latin words. This method is most 
fruitfully applied in case of the vowels e and o. The employment 
of Greek e or 77, o or w makes the quantity of the Latin vowel 
certain, wherever faith may be reposed in the accuracy of the 
transcription. Thus we may write Esqtiiliae in view of 'Ho-KvAtvos, 
Strabo, v. 234, 237 ; Vergilius^ after OuepyiAios ; Vesontio^ after 
OveowriW, Dio Cassius, Ixviii. 24. 

The quantity of / may also often be determined by Greek trans- 
literations. Thus ct before two consonants regularly points to 
Latin z, e.g. Bea//anos, GIG. 5709, = Vtpsanius ; Greek t points to 
Latin z, e.g. "lo-r/oos = Ister. 

Inscriptions are naturally of much greater weight in such mat- 
ters than are our texts of the Greek writers. Cf. 3. c). 

5. The iwcalism of the Romance languages. These languages, 
particularly the Spanish and Italian, treated ^, /, e. KAij/^v?), CIA. iii. 1094, but KA^evros, CIG. 
3757 ; KXrJ/u,evrt, CIG. Addenda, 1829 c. ; CRESCNS, CIL. xii. 
4030, but CRESCENTI, CIL. vi. 9059; Kprjcr/o/j/s, CIG. 6012, c. ; 
but Kpjo-Keim, CIG. Addenda, 1994, f. ; npawnys (i.e. Ilpcucr^vs), 
CIA. iii. 1147, but Ilpcuo-cvrt, npcuWra, CIG. 3175, 399 1- 

Even where a vowel is naturally long, it sometimes becomes 
shortened before nt, e.g. in linteum from llnum ; cf. Greek XeWtoi/, 
CIG. 8695. 

For the vowel before nd the evidence is not so full. We find 
the Greek transcriptions KoAeV&us, Lydus, de Mem. iv. 53, 57 ; 
4>ov8avtos (i.e. Fundanius), Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, 
ix. p. 439. 

4. Vowels are also regularly short before ss, according to the 
express testimony of Quintilian, i. 7. 20. But see 47. i. 

PONTEM, FONTEM, MONTEM, FRONTEM, FRONDEM. 

41. A slight uncertainty exists as to the quantity of the 
vowel before nt in the oblique cases oifons, mons, pom, from 



44 HIDDEN QUANTITY. 

(frontis) ; and before ndm frons (frondis). Three sets of facts 
are to be considered : 

a) The analogy of other words in -ns (Gen. -ntis). Such words, 
so far as they are genuine Latin words, have, without exception, 
a short vowel before nt in the oblique cases. See 40. 

b] The testimony of the Romance languages. This is as fol- 
lows for the different words under discussion : 

fons. The Romance languages seem to point to an antecedent 
fontis,fdnti, etc. Thus the Italian fonte has close o ; so the Pro- 
vencal fon. Spanish alone with its fuente points to fontem 
(Grober, Archiv, ii. p. 426 ; Korting, Lat.-Romanisches Worter- 
buch). 

frons (-ndis). The Romance languages all agree in pointing 
to frondem (Grober, Archiv, ii. p. 426 ; Korting, WorterbucH). 

frons (-ntis). Provencal fron and Italian f route, with close o, 
point to frontem. So the other Romance languages, except 
Spanish, which has fruente, pointing to frontem. (Grober, 
Archiv, ii. p. 426 ; Korting, Worterbuch^) 

mons. The Romance languages point unanimously to montem 
(Grober, Archiv, ii. p. 426 ; Korting, Worterbuch). 

pons. Provencal pon and Italian ponte with close o point to 
pontem ; so the other Romance languages, except Spanish, which 
has puente, pointing to pontem. 

If mere numerical preponderance were decisive, we might at 
once conclude that all these words went back to Latin forms 
with o in the oblique cases, and might explain Spanish fruente, 
fuente) puente (which should be fronte, fonte, ponte, to represent 
Latin o) as exceptions to the prevailing law of development. 
A glance at certain facts, however, in Italian and Provencal, 
suggests another conclusion. We find it to be a regular law in 
these languages that an original open Latin o (i.e. short o, see 
36. 5), when followed by m, n, or /, -f- another consonant, be- 
comes close. Thus Latin tondet with open o, becomes Italian 



VOWELS BEFORE -NT, -ND. 45 

tonde, with close o. Similarly respondet becomes risponde ; 
rhombus becomes rombo ; pol(y)pus becomes polpo, all with close 

0. Just what has brought about this change is not certain. 
D'Ovidio in Grober's Grundriss der Romanischen Philologie, 

1. p. 522, thinks it was the analogy of words in on -f- consonant, 
om + consonant, and ol-\- consonant, in which close o had de- 
veloped regularly from an earlier u (see 36. 5), e.g. rompe 
(= rumpii] ; onda (= undo) ; dolce (= dulcis). In accordance 
with this principle, whose operation is certain, Latin fontem, 
frondem,frontem, montem, pontem, would (assuming these to be 
the original forms) regularly become in Italian : fonte, fronde, 
fronte, monte, ponte, with close o, exactly as we find them. The 
admission of a long o in the oblique cases of these Latin words 
is, therefore, not necessary in order to account for Italian and 
Provencal close o in their Romance descendants. In fact, when 
we consider Spanish fuente,fruente,puente, all of which point to 
Latin o, it seems more reasonable to regard Spanish monte and 
fronde (which point to #) as the exceptions. Grober, who (Archiv, 
vi. p. 389) expresses himself in favor of assuming an original 
fontem, etc., in these words, suggests that Spanish monte, fronde, 
are \oan-vf or ds, while fuente, fruente, flu en te represent an original 
inheritance. 

Briefly, then, a fair interpretation of the evidence of the 
Romance languages seems to warrant the belief that the oblique 
cases of the words under discussion came into the Romance lan- 
guages from the Latin with a (short) open o ; that in Italian and 
Provencal this open o subsequently became close in accordance 
with a regular law of wide operation. Spanish regularly developed 
the open o to ue in those words which it inherited from Latin 
(jnz. \i\fuente,fruente,puente}; while Spanish monte and fronde 
are probably loan-words from Italian. 

c} The third bit of evidence comes from Greek transliterations 
of Latin words as found in Greek inscriptions and Greek authors. 



46 HIDDEN QUANTITY, 



Thus we find Qovrrjios ( = Fonteius) in Plutarch and Appian ; also 
in an inscription, GIG. iii. 5837, b (59 A.D.) ; <$pot/Tu/os, CIA. iii. 
1154 (between 150 and 200 A.D.) ; L (= pontifex], in Dionysius, Dio 
Cassius, and Zosimus ; 7rovTic, in Lydus, de Mens. iii. 21 ; TTOVTI- 
LKts, in Plutarch, Numa, 9 ; and Trovrt^tKa, in an inscription in 
Kaibel's Sylloge Epigrammatitm, Addenda, 888 a. The Gieek 
never shows an w in any of these words, either in inscriptions or 
in Mss. The evidence furnished by that language therefore is 
unanimous in favor of o for the Latin. Nor can recognition be 
refused the inscriptions above cited on the ground that they are 
late. As the annexed dates show, they all belong to the good 
period of the language. 

We thus have the strongest possible grounds for writing fontis, 
frondis, etc. The analogy of other words in -ns (Gen. -ntis) 
favors this view ; the Romance languages favor it, and the testi- 
mony of Latin words in Greek dress, as exhibited both in texts 
and in inscriptions, favors it. In fact, the evidence is complete. 

The isolated apex in FRONT (for FRONTEM, as the context 
shows), GIL. v. 2915, is certainly a mere blunder of the stone- 
cutter, as is often the case in other words, even in carefully cut 
inscriptions (see 36. 3). Christiansen, De Apicibus et I Longis, 
p. 57, cites thirteen such instances for vowels before nt. 

HIDDEN QUANTITY IN DECLENSION. 

42. i . It is maintained by some scholars (e.g. Marx, ffiflfs- 
buchlein, p. 2 ; Lane, Harvard Studies, i. p. 89) that the ending 
-um in the Genitive Plural of nouns of the First and Second 



-UM IN DEUM, NUMMUM, ETC. 47 

Declensions has u in such forms as Aeneadum, deum, nummum ; 
also in nostrum and vestrum. The facts in evidence are the 
following : 

a) On early Latin coins prior to the First Punic War, we find 
the final m of many Genitives Plural omitted, e.g. ROMANO, 
CORANO. Coins of the same date regularly retain final m of 
the Nominative or Accusative Singular, e.g. VOLCANOM, PROPOM 
(= probuni). This has led Mommsen (CIL. i. p. 9) to infer 
that there was a difference in the quantity of the o in the two 
instances. As the o of the Nominative and Accusative Singular 
was short, Mommsen thought that in the Genitive Plural it must 
be long. But the material with which Mommsen deals is ex- 
tremely scanty. Genitive Plural forms occur in some number ; 
but only a few Nominative and Accusative forms are found, viz. 
VOLCANOM, PROPOM. Again, ROMANOM (CIL. i. i) and AESER- 
NINOM (i. 20) show that Genitives sometimes retained the m. 
Mommsen attempts to solve this difficulty by taking ROMANOM 
and AESERNINOM as the Nominative Singular Neuter of the Adjec- 
tive ; but that is awkward. The natural inference must be that 
there was no system in the omission of final m on these coins. 
The coins represent no dialect ; in fact they represent widely 
separated localities ; hence it is no wonder if the final m (always 
weak) was sometimes written, sometimes omitted. In the Scipio 
inscriptions, the oldest of which may date within a quarter of a 
century of these coins, we find final m freely omitted in the 
Accusative and Nominative Singular just as elsewhere. It is, 
therefore, extremely unlikely that Mommsen 's hypothesis con- 
cerning the coins is correct. 

b) An inscription of Nuceria (CIL. x. 1081) has DVVMVIRATVS, 
which Schmitz (Rheinisches Museum, x. no) and Lane (Harvard 
Studies, i. p. 89) regard as evidence that the u of duum (Gen. 
PI. of duo} was long. But even conceding the correctness of the 
apex in this isolated instance, it remains to be shown that the 



48 HIDDEN QUANTITY. 

duum- of duumvir and duumviratus is in origin a Genitive. Such 
an etymology would involve the assumption that the duum- of 
the Genitive Plural, duumvirum, became transferred to the other 
cases, replacing duo in earlier duoviri, etc. Such an assumption 
is extremely improbable. It is much more likely that duumvir 
and triumvir are formed after the analogy of centumvir. In the 
singular especially such forms as duovir, tresvir would have been 
extremely awkward, and it seems probable that the singular duum- 
vir, triumvir were for that reason historically anterior to duumviri, 
triumviri. The apex in the Nucerian inscription, if this etymol- 
ogy be correct, would then be simply a blunder of the engraver, 
as is altogether probable. The evidence in favor of -urn in these 
Genitives must, therefore, be regarded as of no weight, especially 
in view of the regular shortening of vowels before final -m in 
Latin. Certainly if -urn did by any possibility exist in the days 
of Augustus, the // had become shortened by 90 A.D. For Quin- 
tilian (i. 6. 18), as noted by Lane (p. 90), shows that to his ear 
nummum, Genitive Plural, was nowise different from nummum, 
Accusative Singular. 

2. Words in -er of the Second Declension, and words of 
the Third Declension in -er and -x, have in oblique cases the 
same quantity of the vowel as in the Nominative, e.g. dger, 
dgri ; f rater, fratris ; acer, acris ; pax, pads ; tenax, tenacis ; 
fax, fads ; rex, regis ; nix, riivis ; corriix, corriids ; calix, cali- 
ds ; fel,fellis ; os, ossis ; plebs, plebis. Thus sometimes the Nomi- 
native gives the clue to the hidden quantity in the oblique cases 
(as dger^ dgn) ; sometimes the oblique cases give the clue to 
the hidden quantity of the Nominative (as corriids, corriix}. 

3. Words of the Third Declension ending in -ns (Gen. -ntis) 
uniformly have a short vowel in the oblique cases, as already 
explained in 40. 3. Greek words in -as (Gen. -antis], e.g. 
Aias, Aiantis ; gigas , gigantis , have the same quantity as in the 
original (Aids; At'oVros ; ytyds, yiyavros). So, also, contracted 



ADJECTIVES, NUMERALS. 49 

Greek names of cities in -ovs, -oiWog, e.g. Selmus, Selinuntis ; and 
proper names in -wv, -oWos, e.g. Xenophon, Xenophontis. Acheron 
(not a contract form) has Acheruntis. 

4. In all words of the Third Declension ending in two or 
more consonants (excepting -ns and -x preceded by a vowel), 
the hidden vowel before the ending is short, e.g. urbs, sors, drx. 
Exceptions to this principle are plebs and compounds of uncia 
ending in -uhx, e.g. deunx, deuncis ; quincunx, quincuncis. Be- 
fore -x the vowel is sometimes long, sometimes short, as already 
explained in 2, above. 

COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES. 

43. In the terminations -issimus, -errimus, -illimus, the hidden 
vowel is short, e.g. carissimus, acerrimus, facillimus. Apparent 
traces of a long / in the termination -issimus are found in inscrip- 
tional forms with / longa. The word of most frequent occurrence 
is piIssiMUS ; besides this we find a few other words, e.g. CAR!SSIMO, 
CIL. vi.5325; DVLC!SSIMO, vi. 16926; FORTISSIMO, vi. 1132. But 
many of these inscriptions belong to the last centuries of the 
Empire, when the use of / longa had become an extremely 
untrustworthy guide, as may be seen by palpable errors. As 
regards the frequent occurrence of PI!SSIMAE, piIssiMO, these 
may perhaps be explained on the theory that / longa was here 
used to indicate not merely i, but also the/ which developed in 
pronunciation between the two f s, i.e. pijissimo. Cf. the similar 
use of i longa in words like POMPE!IVS, CIL. ix. 3748. At ail 
events, in the absence of the apex in these superlatives, and in 
view of the absolute silence of the grammarians, it seems unwise 
to attach great weight to the occurrence of the / longa alone. 
Against i, Lindsay (Latin Language, p. 405) urges the occur- 
rence of late spellings like MERENTESSEMO, KARESSEMO, CIL. 
ii. 2997. Cf. 6. i. 



50 HIDDEN QUANTITY. 

NUMERALS. 

44. As separate words are to be noted : 

a) quattuor, but quartus (see 53 under area). 

b) qmnque and its derivatives, all of which have t, as quin- 
decim, quintus, quingenft, quinquaginta. 

c) the derivatives of unus : undecim, undev'tginfi, etc. 

d) m~ille, millia, and mill'esimus. 

PRONOUNS. 

45. i. Nos, vos ; but noster, vester; nostri, vestri, etc. 

2. Hunc and hanc have a short vowel. 

3. Hie, ipse, iste have t. 

4. The suffix -cunque has u. 

5. Compounds retain the quantity of the elements of which 
they are compounded, as qitisquis, cuj usque. 

CONJUGATION. 
ROOT FORMS. 

46. i. Presents formed by means of the infix n have a short 
vowel, e.g. fundo (root fud-) ; frdngo (root frag-) ; jungo (root 
fug-). Before a labial, n becomes m, e.g. rumpo (root rup-) ; 
lambo (root lab-). Care should be taken not to confuse deriv- 
ative and contract Presents like vendo, prendo, with genuine 
nasal formations. 

2. In most Presents the hidden vowel is short, e.g. necto, serpo, 
verto. But the following exceptions are to be noted : 

a) First conjugation : jurgo (for jurigo), narro, orno, purgo, 

tracto. 
ft) Second Conjugation : ardeo. 

c] Third Conjugation : all verbs in -sco (r), except compesco, 

disco, posco, vescor. 

d) Fourth Conjugation : nutria, ordior. 



ardere 


drsl 


ctrsurus 


gerere 


gessl 


gestus 


scrlbere 


scrips! 


scriptus 


vwere 


vixl 


victurus 


figere 


fixi 


/IX21S 



CONJUGATION. 51 

3. The quantity of the vowel in the Present regularly remains 
unchanged (when it becomes hidden) throughout the entire con- 
jugation of the verb, e.g. : 

drdeo 

gero 

scribo 

vivo 

flgo 

Thus inscriptions give F!XA, SCR!PTVM, CONSCREIPTVM, vIxiT, 
VEIXIT. 

But the following exceptions to this general principle are to be 
noted : 

a) duo dicer e dlxi d ictus 

duco due ere duxl due (us 

cedo cedere cessl cessurus 

The short vowel of the Perfect Participles dictus and ductus is 
assured by the statement of Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae, ix. 6) 
and by the testimony of the Romance languages. (See 52. s.vv.} 

d) The short vowel of the Present is lengthened in the Perfect 
Indicative and Perfect Participle, if hidden, in the following 
verbs : 



ago 


agere 


egt 


dctus 


cingo 


cingere 


clnxl 


cinctus 


delinquo 


delinquere 


dellqut 


dellctus 


distinguo 


distinguere 


disfinxi 


distlnctus 


emo 


etnere 


eml 


einptus 


exstinguo 


exstingttere 


exstlnxi 


exstlnctus 


Jingo 


fingerc 


finxl 


flctus 


frango 


fr anger e 


fregi 


frdctus 


fiingor 


fungi 


fiinctussum 





jungo 


jungere 


jiinxi 


junctus 


lego 


legere 


I'egi 


lectus 


pango 


pangere 


pepigi 


pdctus 


pingo 


pingere 


plnxl 


pictus 



52 HIDDEN QUANTITY. 

pungo pungere pupugt punctus 

rego regere rexi rectus 

relinquo relinquere rellqul relictus 

sancio sancire sdnxi sdnctus 

struo struere struxl structus 

tango tangere tetigi tact us 

tego tegere tex'i tectus 

tinguo tingiiere tlnxl tinctus 

traho trahere trdxt trdctus 

ungo ungere iinxi unctus 

So also in compounds and derivatives of these verbs. 

4. The evidence for the long vowel in the Perfect Participles of 
the foregoing list is found : 

a) In the statements of Gellius, who testifies (Noctes Atticae, 
ix. 6) to the quantity of the vowels of actus, lectus, unctus, and in 
xii. 3. 4 to that of structus. 

fr) In the testimony of inscriptions, which show the following : 
ACTIS CIL. vi. 1377 ; REDACTA vi. 701 ; EXACTVS Boissieu, Inscrip- 
tions de Lyon, p. 136 ; C!NCTVS CIL. x. 4104 ; DE.FVNCTIS CIL. v. 

1326; DlLECTVS VI. 6319; LECTVS xi. 1826; EXSTlNCTOS vi. 25617; 
INFRACTA ix. 60 ; IVNCTA X. 1 888 ; SEIVNCTVM vi. 1527^. 38; 

RECTE xii. 2494 ; TECTOR vi. 5205 ; COEMTO Monumentum Ancy- 
ranum iii. n ; TRA[CTA (not certain) CIL. vi. 1527 e. 14; SANCTA 
v. 2681 ; Oscan SAA(N)HTOM (= sane torn). 

c) In the retention of a in compounds of actus, tactus,fractus, 
pactus, tractus (e.g. coactus, attactus, refractus, etc.), which shows 
that the a was long ; short a would have become e in this situa- 
tion, as for example in confectus for an original *conf actus; acceptus 
for an original *accaptus ; ~ereptus for *erdptus. 

d) For cinctus, dellctus, dis tinctus, exst'inctus, f Ictus, p'ictus, 
punctus, relictus, tinctus, the long vowel is assured by the evidence 
of the Romance, e.g. Italian cinto, delitto,fitto, relitto, tinto. 

5. The evidence for the quantity of the vowel in the Perfects 
of the foregoing list is found : 



CONJUGATION. 53 

a] In inscriptional markings, as CONIVNXIT (Wilmanns, Inscript. 
Latinae 104); TEXIT (CIL. x. 1793); REXIT (CIL. v. 875); 
TRAXI (CIL. x. 2311, 1 8). 

fr) In Priscian's statement (Keil, ii. 466) that rexi and text 
have e. 

c} In the testimony of the Romance languages, which point to 
dnxi, distinxi, exstlnxt, ftnxi, ptnxi, struxi, tinxl, unxt. 

d) The long a in sanxt rests upon no specific evidence, but 
may perhaps be safely inferred after the analogy of sanctus. 

Until recently the principle was maintained (e.g. by Marx in his 
first edition) that all monosyllabic stems ending in b, d, or g had 
the hidden vowel long in the Perfect Indicative and Perfect Parti- 
ciple wherever euphonic changes occurred. According to this 
theory we should have e.g. scindo, sdndere, scidi, scissus ; mergo, 
merger e, mersi, mersus. This principle was first laid down by 
Lachmann (on Lucretius, i. 805) for Perfect Participles alone, 
and was subsequently assumed by other scholars to apply to 
the Perfect Indicative as well; but this position is now entirely 
abandoned. Each long vowel must be supported by specific 
evidence. 

In the 3d edition of his Hulfsbuchlein (p. i), Marx lays down 
the principle that all vowels are long in Latin before nx and net. 
These combinations occur almost exclusively in the verbs given 
on pp. 51, 52. Whether the general principle is sound, may be 
questioned. For example, we have no definite evidence in favor 
of the long vowel before nx in anxius, lanx, or phalanx. 

VERBAL ENDINGS. 

47. i . The hidden vowel is short before ss ( 40. 4) and st in the 
terminations of the verb, e.g. fiitssem, amainsse ; fmsti, fiiistis. 
This is shown not only by the historical origin of these formations, 
but by such metrical usage as Plautus, Amphitruo, 761, dedisse; 
Menaechmi, 687, de