LATIN GRAMMAR

1. Latin Grammar has two parts. I. The first part treats of words: (A.) their sound; (B.) their formation; (C.) their inflection. II. The second part shows how words are joined together in sentences.

PART FIRST ❧ WORDS

PARTS OF SPEECH.

2. The principal kinds of words or Parts of Speech are Nouns, Verbs, and Conjunctions.

3. I. Nouns are Substantive or Adjective.

4. (A.) Nouns Substantive, otherwise called Substantives, are divided, as to meaning, into Concrete and Abstract.

5. (1.) Concrete Substantives denote persons or things. Concrete Substantives are subdivided into Proper Names, which denote individual persons or things: as, Cicerō, Cicero; Rōma, Rome; and Common Names, otherwise called Appellatives, which denote one or more of a class: as, homo, man; taurus, bull.

6. Appellatives which denote a collection of single things are called Collectives: as, turba, crowd; exercitus, army. Appellatives which denote stuff, quantity, material, things not counted, but having measure or weight, are called Material Substantives: as, vīnum, wine; ferrum, iron; faba, horsebeans.

7. (2.) Abstract Substantives denote qualities, states, conditions: as, rubor, redness; aequitās, fairness; sōlitūdō, loneliness.

8. (B.) Nouns Adjective, otherwise called Adjectives, attached to substantives, describe persons or things: as, ruber, red; aequus, fair; sōlus, alone.

9. Pronouns are words of universal application which serve as substitutes for nouns.

Thus, taurus, bull, names, and ruber, red, describes, particular things; but ego, I, is universally applicable to any speaker, and meus, mine, to anything belonging to any speaker.

10. Adverbs are mostly cases of nouns used to denote manner, place, time or degree: as, subitō, suddenly; forās, out of doors; diū, long; valdē, mightily, very.

11. Prepositions are adverbs which are used to modify as prefixes the meaning of verbs, or to define more nicely the meaning of cases: as, vocō, I call, ēvocō, I call out; ex urbe, from town.

12. II. Verbs are words which denote action, including existence or condition: as, regit, he guides; est, he is; latet, he is hid.

13. III. Conjunctions connect sentences, nouns, or verbs: as, et, and; sed, but.

14. Interjections are cries which express feeling, and are not usually a part of the sentence: as, ā, ah; heu, alas.

15. There is no Article in Latin: thus, mēnsa may denote table, a table, or the table.

A. SOUND.

ALPHABET.

16. In Cicero’s time, the sounds of the Latin language were denoted by twenty-one letters (DN. 2, 93).

Character	Name	pronounced
A	a	ah
B	be	bay
C	ce	kay
D	de	day
E	e	eh
F	ef	ef
G	ge	gay
H	ha	hah
I	i	ee
K	ka	kah
L	el	el
M	em	em
N	en	en
O	o	o
P	pe	pay
Q	qu	koo
R	er	air
S	es	ess
T	te	tay
V	u	oo
X	ix	eex

The names given above are those employed by Roman grammarians. The sound indicated by -ay is only approximate; the true sound is that of the French ê in fête; see 39. The names of the letters are indeclinable; for their gender, see 412.

17. Two other letters were also in use to represent Greek sounds in Greek words; these were always called by their Greek names, and were placed at the end of the alphabet; they are Y, named ü (42), and Z, named zēta (71).

18. Origin of the Alphabet. The Latin alphabet, which originally consisted of capitals only, was adapted from the alphabet of Chalcidian colonies in Italy.

19. Spelling. The signs for the Greek sounds denoted by φ and χ, and perhaps also that for θ, these three sounds being unknown in Latin, were used as numerals (2407). In words borrowed from the Greek the Romans at first represented θ by t, φ by p, and χ by c: as, tūs, incense, for θύος; Poenī, Punians, for Φοίνικες; calx, chalk, for χάλιξ. Occasionally also the Latin mute was doubled: as, struppus, strap, for στρόφος. Later, about the middle of the second century B.C., th, ph, and ch begin to be used: as, cothurnus, boot, for κόθορνος; amphora, jar, for ἀμφόρα; Achaea for Ἀχαιά. In some instances these aspirates were next introduced even into words purely Latin: as, chommodus, affable, for commodus, an affectation ridiculed by Catullus (Cat. 84) and disapproved by Quintilian (1, 5, 20). But pulcher, pretty, is the usual spelling for pulcer (formed by the suffix -cro- from the stem of the verb poliō, I polish). Even Cicero (O. 160) aspirated the c in this word as a concession to popular usage, as he did the t in Cethēgus, Karthāgō, and the p in triumphus, while he retained the unaspirated explosive in the proper names Orcīvius, name of a ‘gens,’ Matō, Otō, Caepiō, and in sepulcrum, tomb; corōna, crown; and lacrima, tear. In a similar manner Greek ρ was at first transcribed by r: as, rumpia, a kind of weapon, for ῥομφαία; but later by rh: as, rhētor, rhetorician, for ῥητωρ.

20. The letters C (first written <) and K were at an early period used promiscuously, and C stood for both unvoiced k and voiced g: as, VIRCO, virgō, virgin. Afterwards K dropped out of general use except in the abbreviations K. or Kal. for kalendae, first of the month, and K. for the proper name Kaesō (Quint. 1, 7, 10). About 300 B.C. the sign < or C was used for the unvoiced k alone, while a separate sign, which became G, was set apart for the voiced g. But C continued to be used for g in the abbreviations C for Gāius, Ↄ for Gāia, and Cn. for Gnaeus. Occasionally q is written for c, almost always before the vowels o and u: as, qum for cum, with; qolunt for colunt, they cultivate; peqūnia, money. But ordinarily q is found before unsyllabic (consonantal) u (v) only (22).

21. Before the introduction of Y and Z (17), u was used for the Greek υ: as, Burrus, later Pyrrhus (Cic. O. 160); and s, or, as a medial, ss, for ζ: as, sōna, belt, later zōna; massa, lump, for μᾶζα; malacissō, I soften, for μαλακίζω. By a blunder, y was occasionally introduced in words of Latin origin: as, lacryma, tear, for lacrima, which was wrongly supposed to be derived from Greek δάκρυ.

22. The characters I and V represent not only the two vowels i and u, but also their cognate semivowels (52) i̭ and ṷ (83), called commonly consonant i and u, but with less ambiguity unsyllabic i and u (82; 83). They are equivalent to the English y and w respectively.

23. In words like maior, simple i was commonly written for the sound of i̭i̭ (153, 2; 82; 83). But Cicero in such cases wrote ii: as, aiiō, I say, Maiia, Troiia (Quint. 1, 4, 11). In the same way Lucretius spelled Graiiugenārum, of Greek-born men, and EIIVS, of him, CVIIVS, whose, occur in inscriptions. Sometimes the same sound is represented by a taller letter, ‘i longa,’ especially in the imperial age: as, maIor, greater. There are also cases in which the two designations were confounded, a double i being written, and one or the other letter made taller: as, eiIvs or eIivs, of him.

24. The tall i, I longa, was used not only to represent unsyllabic i (22), but, beginning with Sulla’s time, also for long vowel i (29, 2, b): as, sIgna, signs; qvInqve, five. It also represents sometimes double i: as, vIs for viīs, in the roads. At the beginning of words it occurs without reference to quantity for both short and long i, and, by mistake, I is elsewhere found for short i.

25. The emperor Claudius (A.D. 41-54) introduced a separate sign for unsyllabic u (22), restricting the sign v to the vowel u (Quint. 1, 7, 26; Ta. 11, 14); but it did not become current.

26. In schoolbooks and most texts of the authors, the vowel u is printed U, u, and the consonant V, v. A character, J, j, was introduced in the 17th century, to indicate the consonant i. But this character is no longer usual in editions of the authors or in schoolbooks.

27. The distinction between u and v is not always made very consistently: q has regularly, and g and s have sometimes, an aftersound of w, best represented by v; but the usual practice is to write u, as in the following disyllables: quōrum, of whom; anguis, snake; suāvis, sweet. qu is always counted as a single sound (177). See also 2504.

28. For the intermediate sound (103) between i and u, as in the first syllable of lubet, libet, it pleases, and in the second syllable of optimus, optumus, best (Quint. 1, 4, 8; 7, 21), the emperor Claudius invented a separate character. It failed of acceptance, as did also the sign which he attempted to introduce for ps.

29. The same characters were ordinarily used to denote both long and short vowels. But at different periods long vowels were sometimes indicated in inscriptions thus:

(1.) Long a, e, or u was sometimes doubled: as, AARA, altar; PAASTORES, shepherds; LEEGE, by law; IVVS, right. This doubling, which was never frequent, seems to have been introduced into Latin from the Oscan by the poet Accius. It occurs most frequently in inscriptions about the year 150 B.C., but sporadically much later: as, CONVENTVVS, of the assembly; ARBITRATVV, by the decree; and in other stems in -u- (593).

(2.) Long i was often denoted (a.) By the spelling ei (after the pronunciation of this diphthong had been changed to ī, 98): as, DAREI, be given; REDIEIT, hath come back; INTERIEISTI, hast died. Some Roman grammarians prescribed this spelling for every long i; others tried to regulate the use of ei for ī by special rules. At the end of the republic, the spelling EI had given way to uniform I. (b.) Since the time of Sulla, by a taller letter (‘i longa’): as, fIxa, fastened (23, 24).

(3.) A mark called an apex () was often put over a long vowel: as, FE͆CIT, made; HORTE͆NSIVS; DVV͆MVIRATVS, duumvirate. The apex was written ´ in the imperial age; the form -, which occurs in an inscription, was adopted by the grammarians, and is still in use to mark the long vowels. It may be mentioned that inscriptions which employ the apex are by no means consistent in its use, and that late inscriptions have it over short and long vowels, apparently for decorative purposes. Quintilian 1, 7, 2 prescribes it only for cases which otherwise might be ambiguous: as, MÁLVS (mālus), mast, to distinguish it from MALVS (malus), bad.

30. In schoolbooks, a long vowel is indicated by a horizontal line over it: as, āra, altar; mēnsis, month; ōrdō, series. A short vowel is sometimes indicated by a curved mark: as, pĕr, through; dŭx, leader; but this mark is unnecessary if long vowels are systematically marked. Usually the quantity of the vowels in each word is definitely fixed; but in a few cases the same vowel may be now short, now long, as in English the ee of been is pronounced long by some (bean), short by others (bin). Thus (2446) mihi, ibi were sometimes pyrrhics (⏖, 2522), sometimes iambi (⏑-, 2521). See for other cases 134, 2443, 2452, 2453. Such vowels of variable quantity are termed common and marked ⏓ or ⏒: as mihī̆, to me (2514).

PRONUNCIATION.

31. The pronunciation of Latin sounds may be approximately determined: (a) from the description of the native grammarians and incidental allusions in other Latin authors; (b) from variations in spelling; (c) from the Greek transliteration of Latin words; (d) from the Latin transliteration of foreign words; (e) from the development of the sounds in languages derived from the Latin.

VOWELS.

32. Vowels are sounds which are produced by the vibrations of the vocal chords (this may be easily felt by placing a finger on the throat at the Adam’s apple) and without any audible friction or any obstruction anywhere in the passage above the vocal chords. The difference in the sound of the vowels is due to the different shape which the position of the tongue and the lips gives in each case to the cavity of the mouth. During the pronunciation of pure vowels no air escapes through the nose.

33. The simple vowels, a, e, i, o, u (y), are either long or short. The sound of a long vowel is considered to be twice the length of that of a short.

34. That a long vowel is equal to two shorts is a rule of metrical theory (see 2515). In actual pronunciation, there were undoubtedly various degrees of length, as in English: e.g., sea, seize (long), cease (half-long).

QUANTITY OF VOWELS.

The quantity of vowels must in general be learned by observation; but some convenient helps for the memory may be found in 2429; and the quantity of many vowels may be ascertained by the general principles given in 35 and 36. Except in the case of Hidden Quantity (2459), the quantity of vowels is in general ascertained from verse. But some information may also be gleaned from such rhetorical prose as exhibits well defined habits in the rhythmical endings selected for sentences (clausulae, Cic. O. 191-226).

(A.) SHORT VOWELS.

35. A vowel is short:

(1.) Before another vowel or h (124): as, eōs, ēvehō; compare taceō with tacēre. For exceptions in classical Latin, see 127; for exceptions in early Latin see 126.

(2.) Before nt and nd (128) if not the result of contraction: as, calendae, centum; compare amant, amandus, with amāre.

(3.) Before final t and m, and, in words of more than one syllable, before final r and l (132): compare amat, amem, with amās and amēs.

(B.) LONG VOWELS.

36. All vowels are long which are:

(1) Weakened from a diphthong (96-101; 108), or which are the result of contraction (118): as, concīdō from caedō; cōgō from co-agō.

(2) Lengthened by compensation (121): as, quīnī for *quincnī.

(3) Before nf, ns, often before nc followed by a consonant, and, in some cases, before gn (122).

PRONUNCIATION OF VOWELS.

37. The following English sounds come nearest to the Latin pronunciation of the vowels:

38. Long vowels. ā had the sound of a in father; ē that of a in fate (but see 39); ī that of i in machine; ō that of o in tone; ū that of u in rule.

39. It must be noted, however, that all English long vowels, save a as in father, are more or less diphthongal, that is, they become gradually closer (46); a in fate ends in a vanishing sound of ee (not heard in the ê of French fête), and o in no ends in the sound of oo. Similarly the long e sound in he becomes closer and ends in a sound similar to the y in year. In Latin all long vowels had one sustained sound.

40. Short vowels. a sounded approximately like the English a in the first syllable of aha; e, i, o, and u sounded like e in step, i in pit, o in obey, and u in pull respectively.

41. Latin short a did not differ, except in quantity, from long ā; it never had the ‘flat’ sound of English a in pat. In the case of the other vowels, i, e, o, and u, the long vowels were closer (46) than the short ones. This is the same difference which the English shows in keen (long and close) and kin (short and open); pool (long and close) and pull (short and open). For this reason, open i is sometimes represented by e in inscriptions: as, ANEMA for anima, soul; and vea was the rustic pronunciation for via, road (Varro, R. R. 1, 2, 14).

42. Y, which was a sound borrowed from the Greek (17), sounded like German ü. The sound, which is missing in English, is formed with the tongue in position for i (in kin) and the lips rounded as for oo (in moon).

CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS.

43. Vowels are divided according to the position of the tongue. Latin i and e are called front vowels, because the front part of the tongue is elevated. This elevation is greater for i than for e. Latin o and u are called back vowels, because they require an elevation of the rear part of the tongue. This elevation is greater for u than for o. Latin a holds an intermediate position, no part of the tongue being raised, while the front part is depressed.

44. In the formation of i and e, the tongue approaches the hard palate; hence these two vowels are also called palatal vowels. Similarly, o and u are called velar or guttural vowels, because in their formation the tongue approaches the soft palate (vēlum palātī).

45. o and u require a rounding of the lips (labia); hence they are called labial vowels. The same is true for y.

46. Comparing the vowels in English keen and kin, it will be noted that the passage between the tongue and the hard palate is narrower in the former than in the latter case. The ee in keen is therefore said to be a narrow or close vowel, while the i in kin is wide or open. See 41.

DIPHTHONGS.

47. Two unlike (43-46) vowels pronounced under one stress and as one syllable form a Diphthong. All diphthongs are long.

In all diphthongs the transition from one vowel to the other is gradual. A diphthong is, therefore, not formed simply by pronouncing two vowels in succession, but the vocal organs pass through all the intermediate positions and consequently the sound is constantly changing.

48. In their origin diphthongs are of two kinds: (a.) primitive diphthongs: as in foedus, treaty; aurum, gold; or (b.) secondary diphthongs, the result of vowels meeting in formation, composition, or inflection: see 120.

49. The diphthongs which occur in classical Latin are au, ae, oe, and the rare ui and eu.

au sounded like ou in house. ae had the sound of short Latin a rapidly combined with the sound of e in English men. But it is the common practice now to give to ae the sound of ay or ai in ay, aisle, although the difference between Latin ae and the earlier ai from which it descended is thus obliterated. oe had the sound of short Latin o rapidly followed by the sound of e in English men. But it is now customary not to distinguish between Latin oe and oi, and to give to both the sound of oi in boil. ui is pronounced by combining Latin short u and i (40, 41) with the stress on the i like French oui; eu by combining Latin short e and u with stress on the u.

50. Besides these, the following diphthongs occur in the older inscriptions: ai pronounced as ai in aisle; ei as ei in eight; oi as oi in boil; and ou which sounded very much like the final o in no, go, which is really a diphthong (see 39).

CONSONANTS.

51. Consonants are formed by stopping the breath somewhere in the cavity of the mouth or by squeezing it through a narrow channel or aperture.

52. Semivowels. There is no sharp line of demarcation between consonants and vowels. Some vowels in unsyllabic function (82, 83) notably i (i̭) and u (ṷ) (corresponding to English y and w), though usually classed as consonants, are so closely related to the vowels that they are termed semivowels (2504). To these may be added also the liquids l and r. Contact of the semivowels i and u with their corresponding vowels i and u is avoided in classical times. See for -vu- 107, c; for -quu- 157; and for -i̭i- 104, c (on obi̭iciō); 458 (Bōī for *Bōi̭ī). See 153, 3.

PRONUNCIATION OF CONSONANTS.

53. Most of the consonants are pronounced as in English. The following points must be noticed:

54. b before a surd, as s or t, has the sound of p. The spelling b is here simply etymological: as, abs, pronounced aps (the b retained in spelling because of ab); urbs, pronounced urps (the b retained because of the oblique cases urbis, urbī, etc.); obterō, pronounced opterō (Quint. 1, 7, 7), where the spelling of the preposition ob was kept (164).

55. c has always the sound of English k.

56. d before the surd s is pronounced t; the spelling d is preserved for etymological reasons only: as, adsum, pronounced atsum.

57. g always has the sound of English g in go, never that of g in gentle. gu, when it makes one syllable with the following vowel, is pronounced like English gw: as, sanguine like sanguine.

58. h has a weak sound as h in British English (Southern), and by some was not counted as a consonant. Consequently the same uncertainty existed as to initial h. The omission of initial h is recognized in classical Latin for ānser (originally *hānser). Elsewhere the omission of initial h in spelling, as ostia for hostia, is rare until the third century A.D.

Very rarely h is written between two vowels to denote that each should be pronounced separately (like our diaeresis in coëxtensive): as, ahēneus, bronze, with aē separate (116 a); but aes, bronze, with diphthongal ae.

59. Unsyllabic (22) or consonant i has the sound of English y in year.

60. There were two varieties of l. One was like the English l, guttural in character, because in its pronunciation not only the blade (front part) of the tongue touched the gums, but in addition to this the rear part of the tongue was elevated toward the soft palate. The other l was purely dental, and formed without such back elevation. This second variety appeared in the combination ll, or whenever l was followed by the front vowels (43) e or i, or when it was final. Elsewhere l was guttural.

61. From the earliest times final m in unaccented syllables had a faint sound or was even inaudible (Quint. 9, 4, 39). Consequently it is often omitted in writing in the older inscriptions both before an initial vowel or consonant: as, POCOLO for pōcolom; OINO for oinom (ūnum), and the grammarian Verrius Flaccus proposed to write only half an M for final m before a vowel. In prosody, therefore, final m did not prevent elision (2493). The same is seen in prose in cases like animadvertō, I pay heed to, from anim^um advertō, I turn my mind toward (395); vēnīre, to be sold for vēn^um īre, to go to sale (1165). But in monosyllables where m closes the accented syllable, it did not vanish (2494, 2495), and this difference in the treatment of final m is reflected in the Romance languages.

62. n stands for two sounds. It represents the dental nasal, as n in English now. But before the gutturals k, c, g, q, and the compound x (= cs), it represents the guttural nasal which is written ng in English sing, wrong. This second n is sometimes called n adulterīnum or ‘spurious n,’ thus: nc (in avunculus) as in uncle; ng (in angulus) as in angle; ngu (in sanguine) as in sanguine; nqu (in inquit) as inkw in inkwiper; nx (in pīnxit) as in lynx.

63. Dental n before s had a reduced sound, and is therefore sometimes omitted in writing: as, CESOR for cēnsor; COSOL for cōnsul, in older inscriptions; and fōrmōsus by the side of fōrmōnsus; vīcēsimus by the side of vīcēnsimus, Cicero omitted the n in the adjective suffix -ēnsis: as, forēsia, of the forum; hortēsia, garden plants.

64. q, in classical Latin, appears only in the combination qu, sounded like English qu or kw (27). r was trilled.

65. s, in classical Latin was always unvoiced (surd, 75) like English s in so, sin, never voiced (sonant, 75) as English s in ease. su, when it makes one syllable with the following vowel, is like sw in sweet (27).

66. In old Latin, final s after a short vowel and before a consonant seems to have been reduced in sound or to have disappeared altogether. In the older inscriptions it is often omitted in the ending of the nominative singular -us, and in the pre-Ciceronian poets final s often does not make position (2468). But such omission was considered vulgar in Cicero’s time (Cic. O. 161; Quint. 9, 4, 38).

67. In the archaic period Latin s stood also for the voiced sibilant (English s in ease, z in zeal), as in ASA, altar (154).

68. t is always sounded as in time, never as in nation. The pronunciation of ci and ti with the c and t as sibilants (as in English cinder, nation) is very late.

69. v is like the English w.

70. x is a compound consonant, standing for cs, and so sounded, never as English gs or gz.

71. z, being a Greek sound, should have retained its Greek pronunciation. This differed in the different dialects; in the Attic of the fourth century B.C. it was approximately that of English z in zeal, while its earlier value was zd. The Romans had great difficulty in pronouncing this sound (Quint. 12, 10, 27 f.), but the grammarian Velius Longus expressly states that it should not be pronounced as a compound sound (zd).

72. About 100 B.C. the combinations ch, ph, and th were introduced in Greek words to represent χ, φ, and θ; as Philippus, for the older PILIPVS. Somewhat later these combinations were in general use in some Latin words (19). ch is thought to have been pronounced like kh in blockhead, ph as in uphill, and th as in hothouse. But in practice ch is usually sounded as in the German machen or ich, ph as in graphic, and th as in pathos.

CLASSIFICATION OF CONSONANTS.

73. Explosives. Consonants which are formed by stopping the breath in the oral cavity and then suddenly removing the obstruction are called explosives. They cannot be prolonged in sound. They are: c, k, q, g; t, d; p, b. These are often called mutes.

74. Continuants. Consonants which may be prolonged in sound are called continuants. They are: unsyllabic (83) i (59) and u (66); l (60), r; l, s, f; n (62), m.

75. Voiced and Unvoiced. If during the emission of breath the vocal chords vibrate (32), the consonant is said to be voiced or sonant: g; d; b; n (62), m; l (60), r; unsyllabic (83) i (59) and u (69); otherwise it is said to be unvoiced or surd: c, k, q; t; p; h, s, f.

76. Nasals. In the majority of consonants, the breath escapes through the cavity of the mouth, and the cavity of the nose is closed in the rear by means of the raised soft palate. Those consonants in which the breath escapes through the nose, while the oral cavity is closed, are called nasals: as, n, m, n adulterīnum (see 62).

77. Classification according to place of formation. Consonants are further divided according to the place where the breath is stopped or squeezed. (1.) If the breath is stopped by the lips, as in p, b, m, or squeezed through the lips, as in v (English w), we speak of labials. (2.) If the breath is forced through an opening between the upper teeth and the lower lip, as in f, we speak of a labiodental. (3.) Sounds which are produced by the point of the tongue touching the upper gums and teeth, as t, d, n, r, or by the formation of a narrow median channel in the same place, like s, or of a lateral channel, like l (60), are called dentals. (4.) Palatals are formed by an elevation of the front part of the tongue against the forward section of the palate, like i consonant (English y). (5.) If the back of the tongue touches or approaches the rear part of the palate as in k, q, c, g, n adulterīnum (English ng in sing), and l (60), we speak of gutturals (velars); see 44.

78. Spirants. Sounds which are produced by friction of the breath are called spirants: as, s, f, and h.

79. Sibilants. On account of its hissing sound, s is called a sibilant. English s, z, th are sibilants.

80. Doubling of Consonants. In English, double consonants as the tt, nn, pp, mm in motto, Anna, tapping, grammar, are sounded exactly like the corresponding single consonants in cot, pan, tap, ram. In Latin, on the other hand, double consonants (geminātae) were pronounced as they are in modern Italian. In the case of explosives (73), as in mitto, after the tongue had come in contact with the roof of the mouth (= first t) a short pause ensued before the explosion took place (= second t). In the case of continuants (74), as in summus, Apollo, the mm or ll was sounded appreciably longer than a single m or l, and at the beginning of the second half of the long continuant there was a slight increase of force.

81. Consonants were not doubled in writing till after 200 B.C.: as, FVISE for fuisse, to have been, and for more than a century afterward the usage is variable: as, in the same inscription, ESSENT, they might be, by the side of SVPERASES, thou mayest have conquered; but it must not be inferred that they were pronounced as single consonants.

SYLLABIC AND UNSYLLABIC FUNCTION.

82. Whenever two or more sounds are combined in a syllable, one of them excels in acoustic prominence: as, a in English pat; n in the group pnd in opnd (opened); l in the group tld in bottld (bottled); and s in the group pst. This sound is said to have syllabic function or to be syllabic; in the examples given, a, n, l, and s are respectively syllabic. All the other members of each group are termed unsyllabic.

83. Vowels are almost always used in syllabic function. When, in rare cases, they are unsyllabic, this fact is usually indicated in phonetic works by an inverted half-circle, ̭, placed under the vowel; so in the case of diphthongs to indicate the subordinate member: as ai̭, oḙ, ṷi (49). Latin omnia and English glorious, when pronounced as words of two syllables, would be written omni̭a (2503), glori̭ous. When sounds other than vowels have, in rare cases, syllabic function, this fact is noted in phonetic works by a point, . , or circle, ˳ , under the letter: as, Latin *agṛs, *agr̥s (111, b), English opṇd, opn̥d.

ACCENT.

84. The relative force with which the different syllables of a word are uttered varies. Such variation in emphasis is called stress accentuation.

The degrees of stress are really infinite, but for practical purposes it is sufficient to distinguish between (1.) the strongest stress (chief accent); (2.) a weaker stress (secondary accent); and (3.) absence of stress (atonic syllable). In the English contradict, the last syllable has the chief accent, a secondary accent falls on the first, and the second syllable is unstressed.

85. It is not customary to indicate the place of accents in Latin by special signs. When, for special reasons, signs are used, ´ denotes the chief accent, ` the secondary accent, while the unstressed syllables are left unmarked.

THE CLASSICAL ACCENT.

86. In classical Latin the place of the chief accent may be determined by the following rules.

(1.) Words of two syllables have the accent on the penult (175): as,

hómo; ā́cer.

(2.) Words of more than two syllables have the accent on the penult when that syllable is long (177); otherwise on the antepenult: as,

palū́ster, onústus (177); mulíebris, génetrīx (178); árborēs, árbutus, gladíolus.

87. A short penult retains the accent in the genitive and vocative with a single ī from stems in -io- (456, 459): as, genitive, cōnsílī; impérī; genitive or vocative, Vergílī; Valérī; Mercúrī. For calefácis, &c., see 394.

88. In a few words which have lost a syllable the accent is retained on the last syllable; such are (1.) compounds of the imperatives dīc and dūc (113): as, ēdū́c; (2.) nominatives of proper names in -ās and -īs for -ātis and -ītis: as, Arpīnā́s, for Arpīnā́tis; Laenā́s; Maecēnā́s; Quirī́s; Samnī́s; also nostrā́s, vostrā́s; (3.) words compounded with the abbreviated (113) enclitics -c for -ce and -n for -ne: as, illī́c; tantṓn; audīstī́n (for the shortening of the final syllable: as, vidén, dost see?, see 129); (4.) audī́t, contracted from audīvit (154, 893). The Latin grammarians prescribe the circumflex (90) for all these long syllables.

EARLIER RECESSIVE ACCENT.

89. In the preliterary period of the Latin language, the accent tended to go as far from the end of the word as possible (recessive accent). Thus, while the classical accentuation is inimī́cus, the older period accented ínimīcus. In literary Latin this early recessive accent has survived, only in Plautus’s accentuation of words of the form ⏑ ⏑ ⏑ ⏓ (proceleusmatic or fourth paeon, see 2521), in which he stresses the first syllable: as, fácilius (classical facílius); vóluerat (classical volúerat). But in many instances the early recessive accent may be traced in literary Latin by the phonetic changes which it produced (102 ff.).

90. Musical element. The native Latin grammarians slight the stress accentuation and pay much attention instead to the variations in pitch. But they are so greatly dependent on their Greek models that they are unsafe guides in this matter. It is, however, probable that a stressed vowel was uttered on a higher key (acute) than an unstressed vowel (grave), and that in certain syllables the long, accented vowel showed a rise and fall (circumflex): as, illîc (88).

91. The force of the Latin stress accent must have varied at different periods and in different localities, as it now varies in the Romance countries. The early recessive accent seems to have been fairly emphatic; but the stress in classical Latin was probably weak and the difference between accented and unaccented syllables was much less marked than it is in English.

PROCLITICS AND ENCLITICS.

92. Proclitics are unaccented words which are pronounced as a part of the following word; they are: (1.) The relative and indefinite pronouns and their derivatives; (2.) Prepositions.

(a.) Thus, quō diē, pronounced quōdíē; quī vīxit, quīvī́xit; genus unde Latīnum, génus undeLatī́num. Similarly quamdíū, as long as; iamdíū, this long time. A distinction is thus made between the interrogative quālis (1526), which is accented, and the relative quālis (1831) which is proclitic (Quint. 1, 5, 26); cf. the English who, which is accented when interrogative, and proclitic when relative. (b.) circum lītora, pronounced circumlī́tora; ab ōrīs, pronounced abōrīs (Quint. 1, 5, 27); in inscriptions and manuscripts prepositions are often united in writing with the following word. Phrases like extemplō, suddenly, invicem (94), in turn, are commonly written and accented as one word. But the preposition is accented when it is followed by a monosyllabic unemphatic (and therefore enclitic) personal pronoun: as, ín mē; ábs tē (but abs tḗ, if tē is emphatic). All prepositions used as adverbs (1402) have an independent accent.