(vowel): ī as in English "machine"; ĭ as in English "din".

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

(b) It is represented in Greek by ι.

(c) All the derived modern languages give i this sound.

[In the vulgar language and the sermo rusticus, ī seems to have varied with ĕ and to have been confused with it. So Augustus Caesar said heri for here; and we find sibe for sibi. Cf. Cic. de Orat. III. 12. 46.; Quint, I. 7.; Aulus Gellius, X. 24. Also a confusion appears between ĭ and ŭ, as in the forms optumus and optimus; lubet and libet. But we are only concerned with the normal sound of the letter, which is that given above.]

11. L: had the sound of English l.

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

[For l as a corruption of r, see 17. b.]

12. M: had the sound of English m, but was much weakened at the end of words.

The fact that m was weakly sounded at the end of words is shown by the elision of a final m before an initial vowel in poetry (synaloepha); by the fact that in the early inscriptions it is often omitted in writing; and by the positive statements of the Roman writers themselves.^[5] Because at the end of a word before a following vowel it was practically a silent letter, Verrius Flaccus wished to represent it in that position by a different character, .^[6]

Quintilian (XII. 10, 31) says: "We close many of our words with the letter m, which has a sound something like the lowing of an ox, and in which no Greek word terminates." Priscian remarks, "M sounds obscurely at the end of words."

13. N: usually had the sound of the English n, "but before c, q, g, or x the sound of the English ng in "linger".

This n before a guttural, and technically known as a "guttural nasal," was called "n adulterinum;" so, according to Varro, the early Roman writers in such cases wrote it as a g; thus, agceps for anceps; agyulus for angulus; and so on, after the fashion of the Greeks.

14. O: ō practically had the sound of o in English "note"; ŏ like o in English "not".

The ō is regularly represented in Greek by ω, and the ŏ by Greek ο. Marius Victorinus (p. 33, Keil) says that o is produced with the lips extended and the tongue quiescent in the middle of the mouth. Martianus Capella (III. 261) says: "O is produced by breathing through the mouth made round." The character O is, in fact, believed to have been originally a pictorial representation of a rounded mouth.

15. P: always had the sound of English p.

The position of the vocal organs in uttering p is described by Martianus Capella (III. 261). It is always represented in Greek by π.

16. Q: is always followed by u, and had the sound of qu in English "queen".

(a) Qu is represented in Greek by κου, κυ, or κο. Thus, Quintus = Κοίντος; Quintilius = Κυιντίλιος; Quintilianus = Κουιντιλίανος.

(b) Q represents the old Greek letter koppa and is a sharp guttural mute. Colloquially qu may have been carelessly sounded like k, or like qu in modern French. A candidate for office whose father had been a cook, once approached Cicero and asked a bystander for his vote; whereupon Cicero, who was an inveterate punster, said: "Ego quoque tibi iure favebo," pronouncing quoque "koké" so as to suggest coque, the vocative of coquus, a cook. (Quint, VI. 3. 47.)

17. R: in general had the sound of the English r with a slight trill; i.e. that of the Italian r.

(a) Because of its snarling sound it is called by the satirist Persius "the dog's letter" (littera canina).

(b) The Romans seem not to have liked a too frequent repetition of this letter, for it is omitted often when a following syllable contains it; as pejero for perjero; and grammarians have noticed that the genitive plural of the future participle is of rare occurrence. In the colloquial and provincial Latin, r is often dulled into l. Thus on one of the walls at Pompeii a part of the first line of the Aeneid was found written, "ALMA VILVMQVE CANO TLO"—a rendering which might have been produced by a modern Chinese. Cf. the playful use of Hillus for Hirrus in one of Cicero's letters (ad Fam. ii. 10. 1.)

18. S: had regularly the sound of the English initial s sharp as in "sip"; at the end of words it was barely audible.

(a) That s was a sharp hiss is clear from the fact that it maintains its place before the sharp consonants, as in sto, spes, squama, scelus; and does not maintain its place before flat consonants, as in cano (casno), iudex (iusdex), dilabor (dislabor), diripio (disripio), trado (transdo), viden (videsne); while it regularly changes a preceding flat consonant to a sharp, as scripsi (scribsi), and rexi (regsi).

(b) That it was very lightly sounded at the end of words is clear from the fact that until after Cicero's time it was neglected in scanning when the next word began with a consonant; that in the early inscriptions it is frequently omitted in writing, as Cornelio for Cornelios; and that in a great number of words it fell away altogether at all periods of the language; as in ipse for ipsus, pote for potis, vigil for vigilis, puer for puerus; and compare such forms as poeta, nauta and luxuria with ποιητής, ναύτης, luxuries: and so in modern Italian.

[The neglect of final s in scanning is extremely frequent. Cf. such a line as this hexameter from Ennius, where the s is suppressed three times:

"Tum laterali(s) dolor certissimu(s) nuntiu(s) mortis."]

19. T: had the sound of English t, always hard.

(a) The English system of pronouncing Latin gives to ti the sound of sh before a vowel, as in the words militia, oratio. An assibilation was undoubtedly a characteristic of the Umbrian and Oscan dialects at an early period, and fastened itself upon the Latin after the sixth century A.D.; for Isidores states that tia should be sounded zia: and in Greek transliterations of the sixth century we find such forms as δωναζιόνεμ for donationem, and ἄκτζιο for actio. Pompeius says that whensoever a vowel follows ti or di, the ti or di becomes sibilant. So again on Christian epitaphs we find Constantso for Constantio, etc. But in the classical period of the language, there is no reason for thinking that this assibilation existed, for the Greek