| ā as in father; | ă as in the first syllable ahá; |
| ē as in they; | ĕ as in met; |
| ī as in machine; | ĭ as in pin; |
| ō as in note; | ŏ as in obey, melody; |
| ū as in rude; | ŭ as in put; |
| y like French u, German ü. |
2. Diphthongs.
|
ae like ai in aisle; oe like oi in oil; ei as in rein; au like ow in how; |
eu with its two elements, ĕ and ŭ,
pronounced in rapid succession; ui occurs almost exclusively in cui and huic. These words may be pronounced as though written kwee and wheek. |
3. Consonants.
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, qu are pronounced as in English, except that bs, bt are pronounced ps, pt.
c is always pronounced as k.
t is always a plain t, never with the sound of sh as in Eng. oration.
g always as in get; when ngu precedes a vowel, gu has the sound of gw, as in anguis, languidus.
j has the sound of y as in yet.
r was probably slightly trilled with the tip of the tongue.
s always voiceless as in sin; in suādeō, suāvis, suēscō, and in compounds and derivatives of these words, su has the sound of sw.
v like w.
x always like ks; never like Eng. gz or z.
z uncertain in sound; possibly like Eng. zd, possibly like z. The latter sound is recommended.
The aspirates ph, ch, th were pronounced very nearly like our stressed Eng. p, c, t—so nearly so, that, for practical purposes, the latter sounds suffice.
Doubled letters, like ll, mm, tt, etc., should be so pronounced that both members of the combination are distinctly articulated.
SYLLABLES.
[4]. There are as many syllables in a Latin word as there are separate vowels and diphthongs.
In the division of words into syllables,—
1. A single consonant is joined to the following vowel; as, vo-lat, ge-rit, pe-rit, a-dest.
2. Doubled consonants, like tt, ss, etc., are always separated; as, vit-ta, mis-sus.