A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges

by George Martin Lane

[Elision.]

[2481.] For elision within a word, see [119].

[2482.] In verse a final vowel is generally elided before a vowel or h: as,

quidve moror, s(ī) omnīs ūn(ō) ōrdin(e) habētis Achīvōs, V. 2, 102. Such a vowel was probably faintly sounded, not dropped altogether.

[2483.] Elision is frequent in most of the early poets; but writers of the Augustan and succeeding ages regarded it with increasing disfavour. The elision of a long vowel before a short was in general avoided; but there are numerous exceptions.

[2484.] Monosyllabic interjections do not suffer elision.

[2485.] Monosyllables ending in a diphthong seldom suffer elision before a short vowel.

[2486.] Diphthongs arising from Synizesis ([2499]) are sometimes elided in early Latin verse, but not in verse of the classical period.

[2487.] The monosyllables quī (plural), dō, stō, rē, spē, are thought never to suffer elision before a short vowel.

[2488.] The dactylic poets very rarely elide the final syllable of an iambic (⏑ –) or Cretic (– ⏑ –) word before a short vowel.